U.S. Expert Warns Against Erosion Menace

Chronicle (Levin), 9 July 1949, Page 7

U.S. Expert Warns Against Erosion Menace

. WELLINGTON, July 8. If the Boyal Commissioa on Sheep Farming dicl not visit the areas they were aslced to visit they had made a mistake, said Professor E. Laurehce Palmer, of Cornell University, U.S.A., when referring to erosion problems in the course of a talk in the Dominion Museum today. He hoped those wlio passed judgment on erosion were surje they ' had obsei'ved all the situations geod and bad, and that they »had the ■skill if neeessary to> see- eveii the inconspicuous things whieh might be'less obvious than the conspieuous thibgs but which might even be more significant. He hoped the results would be satisfactory to all eoncerned. Engineering, turf management and animal management practiees were jlll f actors which had to be reckoned with in combating1 erosion," said Dr. Palmer. In his State of Iowa when engineering alone had been depended on the upland pools had been drained with the result that the area's water table went down and the eorn crops failed when a drought came. ' Factors, including education in regard to causes, had to be taken into account when dealing with erosion, To make people eonscious of these problems demonstrations of strip cropping and control of gully erosion had been arranged along some of the most used highways in the United States. Before he had come to this country he had seen pictures which had plainly told ,him that New Zealand contained some of the worst illustrations of erosion to be seen anywhere, said Dr. Palmer, and it was hard to realise there was a raee of individuals who eould not see these things. His first sight of New Zealand was one of erosion, and it was obvious where ver one weiit by plane. How this erosion came about he was not in a position to judge. It was bad that humans shoulu try to blame animals for all erosion in their country, however, he concluded.