Soil Erosion for Dummies

Contour plowing and planting to reduce soil erosion

Here at the Antisocial Network, we've long since given up on expecting freelancing J-school¹ graduates to show any honesty at all about what they do and do not know, at least when it comes to the eHow.com family of sites. It seems that they assume that their "superior" research skills allow them to address any topic succinctly. Well, no, that's not true; as is proven by J-school grad Lee Morgan. We found Lee at Hunker.com, where he tried to explain "Five Factors that Affect Soil Erosion."²

Morgan googled the topic and found some information (unfortunately, Leaf Group lopped off his references when they ported the post from eHow.com to Sciencing). We aren't really certain why he called Spindigo.com "Samaritan Health Center," but hey: it's his dime. Whatever the case, Morgan simply lifted the five from an agricultural engineering lecture. The problem is that he didn't understand what he was saying, so he introduced errors. Morgan's – actually Mr. Luke's —– five factors are,

1. Rainfall: "While much of it [soil moved by the impact of rainfall] doesn't splash out of the area it was already in, it does compact the soil and makes it drain more poorly." This statement makes no sense, plus there's nothing about volume of rainfall and timing.
2. Type of Soil: "The type of soil in question is a factor in how erosion takes place. Some spoils [sic] are simply more apt to erode quickly than others. Soils with a lot of silt content tend to erode the most, while heavy clay soils tend to be the least erosive." Morgan lifted that directly from Dr. Luke. Unfortunately, Luke's claim that "in much of the world there is a layer of... loess" is bull.

3. Sloping Land: "Water runs more quickly, having a greater eroding impact on the soil on a steep slope whereas water on a flat surface only sees pooling water. The gravity pulls on soil on a slope as well, making it easier to move." Water "sees"? Gravity "pulls"? Anthropomorphize much, Lee?
4. Vegetation: Believe it or not, Morgan actually transcribed this section (reasonably) accurately. Go, Lee!
5. Farm Management: In which Lee flails briefly at describing contour plowing and planting, though he gets the concept pretty confused

The last on the list makes it seem that Morgan cribbed from an Ag course, but in reality it was from a sermon... which probably explains the bull about loess – perhaps the Rev though he was talking about "lust."

Be that as it may, Morgan did fairly lousy research – instead of finding a sermon, he should have probably have done some googling on the subject of soil conservation – and when he found something, he just reworded it. As so often happens when eHowians try to reword something they don't understand, they botch the job. That's when they become a Dumbass of the Day.

¹ Journalism school, or – as colleges insist on calling it today – "communications"
² The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/info_10028375_five-factors-affect-soil-erosion.html

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