| Show soil conservation problems in san sail juan county and their solutions by ted edwards in the first decade of the twentieth century the people awoke to the fact that there had been great waste of their natural resources and that new methods of production and consumption were necessary in order to conserve these important sources of national wealth the natural resources of 0 ts a nation may be classified as its i fertile soil its water supply navigable waters and water power its mines standing timber and fisheries in the central states some of the species of animals and birds have become almost extinct because of the depreciation of the trees browse and vegetation conservation then became a leading policy of the united states government and greater care has been exercised in preserving the forests range and farming land since 1937 an international soil map has been in use in this area increased emphasis has been placed in combating soil erosion by incorporating organic matter in the soil and spreading crop residues over the surface millions of acres of land have been brot under cultivation through soil conservation but due to wartime needs and high prices some of this land has been used for farming but should be reclassified and used for grazing purposes it is becoming apparent that irrigation farming is threatened by soil erosion due to the fact that we have a very small area under irrigation in our locality which is very productive nonproductive non at the present time because our present meth methods of handling water are very poor our meadow lands produce a very poor quality of palatable grasses these problems could be taken care of by land leveling and installation stal lation of irrigation systems thereby replacing our swampy meadowlands meadow lands with a mixture of meadow grasses which are adapted to that type of soil and are more palatable for livestock and give more cow days per month of grazing in this country the dry farming lands are subject to wind losses in the spring especially on late wheat plantings which have followed beans after the freezing and thawing weather there is left a smooth finish that blows easily this is a problem the farmers are up against from the lack of time to work this ground before planting and also on land that is bare of crop residue some of the things to solve wind erosion problems are planting g evergreen trees along fence lines or in rows where there will be suf sufficient f moisture for their growth and where chev will not be exposed to soil drifting from the windward sides A big factor in helping late fall grain plantings would be at the time vou cut and pile your beans to drill your wheat and your beans can be piled over onto the wheat giving you three weeks to a month growing season on the wheat before the beans are harvested it harm either the beans nor the wheat on ground that has no crop residue subsurface chiseling chi or contour listing can be done as much as the second or third time as re quiren to leave a cloddy surface beans and wheat should be harvested with a combine equipped with a straw spreader so the residue can be spread over the field if it is not to be used for feed bean straw does not have any value in connection with soil fertility but is valuable for its nitrogen content strip cropping alternating the good residue producing crop arop with the poor residue producing crop I 1 in n some areas strip cropping is combined con igind ibind with terracing to control erosion more completely in combining the two control measures I 1 use strips as nearly uniform in width as possible in order that rotation of crops may be practiced eliminate point rows as near as possible by absorbing irregular areas in strips of close growing crops use the minimum number of strips that will provide effective erosion control in order that the necessary tillage operation may not become unduly complicated many combinations of these arrangements are possible the relative merits of each will depend largely upon local conditions and farmers choice the two main classes of water erosion are sheet erosion and gully erosion gully erosion is the most noticeable but sheet erosion e r 0 sion is the greatest loss beca because of if valuable I 1 top soil of which it takes nature hundreds of years to build one inch gully erosion if left too long develops deep ditches and washes through the middle of cultivated fields once gully erosion has advanced to this stage it greatly reduces the value of the soil for agricultural uses another great loss of soil is farming up and down the slopes especially in row cropping where the silt has washed off the slopes from between straight rows one of th ebest practices to combat water erosion is contour farming with other practices but in our immediate area conto contour farming is the most practical contour farming requires less power as there a are re no up upgrade grade rade drags and it is a proven fact in some areas that contour yields more pounds per acre than straight row farming contour farming not only provides the best possible methods for keeping water where it falls until it can be absorbed but also provides a foundation for other soil and water practices and helps prevent runoff from heavy rain and puts more water into the soil as deep moisture it is necessary to maintain organic matter and humus in the soil for good fertility soil loses its structure absorbs water slower holds less water and becomes more susceptible to both wind and water erosion start fallowing following fal lowing after wheat harvest in order to destroy volunteer wheat and to preserve deep moisture in some instances fields are so sloping that it becomes necessary to use terracing A stabilized waterway is the foundation of the terrace system terraces should always be supplemented with the best cropping practices because terraces in themselves do not improve soil fertility but they dot do help save fertile top soil terracing 1 cannot be economically justified on cropland that can be protected by less expensive measures farming practices such as strip r cropping crop rotation contour I 1 tillage is all that is needed on many sloping areas these measures also help prevent loss of water vater wai vai I 1 during the rainy seasons the operation of til tillage lage equipment on the contour and parallel to the terraces not only reduces soil movement but also aids in terrace upkeep and eliminates many of the difficulties in operating tillage machinery where gully erosion has developed to practically the worst stag es through cultivated fields and pasture lands grassed waterways can be classed as a good prevention of soil loss the slow rate of erosion taking place under grassed waterways means that the soil is built up tip from beneath as fast as it is removed from the surface gradually raising and filling parts of the gully check dams are also used for gully erosion they should be seeded to grass as soon as they are built and unlike terraces should never be farm farmed ed over when washes get to where recheck check dams and grassed waterways dont help alie they can be diverted into stock ponds some of which might be deep enough to provide fishing 1 which would be an asset to the farm family along with the farry farming fing industry t ry it is very evident that the range livestock liveston ck industry is threatened by soil erosion the surface soil that supplies the vegetation and absorbs the water that keeps I 1 the streams alive is washed from I 1 the range lands the forests lie on I 1 higher slopes receive more rain rain and when the vegetation is I 1 impaired m the soil erodes more rapidly the best means of keeping range lands productive and maint maintaining aaning high production of livestock is to balance the number of livestock with the amount of forage produced efficient livestock production requires that the plants not be grazed beyond their ability to survive grazed too heavily they gradually weaken and die and leave the ground entirely bare and are replaced by plants less able to protect the ground from erosion range that is overstocked over stocked produces thin cattle and with poor or no reproduction without supplementary pastures or winter feeding grass is most easily damaged when first becoming green in the spring and grazing should be postponed until the grass has had a good start by fencing part of the pasture and giving it a chance to reseed it may be grazed after maturity or during open winter months natural re seeding is the most practical means of obtaining range recovery by broadcasting or drilling seed into the ground may be justified in sites where plant cover is lacking well spaced water supplies developed on the range will enable livestock to sa secure water without wi phout trampling out ou t the vegetal vegetation i on salting away front from the water is a means of drawing livestock into the less used portions of the range since vast areas of range lands have no agricultural value except production of livestock it is necessary to the agricultural prosperity of the range livestock industry and farming that there be a ordination coordination co of effort that will lead toward better production from all country lands if range management mana gemen and range conservation do not result in economic reproduction reproductions i they will fail in their purpose in the search for a more complete solution for the conservation problem it is reasonable to consider the beneficial effects of such conservation farming practices agriculture offers the companionship panion ship of the sun soil wind and rain to the man who finds all these indispensable I 1 |
