Then, in the 1930s, the Agriculture Department decided kudzu could be used for erosion control and distributed 85 million kudzu seedlings in the South. It was later discovered that kudzu's erosion control properties were limited because its vines grow horizontally and slightly above ground, branching out as much as 2 feet a day. The difference between the government using kudzu for erosion control and most government programs is that it stopped pouring money into increasing the program. If it had worked the same as most programs, they would be planting billions of more seedlings since the first 85 million didn't work right.