The centennial of the first erosion plots

Excerpt

This past year marked the centennial of the nation's first soil erosion research plots, established in 1917 at the University of Missouri. These first plots were the germ from which modern soil and water conservation work developed. Professor Merritt Finley Miller and his friend Hugh Hammond Bennett were pioneers blazing the way for new work in soil conservation. Miller and other University of Missouri researchers' work with the first erosion plots brought to light that cultivation of sloping land results in large losses of soil and opened a practical way of slowing these losses through cropping methods. Bennett enlarged the work started in Missouri and passionately carried on the story to the American public with a conviction that the assets of a great agricultural nation were rapidly diminishing and would continue to do so if adequate control measures were not initiated (Baver 1939). Studies at the first erosion plots contributed to early arguments in favor of the establishment of the Soil Conservation Service and served as a basis for the development of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Because of the historical significance of the work done on the plots, the plots were designated as a registered national historic landmark…