| Show Modern l Machine Farmer Builds Up for Prosperity For years the farm fann equipment industry dealers manufacturers and trade publications have been active advocates of soil and water conservation and improvement of soil fertility One-crop One farms especially espe espe- especially especially where tobacco cotton and corn com were the cash crops began bringing home to them the fact that the nations nation's wealth was leaching down the hillsides and into the streams that carried it to the ocean Such lands were rapidly passing out of production ceasing to pay taxes and to support prosperous farm families and communities Villages even counties faded with the farms as they wore out To awaken the nation to the con con- consequences consequences consequences sequences of this trend if not coun coun- counteracted counteracted the industry long has laid stress upon the pull long-pull benefits of soil conservation and the part that farmers can play in the program by using the tools already on the farms and available for soil conservation efforts Contour farming terracing and crop rotations in the United States go back to Thomas Jeffersons Jefferson's work in Virginia well over a century ago Writing in the American Farmer in 1821 the President ex-President of the United States in a signed article answered inquiries from readers of that pi pi- publication as air ato to t contour cont r farming and about the plow he used on his son-in-law's son Virginia farm But Jeffersons Jefferson's efforts to teach the pioneer American farmer to f build a a permanent agriculture and with it community and national prosperity were soon forgotten in ia the rush to ta virgin lands that opened up to settlers as the Louisiana Purchase and other territorial acquisitions beckoned young farmers toward the West mid-West and the Pacific While good farmers on their own initiative followed conservation practices comparatively little was done in an organized manner until the United States department ol of agriculture in the began taking active notice of the erosion of top topsoil topsoil topsoil soil on cultivated lands set up ero ero- control sion-control experiment stations and instituted an intensive study of soil erosion In 1935 the Soil Conserva Conservation tion service was established and by bythe bythe bythe the middle of f last year 45 of the states had soil conservation districts dis districts totaling 1114 and embracing acres Being vitally interested in this ef effort effort fort long before there was an nn or or- organized organized organized conservation program tho the industry naturally got behind and co cooperated co- co cooperated operated with the United States gov gov- government government government in helping the farmer solve his land problems when the nationwide program was rated Through personal effort in their advertisements and booklets on the subject farm equipment com corn companies panics their field representatives and dealers have made helpful suggestions to the farmer on soil fertility water capacity and pre pre- preventing preventing venting the loss of soils |
