A.-Cotton field showing the early development of destructive gullies in the middles of rows extending up and down the slope

B.-Result of uncontrolled erosion on Greenville fine sandy loam

C.-Deep erosion of the lateral extension type in the loessial region of the lower Mississippi Valley

A.-Six-year-old locust trees which have not only arrested washing on what was once a rather severely eroded area in western Tennessee but are also assisting in a gradual improvement of the soil B.-A cornfield almost obliterated by a blanket of infertile sand assorted and deposited by erosional waters of one heavy rain

C.-Typical erosion on dark Houston clay of the Alabama-Mississippi prairie region

A.-A field in northeastern Kansas, about 12 miles from Missouri River, that was eroded during single rainy spell B.-Highly productive Knox silt loam in northeastern Kansas, about 12 miles from Missouri River, severely damaged by incipient gullies, already 12 or 14 inches deep, which had their beginning in wheel tracks of the grain drill. This is the result of a single rainy period, after grain had been sown, fall of 1927. These will probably grow into deep gullies

A.-Stack of wheat straw dumped in gully in field of Marshall silt loam, which during the fall rains of one year caught and held 430 tons of rich soil material washed from adjacent slopes B.-An apple orchard in the region of loessial soils, in northeastern Kansas. The trunks of the trees and some of the branches have been buried by soil washed from the adjacent uplands, the surface having been raised about 5 feet

growing shortleaf pine and for pasture. The extent of this devastated region unfortunately is yearly growing larger.

Another county in the Atlantic Coastal Plain (12) has 70,000 acres of former good farm soil, which, since clearing and cultivation, has been gullied beyond repair. In one place where a schoolhouse stood 40 years ago gullies having a depth of 100 feet or more are now found, and these finger through hundreds of acres of land, whose reclamation would baffle human ingenuity. (Pl. 1.) The most severely eroded parts of this follows:

county are described as

The Rough gullied land includes areas which, as the result of erosion, are so steep and broken as to be unfit for agriculture. Much of the land classified under this head supports forest. Some areas are available for pasture, but a considerable total area is not even suitable for this use, as there are many deep gullies with steep or perpendicular sides on which no vegetation can find a footing. Providence and Trotman "Caves"... are examples of such

areas.

In the southwestern part of the county in the Patterson Hills and in another large area. . . southwest of Spring Hill Church, a somewhat different condition is encountered. Here the Rough gullied land consists of narrow-topped ridges with precipitous slopes, covered with ferruginous sandstone fragments. No level land is found here and the slopes are generally too steep even to afford good pasture. . . . One of the largest [caves] within the county has developed in the memory of the present generation, having started with the formation of a small gully from the run-off of a barn. The caves, some of which are about 100 feet in depth and from 200 to 500 feet in width, ramify over large areas. There is little possibility of this gullied land being restored to a condition favorable to cultivation.

In the "brown loam" belt skirting the Mississippi bottoms on the east side, county after county includes 10,000, 20,000, or 30,000 acres of land which have been ruined by erosion. (Pl. 1.) Agriculture has been driven out of a very large part of the upland of several counties in northwestern Mississippi by the gullied condition of the upland. Hundreds of farms in these and many other counties of the region have been abandoned to timber and brush. Unfortunately, the kind of timber that has established itself over much of these dissected areas is largely worthless blackjack oak, simply because pine seed have not been distributed to start valuable pine forests or because black locusts have not been planted. (Pl. 2, A.)

Not only have the uplands been widely and disastrously dissected, but large areas of former good alluvial land have been buried beneath infertile sands washed out of those upland gullies (pl. 2, B) which have cut down through the soil strata into Tertiary deposits beneath. Stream channels have been choked with erosional débris, and overflows have become so common that large tracts of highly

In this connection W. R. Mattoon, of the United States Forest Service, says: "The State of Tennessee through its Division of Forestry has aided several hundred farmers and public organizations, particularly in west Tennessee, in checking gully erosion by the planting of black locust. This work has been done on a gradually increasing scale since its inception, about 1913. Practical methods have been developed of planting one-year-old locust seedlings, spaced about six feet apart each way, over the entire wash or gullied area. Preparatory to planting, the gully banks are plowed off and brush dams built across the channels at strategic points to catch the soil. The black locust produces a heavy surface root system adapted to holding the soil, it is a legume and enriches the soil, it is a vigorous grower and endures thin soils, and it ranks as the second most lasting fence-post timber in this country. Black walnut, yellow poplar, pines, and other trees have also been planted. In addition to checking erosion the land is put to profitable use by growing valuable fence posts and other timber crops and the blue grass that invariably comes in supports limited grazing. A large number of farmers by this method have realized excellent money returns from old gullied lands."