The history of scientific views on the causes of water and wind erosion in Ukraine and the evolution of the theoretical and practical bases of technology of soil erosion control techniques have been studied. The attention was paid to the historical background of mechanical tillage minimization and the problems of the shallow and surface tillage introduction into agriculture of the day. The paper considers the progress and establishment of emergency tillage. The role of the scientists in establishing the theoretical basis of soil erosion control practices.

In the second half of the 19th century, most scientists considered low humidity level to be the cause of soil erosion, which could be treated by deep tillage. The fundamentals of emergency tillage were developed by I. Ovsinsky at the end of the 19th century.

During the first period of the development of the national agriculture science in the 19^th century, the direct link between the level of the human transformation of steppe land and the negative effects accompanying the process was established. In this period, the agriculturalists pointed to the need in limiting the black soil steppe plowing practice. Once the irreversibility of the process became apparent, it was recommended to enhance afforestation and strip sowing practice to protect the exposed field areas. The issue of rational tillage management did not seem to be of the priority, as long as the amount of the plowed steppe land was low. At the end of the 19th century, this problem became urgent due to the beginning of the period  of intensification in agriculture, particularly in tillage modes.

The intensive erosion processes in the black soil regions of Russia in the first half of the 19th century were prevented not only by insignificant areas of plowed steppe lands, but also by virgin and fallow cropping system practices.

However, most native agronomists in the19th – early 20th centuries vigorously promoted the fallow system of farming for the black soil regions of the country as they did not see any other alternative to it.

In the 19th century fallow practices were the only effective measure of tall weed control, as well as the means of short-term field "rest". It was particularly important in practicing the repeated grain sowing widely spread at that time.

Moldboard plowing in the late 19th century that replaced the primitive wooden plows and processing plows was considered (and this is true to a certain extent) synonymous to the intensification in farming. Its first phase was the intensification of the rapid nutrient mobilization to increase yields. The problem of the preservation of the valuable soil properties was of less importance, though it began to attract the attention of the specialists.

P.A. Kostychev, correctly pointing out the advantages of shallow plowing and underlining its importance, did not realize, like the rest of his contemporaries, that the plant residues left in the soil and mixed together with thin layers of soil prevented blowing off. This was due to the prevailing contemporary understanding of erosion as the consequence of soil dehydration. Obviously, it was this erroneous understanding that prevented P.A. Kostychev from creating the foundations of emergency tillage. It was I.E. Ovsinsky who did it.

One of the main reasons of low introduction of the surface and subsurface tillage into production was the high weed contamination rate. And on the plots which were relatively void of weeds, shallow and superficial cultivation led to better conditions for crops growing and provided increased yields in the early years. Later, however, the weed contamination rate became high, and farmers had to return to deep plowing. That is why the verification of the results of I.E. Ovsinsky’s system in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was not completely evident.

Further development of the ideas on erosion control farming practices was in the works of V. Rotmistrov. The method he proposed in 1911 was designed especially for the climatic conditions of the southern Ukraine, where the snow cover is insignificant and unstable, and is reduced to the maximum preservation of the stubble in the field. He considered the plowing depth of more than 9 cm to be unnecessary and economically unprofitable.

The scientists proved that the solution of the main problems of steppe land farming – conservation, saving and rational use of water – can be achieved not only by afforestation and irrigation as V.V. Dokuchaev considered, but also by the appropriate erosion control tillage.

Key words: erosion, tillage, soil, farming system, fallow, technique, yield.