CONSERVING SOIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22515, 4 September 1936, Page 9

CONSERVING SOIL

HUGE ANNUAL LOSS EVILS OF DEFORESTATION PROBLEM OF THE PRAIRIES

BY n. BELSHAW,.

Professor of Economics, Auckland University College No. 11. It was in line with the American tradition of vigorous individualism that the farm lands of the United States should be thrown open to settlement under private ownership as rapidly as possible. This policy had little reference to the types of land usage which would be conducive to the maintenance of soil fertility or conform to the, national well-being in the long run. The results have now been apparent over enormous areas of the country, but especially on the Great Plains. It is significant that a belt some 200 miles; wide, stretching almost from Mexico to Canada, is now described as the "Dust Bowl." The Great Plains were first .utilised as extensive grazing ranges. Even before the war overstocking and cultivation had impaired the surface in many, regions, as homesteaders encroached on the ranges, and this led to erosion and destruction of the surface soil. This process wa-3 accelerated during the war, when large tracts were ploughed to meet the war demands for wheat and other crop-3. The prairies are rapidly being converted into a desert afflicted by frequent storms of dust. The severity of the droughts in 1934 and 1936 is attributed in large measure to the destruction of the surface cover, so that soil moisture is not retained. | For the same reason, and because of j the destruction of the forests, extensive ' flood damage has resulted. , Loss from Wind and Flood The He-Settlement Administration ! estimates that 3,000,000,000 tons of soil are blown or washed away every year, while a report published in February of this year gives the following estimate of the .destruction of farm land: "Recent surveys of the extent of soil erosion in this country indicate that approximately 50,000,000 acres of once fertile land have been essentially ruined for practical cultivation. Another 50,000,000 acres are in a condition almost as serious. About 100,000,000 acres still in cultivation have been seriously impoverished by the loss of soil; and another 100,000,000 acres more of cultivated land are being depleted of productive soil at an alarming rate. . . Thus, at the end of hardly more than a century of cultivation for most of the country, an area equivalent to the total now in harvested crops, or to 30 per cent of all land in farms, is either destroyed, seriously damaged or threatened."

The problem facing the administration is to check the process of erosion and denudation and recover, as far as possible, the wastage which lias already occurred. Various national agencies, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, are concerned with the problem in some of its aspects, more especially in • relation to flood control. A Soil Erosion Service was established in 1933 and transferred to the Department of Agriculture in 1935 as the Soil Conservation Service. The Taylor Grazing Act was passed in 1934 to regulate grazing on the remaining public domain. The Re-Settlement Administration, established in 1935, is also directly concerned with conserving soil resources and prompting the most effective use of the land. All of these agencies ante-date the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936, which replaces the main elements of the A.A.A. Conservation Programme

In order to carry out the purposes of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, the sxim of 440,000,000 dollars was.appropriated to finance the 1936 programme'. Crops are classified as soil-depleting or soil-improving and soil-conserving. IVo kinds of payment are to be made to farmers to induce them to reduce their acreage of soil-depleting crops and adopt soil-building practices. For each farm a "soil-depleting" base is arrived at, this representing the acreage in 1935 of soil-depleting crops. Such bases will be determined on the advice •of county committees and will be subject to modification on various grounds. The reduction in acreage considered desirable for each county will be "estimated, and each co-operating farmer will receive a payment, normally 10 dollars per acre, for each acre withdrawn from the production of soildepleting crops up to an acreage based proportionately on the reduction for the whole area. In other words, there will be established a ratio of soildepleting crops to all farm land as a basis for each county, and each farmer will receive payment on the acreage which will reduce his ratio to that for the county as a whole.

Changed Type of Crop

The second type of payment is described as a. soil-building payment, and consists of payments up to 1 dollar per acre for seed and seedlings of soilbuilding crops, and toward soil-building practices, such as manuring. It was estimated that the programme would reduce the acreage under soildepleting crops, such as corn, wheat, cotton and tobacco, by some 30,000,000 acres, or, say, somewhat over 10 per cent of the acreage in such crops. To this extent, the programme would haye the same effect in the short run as the A.A.A. Since many of the soilconservinc crops such as pasture and legumes would serve as fodder for livestock, dairying and cattle interests have engaged in some criticism. The extent to which their interests will be affected is not ctfsy to determine, since corn, the main soil-depleting crop which will bo reduced in acreage, is also an important cattle food. For the present season the disastrous drought has made it quite impossible to determine the effects of the policy on farm prices or incomes and any estimate must be speculation on very flimsy foundations.