Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 11, Number 8, DeMotte, Jasper County, 9 January 1941 — FARM TOPICS [ARTICLE]

FARM TOPICS

WILLOWS SAVE STREAM BANKS • \ ,• - I • . • . * i .1 m m ■ Dense Growth Protects Soil On Curves. An improved labor-saving method of protecting stream banks with a mat of growing willow shoots has been worked out by the soil conservation service. It is particularly effective where small streams are cutting into their banks at the outside of curves or where streams that normally flow gently rise to destructive heights in .rainy seasons. The willows throw up a dense growth that furnishes first-class protection. The first step is to grade steep banks to about a 45-degree angle. Then cut willow poles and prune them roughly. The poles should be long enough to extend from below low water in the stream to the top of the sloped bank and should lfb laid about two feet apart the day they are cut to prevent drying. Cover the poles with a 6 to 12-inch layer of brush—using the willow prunings and other brush if needed. Anchor the brush mat with - old woven wire laced together with smooth wire. Set stout posts in the bank and tie the mat down with wires from the posts to heavy stones sunk in the stream below the mat. Provide occasional vertical anchors of logs laid up and down the slope and held by stout stakes. Poles cut in fall and winter when the willow are dornhant will live j and in spring will root in the bank I and send up growing shoots that form a living mat. Willow’s have long been popular sis bank protectors, but the new method economizes labor, gets a dense j growth with minimum effort, and j the work can be done in w’inter when 1 farm work is slack. V j