On this page:
• Hold Your Ground Activity
• It's Better for Soil
• Did You Know?
• National Ag Week Celebrated

Hold Your Ground Activity
Erosion carries valuable topsoil off the land and into our water systems. Over thousands of years erosion carves out canyons, creates river channels and shapes land masses. In this activity, children can see gullies form on bare soil and understand the effects of water.

Vocabulary Words to Introduce:
pour
erosion
gully
wash out
mulch
contour

Materials Needed:
• Sprinkling can
• Two quarts of moist soil

What To Do:
1. Take two quarts of moist soil and make a pile of soil on the ground. Pretend the pile of soil is a hill.

2. Slowly pour water from a sprinkling can over the mound of soil.

3. Have the children observe how the soil is washed down the hill and the hill is gradually leveled.

4. Discuss where the soil goes.

5. Discuss what makes the gullies.

6. Discuss the consequences of the lost topsoil.

More Ideas:
1. Discuss ways to protect the soil (trees, grass, mulch, contouring, etc.).

2. Have students draw a picture of their yard if the soil washed away.

IT'S BETTER FOR SOIL
Only a generation ago, soil erosion rates reached as much as 40 tons an acre and created the Dust Bowl. Today, farmers are adopting a variety of new tillage techniques to reduce erosion rates. On average, only 2.5 tons an acre erode thanks to these new soil-enriching methods.

• Mulch-till: The soil is disturbed just prior to planting. Weed control is accomplished with herbicides and/or cultivation.

• Ridge-till: The soil is left undisturbed from harvest to planting except for nutrient injection. Weed control is accomplished with herbicides and/or cultivation. Ridges are rebuilt during cultivation.

• No-till: The soil is left undisturbed from harvest to planting except for nutrient injection. Weed control is accomplished primarily with herbicides.

Did You Know?
American farmers and ranchers are among the best producers in the world–thanks to good climate, soil, water and technology. At the time of the American Revolution, one farmer could feed three people. By 1900, they could feed seven. Now, an American farmer or rancher can feed 129 people (95 in the U.S. and 34 abroad).

• • •

Every year, U.S. farmers grow about 50% of the world's soybeans, 40% of the world's corn, and 25% of the world's sorghum.

National Agriculture Week Celebrated
National Ag Week was March 17-23, 2002. National Ag Day was March 20, 2002.
For more information on Ag Day and Ag Week visit the website at: http://www.agday.org/

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