SOIL EROSION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22465, 28 July 1938, Page 9

SOIL EROSION

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TRESS. Sir,—l notice Ministers of the _Government reportedly say there will be much greater production from tne lU The following extracts will speak for themselves; — “Deserts Lave been made by men and are spreading rapidly in all the five continents. The problem affects the mid-western states of America, the prairie provinces of Canada, Africa, China, India, Australia, Ru s - - all around the Mediterranean, the Dutch East Indies, and the British West Indies. The value of food lost to the world every year by soil erosion cannot be estimated; it runs into countless millions of pounds. In the United States alone, 110,000.000 acres of fertile land have been into arid deserts. Another 150.000,000 rcres have lost three-quarters of their soil; 900,000,000 acres have lost a quarter to two-thirds of their soil. The men who are tackling the problem in America state that if erosion continues at its present rate, in 15 vears there will be only a quarter ot the fertile soil with which American farmers started. In our country we have destioyed the best of our forest, interfered with rivers, introduced endless diseases and endless plants which should never have been brought into the country, and animals that are now a menace to forest and grass, etc. We could have done much better if more care of what was brought into the country had been stamped in the early stages. We also have millions of acres of land useless in its present stnte. The land has been robbed of its mineral salts, and a large percentage of the money has been spent on non-productive things, much of it in actual waste. And we are travelling the same way as the United States of America and all the other countries mentioned have travelled. If £10,000,000 out of the £20,000,000 allotted to public works were allotted to soil preservation, it would do much more good to the country. There is no hope of increasing production unless there is a reduction in taxation, so that people could spend more .money on their land. Taxation should be in proportion with what a man returns into his business, whether ho is a farmer or a manufacturer. It would soon increase returns, but so long as business and farming are taxed as they are, there is no hope. . I am not writing this specially against this Government more than any other Government, but of course some are worse than others. —Yours, etc., GEORGE LEE. Templeton, July 26, 1938.