Show EXPERTS EXPLAIN NEW PROGRAM FOR FARMERS features of the new national soil conservation program which will serve as the basis for the development of state and county programs were explained by federal officials at a meeting held at salt lake city march 2627 26 27 for western states extension representatives only crop lands were considered at this meeting an intensive study is now being made looking toward the development of a range improvement program when this preliminary study is completed further meetings will be held with the range interests officials said george E farrell director of the western division of the AAA was in charge of the meeting states in the western division represented are utah arizona california colorado idaho kansas montana nevada new mexico north dakota oregon washington and wyoming the general outlines of the national program which state agricultural workers studied are described as being largely a composite of the recommendations of the four regional conferences held recently at salt lake city chicago memphis and new york city the field setup set up is to follow in general that which prevailed under the AAA programs with county and community committees and one state committee for each state these committees are to be made up of producers national goal the national goal under the new program is to add approximately 30 million acres to the soil conserving crops there were approximately million acres of such crops in 1930 procedure under the soil conservation pro gram farmers will receive payments for planting certain crops and tor for certain practices which comply with the purposes of the new law for this purpose available appropriations riat ions total approximately under the national program crops are divided into three main classifications soil depleting crops such as wheat corn cotton etc soil conserving crops such as grasses pastured or cut for hay and soil building crops such as legumes A soil depleting crop base will be I 1 established for each farm deter mined by the number of acres in crops in 1935 farmers will receive a payment tor for planting soil con serving or soil building crops on acres formerly devoted to soil de plating crops the payments will vary according to the productivity of the soil and the kind of crop replaced this payment will be based on productivity in each I 1 county and will average 10 an acre for the nation in addition I 1 lit it is planned to make a smaller payment for each acre in soil building bull ding crops in 1936 or where a soil building practice is carried out the larger payment will be limited to 15 per cent of the base oil depleting acreage for most crops exceptions to this limit include sugar beets flax cotton and tobacco the smaller payment will not exceed 1 an acre for each acre in soil conserving and soil building crops on the farm payments will be made only for actual performance in accord with the regulations the application of regulations to local conditions regarding crops practices and payments will be determined ter mined at local meetings by farmers committees and state agricultural ri workers following the regional conference director william peterson of the utah extension Ex tenion service called agricultural agents and specia specialists specialist lis ts into a session with mr farrell and W A lloyd director of the extension service tor for the western section where the utah program was outlined and discussed it was decided to hold district meetings in the state where the new program will be explained |