Excerpt from Wind-Erosion Control

Wind erosion is perhaps most active in arid and semiarid regions where the land surface is often dry and vulnerable to erosion and the protective vegetation is sparse or absent.' The wind may also move large quantities of soil material in humid regions; and, agriculturally considered, wind activity in such regions may be more important because of the greater value of much of the land affected.

Today wind erosion is the most active, the most potent, depleter of soil fertility on most of the Great Plains as well as in other areas. It is one of the greatest natural hazards in the spring and winter wheat areas. Great Plains soils are noted for their high fertility; but this fertility, as in all soils, is largely bound up in the upper, humus-bearing zone. It has taken nature centuries to create this rich topsoil. To lose it during a storm or a series of storms is to lose for immediate crop production the fruit of nature's efforts for centuries.

Soil blowing has become a greater problem in Plains agriculture as new areas have been brought into cultivation. This is not necessarily because the hard sweeping winds have become more intense, but because the natural vegetation has been removed and its beneficial effects on the soil have been destroyed.

The greatest danger from soil blowing is in early spring, when the highest monthly velocities of the year are encountered and the land is most susceptible to blowing. Soil blowing may be serious any time of the year if not stopped by the use of appropriate con trol measures or prevented by a suitable cover of vegetation.

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