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National Geographic : 1947 Dec
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The National Geographic Magazine Costa Eumnanuel from IUNRA Greek Women and Children Spend Long Hours Harvesting Wheat-near Kertezi The author, a soil-conservation expert, found farmers of the Vouraikos River watershed planting wheat on steep mountain slopes, with serious erosion resulting. Cover crops were recommended to protect bare fields between grain harvests, keep soil from washing away, and provide more forage for livestock. tion of the production from the lowliest scrub in the United States. The clip from each goat is even less, averag ing but three-quarters of a pound, and the quantity of milk does not exceed 15 gallons. There are tremendous possibilities for im proving these grazing lands. It would not be necessary to remove all the livestock. Even the brush-covered mountains can continue to be grazed, but there should be far fewer animals. If there were less grazing, the vegetation would thicken and stop much of the erosion that is washing down so much soil and rock and covering up the better farm lands in the valleys. Less grazing would also increase the forage; consequently, there would be more wool, milk, and meat as the animals improved in condition, even though they were fewer in number. As the erosion was cut down, drainage conditions would get better in the valleys. A good deal of the present swampland would dry up and could be turned into the finest of pastures. With lush green feed throughout the sum mer, many a farmer could keep a high-grade dairy cow or two that would outproduce a whole flock of the poor sheep and goats now forced to subsist on the dry mountain sides. Timber Riches Long Since Gone In remote times Greece was largely forested, with pine along the seashore, fir on the tops of the mountains, and oak and other hardwoods on the intervening slopes and along the streams. The years brought a gradual and almost complete change. By the fifth century after Christ Greece was forced to import carpenters' and joiners' wood from Asia Minor and Italy. Even fuel was becoming scarce around such cities as Athens. Much timbered land was cleared for wheat and other crops needed by the ever growing population. 810
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