and belted with beautiful groves and oak openings. The scenery combines with every element of beauty and grandeur, giving us the sunlit prairie, with its soft swell, waving grass and thousand flowers; the somber depths of the primeval forest; and castellated cliffs, rising hundreds of feet, with beetling crags which a Titan might have piled for his fortress."
Courtesy La Crosse Public Library Archives
Photo caption
U.S. Government Experimental Farm on Grandad Bluff, c. 1949
The rolling and often steep terrain of the Driftless Area has presented many challenges over the years to farmers. In the early 1930s, soil conservation became the subject of numerous studies by local and federal agencies. Several noteworthy projects took place in this region, including one on the back section of Grandad Bluff, where the state and U.S. government teamed up to research the most effective means of controlling soil erosion. With the goal of determining the optimal balances of crop choices and farming techniques, 160 acres of the Bluff were devoted to strip-cropping, terracing, contour plowing, and grazing.
Courtesy La Crosse Public Library Archives
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