Contour Plowing
Contour plowing follows the contours of hills and slopes, rather than orienting crop rows up and down a slope. It is a technique that was popularized during the New Deal and afterwards in response to soil erosion. Contour plowing furrows run crosswise to the slope, slowing runoff and allowing the soil to absorb rainfall rather than wash away. Contour plowing is usually employed along with strip cropping, that is, alternating different crops in narrow strips. Dense-rooted crops planted between row crops further helped to make full use of rainfall.
Aerial view of Burt DeWald farm, Lycoming County, about 1950
This photo illustrates contour plowing, strip cropping, windbreaks, ornamental trees, and woodlots.
Lycoming County Agricultural Extension Archives
Contour strips, Potter County, age unknown. (Site 105-WB-001)
Note
This is a static, archived version of the PHMC Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project website which will not be updated. It is a snapshot of the website with minor modifications as it appeared on August 26, 2015.
Pages in this Section
- Overview
- House Types
- Barn Types
- Barn Features
- Outbuilding Types
- Overview
- Bake Oven
- Butcher House
- Carriage House
- Cider House
- Combination Structure
- Cook House
- Corn Crib
- Dryhouse
- Fruit Cold Storage
- Garage
- Grain Bin
- Granary
- Greenhouse
- Hay Drying Shed
- Hog House
- Horse Barn
- Ice House
- Machine Shed
- Maple Sugar House
- Milk House
- Packing House
- Potato Storage Cellar
- Poultry Housing
- Privy
- Roadside Stand
- Root Cellar
- Scale House
- Shed
- Silo
- Smokehouse
- Spray Shed
- Springhouse
- Summer Kitchen
- Wagon Shed
- Wash House
- Wood Shed
- Worker Housing
- Workshop
- Landscape Elements
- Archaeological Features