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Show Farm Conservation Report How Many Farms In The Ocean? Many years ago a wise Midwest Mid-west farmer recognized what was happening to good farming land in America when he said, "The best part of my farm is ? down below New Orleans." And this week, Preal George, member of the Utah PMA Com-mittee, Com-mittee, wonders if anyone has thought to count the number of I farms which go under the bridge ;' during a single flood season. He bases his figures on the fact that the deep accumulations of silt in the deltas of great rivers of this country is primarily the top soil of farms carried by unchecked uncheck-ed water. I Tests show, says Mr. George, that around 400 million tons of topsoil roll down the Mississippi River each year. An inch of top-soil top-soil from an acre of land weighs between 140 and 150 tons. At 150 tons of topsoil per acre, this loss would mean. the equivalent: of an inch of topsoil from 2 23 J million acres. The Columbia, Colorado, Rio Grande, and many other rivers are rolling soil out to sea too, Mr. George points out, but the Mississippi alone carries the (equivalent of an inch of topsoil 'from the surface of nearly 17,-000 17,-000 farms of 160 acres each. i And even more serious, says the chairman, the topsoil comes from the best land on the farm i the land that is in row crops 'or which is being worked most to produce the nation's crops. Says Mr. George, "Like the sand in the hour-glass, the soil at the top is going down. But I unlike the hour-glass, the process pro-cess cannot be reversed. The top-soil top-soil does not run back. "From that limited amount of I topsoil, which is getting less each year, must come the 435 million meals a day for the 145 million people in this country. In addition, addi-tion, tons and tons of food are needed to keep Europe from going go-ing under. "And every farm that goes under un-der the bridge means just that much less land from which to grow the food we need that much more of a burden on the land that is lef t. Mr. George said the primary objective of the Agricultural Conservation Program is to re- duce this loss. 'Through this program," he points out, "the Nation cooperates with its farmers farm-ers in carrying out conservation practices which keep the soil and water on the farm." Bees Aid Soil Conservation What have bees got to do with the conservation of the soils of this country? More than most people realize, ays Joe Wilqken, chairman of, the Duchesne Agricultural Con-' scrvation Program Committee. - j It is the legumes, such as red clover, alfalfa, lespedcza, vetches and others, the chairman explains, ex-plains, that add great quantities of organic matter and nitrogen 1 to the soils each year. The nrtro- gen increases"crops, particularly the grasses in pastures and mea-1 dows. Grasses improve the tilth of soil. Soils in good tilth resist erosion. So it is the legumes that start the chain of beneficial actions ac-tions that ultimately bring the soil to the condition that it resists re-sists erosion. And, says the chairman, bees 'are essential lo legumes. They make something like 160,000 visits vis-its to the blossoms of the legumes to gather the nectar that will make a pound of honey. And while they're making those ncc- tar gathering visits, they help pollination, which leads to the production of legume seeds. The U, S. Department of Agriculture Ag-riculture estimates that there will be an increase of 4 per cent in the shipments of package bees over the 1,375,000 pounds shipped ship-ped last year. Reports from Texas Tex-as indicate that the demand for queens is considerably heavier than last year, when 1,007,200 queens were shipped. I |