The Importance of the Vegetation Factor in Water Conservation and Erosion Control

The highly Important role played by biological processes in the development of soil from geological materials has been rather fully appreciated for some time. A considerable part of this activity Is, of course, directly attributable to green plants. Once the soil profile has developed to a certain degree of maturity under comparatively undisturbed conditions, however, lt seems that we have been tremendously slow in realizing the importance of plant action of another type in holding these materials in place even on comparatively slight slopes, or against moderate wind action. Plant cover of one kind or another has a natural responsibility in this connection that Is neither to be denied nor replaced. As a result, our delinquency In this respect Is measured by losses of soil that are so great as to completely defy intelligent expression of value in any terms at least if the true value of this resource in the future welfare of our country is carefully considered. In other words, we are now fully conscious that, as a result of our pioneering or land clearing practices and of the call of the late, war for unlimited production of foodstuffs, both of which fostered the promiscuous reduction of forest and prairie lands with the plow and encouraged the development of sadly improper methods and programs of agriculture, the wastage of our fertile soils in many sections has been little less than criminal. While this may seem a serious thought or charge, lt Is nevertheless true. What other of our important natural resources are so exposed to deliberate waste that are not protected by at least some form of law? Some might say the farmers do not know or that government agencies have been remiss in advising them. This may be true yet we learn that the farmers of continental Europe, Japan, or even in certain parts of our own country, practically upon their own Initiative, have so adjusted their programs and methods of farming as to take almost perfect care of their soils under all conditions and that they go about this phase of their work quite as regularly and deliberately as they do any other of the innumerable manual operations that normally require attention about the farm. From this it would appear that procedure with them Is more a matter of Judgment than prescribed practice. Conditions and requirements from a number of standpoints vary so from place to place and even from field to field that this is almost necessarily so. Perhaps, too, they have something more than feelings of mere ownership or possession towards the land. That, lt is believed, could explain much so far as our failure is concerned. It is believed that our greatest source of difficulty In establishing proper methods of land handling and use are to be found in the entirely perverted notions of land ownership that prevail in this country at the present time.