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Why does land wear out? Hugh Hammond Bennett found out in Louisa County. The misunderstood problem of agricultural land use in early America led farmers who tilled the soil to just move on to better land because there were limits with repetitive tillage and deteriorating soil quality. Things changed in 1905. Hugh Bennett and another soil scientist compared adjoining land parcels with identical soils and differing production capability. One parcel was forested; the other cultivated. The forested parcel has never been cultivated; the other parcel had been tilled and planted year after year. Surely, Bennett thought, the soils were identical in the beginning. What changed? The difference was erosion throughout the cultivated parcel with accompanying loss of topsoil. Bennett studied soils in the United States and in other countries to reach his conclusion that soil erosion was a serious and unappreciated problem for the planet and all who live on it.