SOIL CONSERVATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23156, 30 September 1938, Page 19

SOIL CONSERVATION

EXPERIMENTS IN TEXAS RECLAMATION OF WASTE LAND The Department of Agriculture s soil conservation service is doing great work in reclaiming to productive cultivation the barren sand dunes of the v;Lst desert regions of America. lu 19:1(5 they leased for experiment n. HGO-acre tract in Texas, where the wind had pihkl up dunes iiOft. high Their main objectives, besides the general levelling of the area, were the binding ol the laud by co\ er ciops and tlie conservation of moisture. For the former purpose they found the ideal crop to he u dwarf-growing milo, which stands up to the hammering winds and fierce sun to which the American prairies are subjected, ror moisture conservation they are employing a method of contour farming. .Ham regions comes in heavy bursts and runs quickly off tho sloping land. 15v a carefully-planned system of fur- 1 rows and terraces the water is caught and allowed to sink back into the soil. A natural difficulty is to induce the already impoverished fnrmers of these region's to refrain from trying to grow wheat in a season when tests show that the subsoil is parched far below rout erowth. and to plant cover crops instead. Many farmers, however, aided hy tho Government, arc now working in accordance with the soil conservation plan. The dunes have been levelled off with read graders, every drop ol rainfall conserved, and crops consistently planted that will anchor and improve the soil. Millions of acres previously classed as "destroyed ' are now again carrying first-rate crops. The Australian Department of Agriculture sent their chief experimentalist, Mr. \<). S. Clayton, to _ study these and other methods of soil conservation. New Zealand, on a lesser scale, also has her erosion problems and results such as have been achieved in the American desert nre well worthy of observation.