Soil erosion - a local and national problem

Abstract

The erosion of soils through the action of rain water and that from melting snow is almost universal in its occurrence. The gradual erosion and levelling of any country is inevitable, being a process which has gone on as long as there has been free water on the face of the earth. Nevertheless, this process is an extremely slow one where the landscape is naturally well covered by vegetation, and is greatly speeded by every mechanical disturbance of the earth's surfaces resulting from man's activities; and under certain conditions becomes needlessly destructive. The loss of fertile surface soil from the farms of the country alone represents an enormous economic loss, so that the problem becomes a "conservation" problem of the first magnitude.

Citation

Bates, C.G.; Zeasman, O.R. 1930. Soil erosion - a local and national problem. Research Bulletin 99. Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. 100 p.