Show the land doctor by vivian shearer mrs airs altwin had fiad come to town on a a shopping hopping tour and had about completed her purchases hello vivian she greeted me ive just had a couple of prescriptions tilled filled one for sonny and one tor for that sick land of mine both are tonics to help them get well so that they wont n need eed their crutches any longer I 1 dont know what was in the medicine for sonny but the tonic for the land was sweet clover seed there are some kinds ot of vegetation that are aie known as coarse feeders they can extract from the soil nutritive elements that are in a less refined form than can more delicate feeding plants kind of like some people who seem to have green apple stomachs while others fade out on anything more hardy than crackers and milk sweet clover Is a coarse feeder and can produce a cover on pretty badly worn out land when it Is plowed under it adds a quickly assimilate form of organic matter to the soil as well as nitrogen trogen ul that helps build up tip the fertility when it takes root lit in old roads loads and trails and in washes and gullies it helps prevent further washing and cutting it slow up lip the flow or of water in these washes and causes silt to be deposited depoi ted which Is the first step in their healing and cure cuie when all is said and done the only permanent and surefire soil saving device is Ni natures tures own adequate vegetative cover on abused range lands or abandoned f farming aiming lands this vegetative cover may be restored in some borne cases by merely protecting it from grazing stock that would prevent the thrifty continued on last tinge page the land doctor continued from page one growth and re i speeding seeding by the plants that are struggling to maintain their foothold where there are old roads or trails or gullies that are washing or where there are losses through sheet erosion caused by either water or wind mechanical treatment may be necessary to hasten recovery or to prevent further losses these mechanical measures may be in the nature ot of gully plugs diversion works water spreaders brush matting artificial re seeding and so forth any ono one or all of these measures may be employed but they are like crutches tor for a man with a broken leg and they should be expected to serve only until a healthy vegetative cover Is established when fields are cultivated and the original protective protect pi elective iv grass or forest cover Is scalped scalded froni from t the lie soil artificial artificial means must be found to keep the soil from getting the wanderlust and taking up with every vagrant ant breeze that blows or with every flow of water that happens by sometimes soil losses can be prevented by merely employing proper tillage practices such as contour cultivation strip cropping baub stubble mulching and so forth but sometimes depending upon slope slop soil types and other local condl eions terracing diversion ditches and dikes soil sell saving dikes and other si similar nillar devices must be resorted to |