Abstract
WIND erosion is becoming an increasing danger in the semi-arid regions which form the world's chief granaries. In North America, the Argentine and to a less extent in Russia, the fertile prairie soils are rapidly being swept away as the result of destroying the original grass cover. A similar fate is overtaking vast pastoral regions in South Australia, due to overstocking. The gravity of the situation is revealed in a note by F. N. Ratcliffe, received from the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The worst erosion has been in the ‘bush’ country, where twelve drought years have so lowered the stocking capacity that overstocking on established farms is now almost unavoidable. Rabbits have added to the evil, the vegetation cannot recover after grazing, and natural regeneration of both shrubs and grasses has virtually ceased. Large areas have become barren deserts, and no measures are available for their reclamation. The evil might be checked by adopting a lower stocking policy; but the only hope for the already denuded areas is to introduce perennial exotic plants capable of stabilizing the large sand drifts, ancl withstanding rabbits and a very low and uncertain rainfall. The chance of discovering such plants is remote, and even if discovered, “there would remain the problem of their dissemination through vast areas with no regular growing season and an unimproved capital value rarely exceeding 2 . per acre”.
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Wind Erosion in South Australia. Nature 138, 358–359 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138358d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138358d0