Driftless Area

Crop rotations had long been used in Europe but there the old three- field rotation was adequate to maintain soil infiltration capacities which would mitigate overland flow and soil erosion. As practiced in the Driftless Area, this consisted of one year cleaned-tilled crop, one year of small grains, and one year of grass (Trimble Lund, 1982). But this rotation system was inadequate to curtail soil erosion in the US. 

The history of soil erosion in two regions of the eastern US has been well documented. These regions are the Driftless Area (also known as the Upper Mississippi River Hill Country or Paleozoic Plateau) and the Southern Piedmont (see inset map on Pig. 77.4). 

Organized conservation efforts in the Driftless Area by state and federal agencies began in late 1933. The newly developed techniques were brought to farmers in a very organized way. A survey considering crops, slopes and soils was made of each farm and a plan was devised. Because public subsidy of this problem was involved, farmers had to sign a contract to receive Ml benefits. 

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