Transcript Soil Conservation

Soil Conservation
 I. Value
 A. Everything that lives on land depends on
soil.
 1. Plants need soil to grow.
 2. Animals eat plants (or other animals that eat
plants) to live.
 B. Soil is renewable, but it takes a long time to
form.
 1. Hundreds of years for a few centimeters.
 C. Fertile soil is in limited supply.
 1. <1/8 of land has good farming soil.
 II. Soil Problems
 A. Damage
 1. When one crop is grown in the
same spot year after year, the soil
loses nutrients and becomes
exhausted.
 2. Crop rotation helps fix this
problem.
 3. Growing peanuts also restores the
soil fertility.
 a. Discovered by George Washington
Carver.
 B. Loss
 1. Erosion from water and wind can take soil away.
 2. 1930’s - farmers plowed the grass on the Great
Plains and removed the sod.
 3. A drought occurred and turned the topsoil to
dust.
 4. The wind blew the soil away out over the
Atlantic Ocean, lost forever. This was called the
Dust Bowl.
 III. Conservation
 A. Contour plowing
 1. Plowing fields along the curves of a slope to
reduce runoff and washing away of the soil.
 B. Conservation plowing
 1. Leaves previous year’s crop stubble (dead weeds
and stalks) in the ground, and plants in between
them. This disturbs the ground cover as little as
possible. Allows the roots to hold the soil in place.