Show facing national erosion problem rapid depletion of fertility of farm soils seen as big evil prepared by the united states department ot I 1 agriculture the mo most q t serious problem which confronts A merican american farmers fi inners today Is the rapid depletion of the fertility feitl lity it if their soils by man induced erosion which has come to be recognized as an evil of such national proportions that the government through the united states department of agriculture has within the past two years established seven regional experiment stations to work out practical methods ol of erosion control members of the association of american geographers were told at their annual meeting in worcester mass by 11 bennett in charge of soll soil erosion investigations of the bureau of chemistry and soils of the department much land suffering not less then than 75 per cent of all the cultivated land of the united states Is suffering from erosion in some degree much of it seriously said mr air bennett Ken nott quoting from data compiled from topographic maps soil surveys and erosion surveys which show that in certain major farming regions more than 80 00 per cent of all the cultivated land of some counties counte es Is being impoverished by sheet erosion the top soil of the uplands of the country Is not nearly so deep as commonly supposed this was recently recent lv discovered when the average depth of a large number of representative upland surface soil samples collected collect td from 31 states was found to be only 9 inches material less production when this vital layer Is removed tile the material left for crop production Is much less productive this frequently consists of clay which Is more difficult and costly to till Is less absorptive of rain water and dries out more quickly in periods of drought it Is at this stage when the surface soil Is washed off that gully development usually sets in said mr bennett who pointed out that sheet erosion though less conspicuous than is by far the more imaging damaging form of soil washing these two forms of erosion he said annually remove from the farm lands of the united states plant food with an estimated value of bund hundreds reds of millions of dollars stations for soil erosion prevention have been located in oklahoma missouri kansas texas and north carolina aenny farmers have already studied erosion prevention practices lit ar tile the stations in oklahoma an and texas mr air bennett beane tt says that the national pro grant gram for erosion prevention calls for such experiment stations ions in 20 or more of the major regions in which the excessive soil washing Is known to be costly |