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Show Farmers cooperating with the Lower Virgin-Santa Clara Soil Conservation District are finding that lanl leveling not only results in a substantial increase in crop yields, but also is essential to the conservation of soil and water and prevention of leaching, according to Wayne C. Gardner, chairman of the district board of supervisors. supervis-ors. A total of 270 acres in the district already have been leveled, and 1100 additional acres are scheduled to be leveled. The tractor and carryall shown above is an economical unit for land leveling work. Leveling of -Farm Lands ' Proves Profitable Farmers in the Lower Virgin-Santa Virgin-Santa Clara Soil Conservation district have leveled more than 270 acres of land on 42 farms with equipment and technical help supplied through the district, and applications for the work are coming in so rapidly that it is impossible to keep up with them, according to Wilfrid Hasfurther, district conservationist. In addition, addi-tion, technical assistance has been furnished for about 50 acres more leveling which was done with privately pri-vately owned equipment. Many formers in this district are getting leveling equipment of their own to do this work. They are convinced con-vinced that considerable saving of water and time can be affected by having level land. Leveling can increase production' produc-tion' on about 2000 acres more in the district, when machinery and labor are available to do the job," Mr. Hasfurther said. "The importance of this conservation con-servation work to the people of Washington county is hard to ever-estimate. Leveling may raise crop yields by 50 per cent or more, while it enables the farmer to control erosion, conserve water, and check the leaching of plant nutrients from the soil. The loss of plant nutrients is especially bad where large amounts of com-merical com-merical fertilizer are used. "Proper distribution of water to all parts of the field, with re-ultant re-ultant even penetration in the soil accounts for this increased production; but the prevention of soil washing, waste of fertility, and loss of water that comes from wrong irrigation methods may be even more important in the long run." Wallace Iverson now turns his water an and does all of his irrigating irri-gating from the head of the field instead of having to follow the water through as he did before leveling. He estimtaed that 509 or more of his irrigation time has i been saved |
