Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1941 SAVING THE SOIL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 13 September 1941, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1941 SAVING THE SOIL

THE physical resources of the earth are constant. They can be changed j in form, but the sum of them cannot be added to or subtracted from. When \ coal or wood or hedge clippings or | old rags are burnt, part of them goes up in smoke and part remains as i ashes. Other reactions attendant on | combustion take place but these need not trouble the layman. The point is that the matter and energy in those' materials has not been destroyed but i merely transformed. Land is one of i the main physical resources. Though j its total quantity is fixed, areas use-; ful to man can be increased by his j ingenuity in reclamation from the; sea, or by draining swamps or—in ; these days of bulldozers—by levelling j hills. Conversely, useful land can be! diminished in quantity by the actions; of man. This comes about when, in his eagerness to exploit the fertility j of the soil, he upsets the age-long balance of nature by cultivating the land or by removing its natural covering of bush or by a variety of other activities in which man plus machinery engages when wresting a living from the soil. This must, of course, go on unless; we are to return to a New Zealand where the Maori cultivated his kumara plot and gained a great part of his needs in food and clothing from forest, sea and river. The problem for us is not to stop using our natural resources, but to conserve them so that they will endure in a useful form. This is the background to the Soil Conservation Bill now before Parliament. It seeks to protect the gifts of nature by controlling the destructive agent of erosion. As a national problem this is to be dealt with by a national organisation instead of being left to the piecemeal methods which local bodies—through no fault of theirs—would be able to employ. Erosion is a many-sided question. Success in combatting it depends on co-operation among many sections of the community. The Government must set up the machinery; the people must provide the money. Scientists and engineers must diagnose the malady as it appears in its different forms in different localities and decide how to treat it. Landholders have an important part to play in taking advice and putting it into practice instead of ! acting as obstructionists when a parj ticular plan does not suit their ini dividual notions. During the debate on the Bill the United States has been freely quoted, both as a country where there is much erosion and where successful measures have been devised to arrest it. American soil wastage—like most other things American—has been on a large scale, but American ingenuity has also gone a long way towards mitigating and countering the evil. As an example of what a scientific j approach to the problem, combined ; with co-operation, has been able to ; do, even in the short space of six « years, an experiment in the State of | Minnesota is worth summarising. I In many respects the story ol I destruction there is similar tc I what has happened in New | Zealand valleys. A 6000-acre | block in a watershed was found to be | bleeding to death. With every heavj | rain liquid top-soil was washed down | the gullies and spewed out onto the | fields. The lake into which the vallej I creek flowed was fast silting up anc | had to be heavily and constantly | dredged. Crop yields from the dep nuded land went steadily down. Ther | the enquiring Minnesotans began tc % ask what was the use of all thk jf dredging when the next heavy rail | undid all their work. At that stage | they had recognised the real enemy \ —erosion—and had come to see tha | it was of little use piling up fertile | topsoil in mud heaps after it had beei | washed away :they must try anc '■ keep it in place. Like us they had inherited the sin: of some of their early farmers. Com ing into this fertile valley less thar a century ago the pioneers had cu down the trees, ploughed up ever: available acre of grassland and plant ed it in wheat. In their misplacec

j zeal they had removed the natural; I vegetation which had for centuries | kept the topsoil in place. Crop rota- • tion was practised but always the j plough was put in, to leave the soil . ; on ridge and sloping valley open and j unprotected from the heavy rains. : Through the years the position became worse. Hillsides became seared; l ock 1 i and gravel washed down over the ' | fields on the lower levels; the creek grew into a river, silting up its bed ; and filling the lake into which it - flowed. Floods became a seasonal ! Eight years ago, the farmers of Gilmore Creek, faced with decreasing returns from their impoverished | land, decided that something must ; be done to attack the enemy erosion. I The result was the Gilmore soil con- ! serration project. First the soil I “doctors” got to work to diagnose the valley’s disease. Then the plan | to cure it was prepared and set in j j motion. Every farmer was given the ; opportunity to sign a co-operative! ! agreement whereby he undertook to j t follow the programme planned fori ’ his farm for a minimum of live years ! in return for expert assistance. Each : of the 54 farms included in the pro-! s gramme was planned as a unit to , | include every acre of each farm, and ; •to make use of all the control practices needed to do the job on that . farm. In arranging this the. economic i position of the farmer, his farming ; l preferences, and his potential labour /•supply were carefully considered. s I In general this planned scheme reI suited in less grain being sown; pas- ] _ i ture and hay crops took its place. ] “ I This was possible economically be- 1 ; cause the valley lay in the heart of' i a dairying region. Over 300 acres = i of trees were planted on steep, de- ; nuded hillsides and in gullies. _ ; Around-the-hill cultivation was substituted for straight ploughing on sloping fields. Every acre of sloping cropland was protected by alternate 1 strips of corn or small grain and hay * ' running around the slopes. This ar--1 rested the run-off of water. 1; After six years of scientific v co-operation this colony of farm--5 ers found that not only had they 5 J arrested erosion but that they were 1 better off financially. Now Gilmore * Valley has become a focal point l'or t a spread of soil-saving methods. D There are more than 200 districts in t the United States, covering nearly £ j 120,000,000 acres, which are foster- - 1; ing a new type of co-operation be- - tween farmers and their Governs ments to mobilise their combined e | strength in arresting erosion. Gil--1 more Valley’s experiment has be- £ j come a window through which a new e !era of wise and prosperous farming s ; can be glimpsed. J ;