NATURE-AND MAN

Northern Advocate, 26 July 1935, Page 9

NATURE-AND MAN

THE NEW S.O.S. “SAVE OUR SOIL.’' (Edited by Leo Fanning.) The hills are shadows, and they flow \ from form to form, and nothing stands; They melt like mist, the solid lands. Like clouds they shape themselves and go.

When Tennyson wrote that verse of “In Memoriam” he recorded a piece of truth which is well supported by leading scientists. To the average man a great mountain looks like a monument of eternity, but to a geologist the term “everlasting hills” is merely a figure of speech, not based on fact. The shapes of the seas and the masses of land have undergone many changes, which will continue as long as the solar system endures. A century is only a tick of the geological clock, but even in that short period some parts of New Zealand have been notably altered. In certain cases —for example the Changes effected by the Tarawera eruption and by big earthquakes—Naturfe alone has been responsible, but in other cases man’s folly has ruinously transformed some landscapes. His blunders were practically a declaration of war on Nature, and of course, man did not win.

Salvation in Terracing.

Previous articles of the “Nature —and Man” series have shown that Federal and State Governments of the U.S.A., thoroughly alarmed by the rapid loss of surface soil in many areas, are giving keen attention to various works for checking erosion. An article by Khyber Forrester in ah American publication mentions that in a series of brilliant erosion-prevention experiments in California, methods have been Worked out for totally eliminating any furrow on the earth’s surface from a one-foot ditch to even the Grand Canyon of the Colorado—and making water repair its own damage. Furthermore—and this may be of world-wide significance—it has been proved both possible and practicable to use actual food-producing plants on the sides of hills and mountains to slow up erosion and repair ravages in great water-sheds. Vast economic strain in providing new forests to do this job is not absolutely necessary (the writer remarks), and while it may be advisable to restore forests as a source of wood in many locations, agronomists in California experiments have shown that ordinary agriculture, scientifically cultivated, will slow erosion and restore a water-shed.

Crops were successfully, harvested from one of the mountain experimental areas. The areas are planted in conformance with a “terrace method” worked out by agronomists, which closely resembles the terracing used by small farmers in the islands of the East Indies, 'where mountains have been cultivated for-thousands of years, without appreciable loss from erosion. In this terracing, cultivation follows the contour of the slope. No furrows are made up and down a hill, but around it, and strips of grass or other native growth maintained between the terraces.

It is significant that this plan of terracing or “contouring” is now advised for use even on rolling prairies, anywhere, in fact, where there is the slightest slope. “It’s, the way to save the land,” says Mr Forrester.

Erosion Has Caused Wars.

Here is a thought-stirring statement of Mr Forrester. “Suppose,” he writes, “erosion control were applied all over the world, and ort all areas where erosion to the sea occurs. What then? Can the continents be stabilised to any considerable degree? It is something to whet the imagination. “History itself may even be changed. Some wars have had a commercial basis, but many of the greatest of history, involving the impact of whole races and civilisations, have had as their base and cause the attempt of one group of people to obtain new lands after their own had become so eroded as to be unable longer to support the population and its flocks. “We have a typical modern instance —the poverty of the land in Japan, due to erosion in many of the Japanese islands where terrace cultivation wasn’t employed until too late to save many areas. History has been changed there by erosion, for the Japanese have become largely a nation of manufacturers and traders instead of, as they once were, a nation of agriculturalists. If Admiral Perry hadn’t opened Japan to modern commerce, the Japanese would themselves have been forced to do it.” What is Conservation?

Proposals for “conservation of natural resources” are being constructively discussed in U.S.A, “What is erosion?” is the .title of the editorial article in the June issue of “American Forests.” “If the purpose of conservation is to keep the natural resources so abundant that man may live happily, fruitfully and relatively free from suffering,” the writer states, “it follows that the elements of conservation must enter into every department of Government. Conservation, then, is not a function nor even a method, but a basic principle of social action applicable to diversified natural resources.” Mr Ickes, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, has defined the conservation of natural resources as “their prudent use in the interest of the country.” America and other countries, including New Zealand, have seen plenty of cases in which the use has been for the benefit of individuals against the public interest. Nearly 3000 C. C. C. Camps. With an increase of the Civilian Conservation Corps of U.S.A. to 600,000 men, there will be nearly 3000 camps, each with 200 men. The camps will be

located thus: —650 on national forests, 500 on soil erosion projects, 420 in state parks, 325 in state forests, 250 on private forests, 100 in National Parks, 75 on military and naval reservations, 50 on projects supervised by the Division of Grazing Control of the Department of the Interior, 50 oil reclamation projects, 30 on Tennessee Valley Authority projects, 25 on wild-life projects supervised by the Biological Survey, and the remainder on drainage, food control, mosquito control. Land Office. War Department, Plant Industry, and other special Government projects.