Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 17, Number 17, DeMotte, Jasper County, 21 March 1947 — SOIL SERVICE OUT TO BEAT 1946 RECORD [ARTICLE]

SOIL SERVICE OUT TO BEAT 1946 RECORD

Conservation Service Aims At Doubling--1946 Accomplishments in 1947 Program The* Soil Conservation Service with its ambitious 1947 program airh/ed at almost doubling its 194 b accomplishments admittedly has cut. out a big job fpr itself. t ' * ** Hut on the basis’* of past achievements, coupled with the growing restiveness of farmers toward soil wasth, that literally washes dollars out of their pockets, the program appears feasible, experts say. / ; 4 ■ Progress in the first six months of the fiscal year also would indicate the goal was not too high. 1 4 According to H. 11. Bennett, chief of the SCS and the nation’s outstanding preacher on the evils of soil / erosion for the past 40 years, the higher goals this year are essential. “The work of stabilizing our farm land is vital to the national welfare,”- he declared, “and must move ahead with even greater speed,, for it ikas been too lpng retarded.” r Bennett hits the chord that has' perhaps struck most -tunefully on the ear of thp farmer debating The question of undertaking soil ‘conservation: •>

s “Where it has been practiced,” ■ ■ Bennett said, “soil conservation farming has resuj ted in at least! a 20 per cent increase in production per acre, as an average. It has meant increased income , to j the . farmer and savings in seed, fertilizer,, labor and power. It has accounted for a high degree of land protection, even under the j pressure •of intensified wartime production.” He estimated that the cost of not having a. scientific program would average $1,000,000.000 a year. Bennett declared that American farmers', falling in line with conservation practices made possible by* congressional appropriation, ■“are turning the tide; we are winning" the fight against the greatest common enemy to productive land—uncontrolled soil erosion.” Just how far the program has .progressed in the first six months is shown by those figures:- On July 1.194(5, of this current fiscal year is shown there were 1,037 soil conservation districts embracing approximately 883,000,000 acres. under conservation. By Dec. 15, the number of districts has risen to 1.750 and slightly more than 1,000,000,000 acres. The growth of districts means that just that many more farmers and* farms are brodght aloser to tin; technicians, who are availaide to assist them in their problems, and to conservation coverage. Bennett, in his zeal to save fertility, of the 1 soil, has compared the average American farm ‘To a- patient beset with a Tiotji of diseases, many ofyvvhich are beyond the powers of home doctoring or even a general practitioner.”- ~ There are nod half-way measures. in the eyes, of this expert. Quick erosion control methods do not actually control erosion, .“hut in many vases only aggravate it.”