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Show Farm Conservation Report Pooling Agreement Saves Land Although many soil and water conservation problems may be solved on individual farms, there are some which affect a number of farmers and must ba dealt with cooperatively. According Accord-ing to J. Vcrn Hopkin, chairman , I of the Utah State PMA Commit-j Commit-j tee, such problems are handled on a community basis. A group of farmers enter into an agreement agree-ment under the Agricultural Conservation Program and each uses the funds available to carry out his share of the project. Under the current program, each farmer's share of the program assistance is limited to $500. As ah example of the effective use of pooling agreement, the chairman cites a project carried out in Utah county. A group of farmers, who own tracts of meadow mea-dow land near Utah Lake, were troubled with too much water. This meadow land was covered with water in late fall and early spring, resulting in the loss of a lot of good feed. The farmers set up a pooling agreement with the Utah County Agricultural Conservation Committee Com-mittee and constructed a drain which carries the water into Utah Lake. As a result, between 1000 and 1200 acres of land is now free of surface water. The meadows are now pastured in early spring and late fall and during the summer sum-mer they are cut for hay. A farm that is losing its top- soil through erosion offers little security for a loan at least a long-time loan, says Ray S. Jordan, Jor-dan, cashier of the Roosevelt State Bank. He comes to this conclusion from the interest bankers over the country are taking tak-ing in conservation. Some bankers won't make a loan on a farm unless the farmer is carrying out the needed conservation con-servation practices. They feel they have no right to risk money on land that is being washed or blown away. Mr. Jordan said that this trend is a recognition on the part of bankers that the size of a farm doesn't always determine how much can be produced. It is a part of the growing realization) that production depends on the quality and the depth .of the topsoil that covers the farm that when that topsoil is gone the farm is gone even though all the acres are still there. The kind of farming that .removes .re-moves soil fertility without putting put-ting it back or that speeds up erosion, also takes away the security se-curity of the land. The farmer's living and the banker's security depend upon what the land produces pro-duces and will continue to produce. pro-duce. That's why, says Mr. Jordan, Jor-dan, bankers look intothe kind offarming as well as the kind of a farm. They realize that the land that is safe and dependable for a loan must be farmed the conservation way. The major function of the Agricultural Ag-ricultural Conservation Program, he points out, is to help farmers make their farms more secure. The assistance given under the Program is to help farmers hold the topsoil on their farms and , to keep that topsoil productive. |