In Karankaway Country, Great-Granddaddy Bedichek has a chapter called "Dust" where he talks about topsoil. He explains the role that cedars play in keeping the topsoil in good condition. He writes
Neither the horse, nor the sparrows like the pelting of big driving raindrops. They [don't] so much mind the rain after the cedar [intervenes].The upright leaves of this tree, like a multitude of tiny spears pointing toward the sky, [break] the drops into pieces, fragmentizing these plunging liquid bullets from the heavens, mist-ti-fying them; that is, literally converting them into a mist and spreading the moisture upon the litter of leaves below as softly as a mother lays down a coverlet upon the body of a cradled baby...The soil does not like the pelting any more than animals do. It likes it so little that it runs away. And, if the area is so flat that the water can't run off, it simply seals up the soil, which then hardens in the sun, gets another sealing in the next rain, hardens, and so on until it is impenetrable by roots and impervious to moisture.
I found this fascinating! I never realized this benefit of trees.
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