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Show SCS Chief Urges Immediate Surveys I To Sdermme Nation's &m flssds Wash. D. C. Completion of detailed surveys to determine the capability and conservation needs of the nation's farms at the earliest possible date is urged by Chief H. H. Bennett in his 1949 fiscal year report of the Soil Conservation Service. i he report to Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan pointed out that this information must be provided before an adequate conservation farming program can be nlanned or executed ex-ecuted for any farm. Moreover, it is desirable for planing and carrying out other agricultural programs. Dr. Benett ment:oned. for example, ex-ample, that evaluation of lands for taxation or loans would be sounder and more equitable if made on the basis of their capability cap-ability for production; that land capability could be used as the basis for sound procedure and beneficial adjustments in all t--np-- of far'- '--redit or land tenure; and that it might well be used as a guide for the wise expansion of rural road building and rural electrification as well as the orderly development of other community enterprises, especially those planned for per- Although nearly 500,000,000 acres have al eady been surveyed, survey-ed, the conservation head reuort-od. reuort-od. requests from farmers' soil ennpprvation districts for farm planning assistance has taxed tb,e Service to the extent that the soil inventory work has be" delayed. "Our soil conservation studies have shown that we are now cultivating many millions of acres that should go out of use and into permanent pasture or quick growing trees," Dr. Bennett Ben-nett observes. "This is important to tne individual farmer," the soil bureau chief continues, "because "be-cause it means efficiency in production pro-duction and, in the long r u n, will mean a mo.e stable income throughout the nation as a whole," Bennett also advises that the land is capable of producing-more producing-more than is in demand, but that this will not always be true if toil depletion continues .and the demand for food and other agricultural products grows. Chief Bennett also pointed to other means for speeding the soil and water conservation program, pro-gram, such as more scientific research re-search on some special conser-'vation conser-'vation problems, intensifying conservation education through 1 all available agencies and institutions, in-stitutions, and encouraging and strengthening soil conservation : districts, which already include more than three-fourths of the country's farms. As of June 30, 2,164 conservation districts were being' assisted by the service in the 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska, Altogether, the conservation conser-vation districts included about 1.179.000.000 acres, with additional addi-tional districts being organized by farmers each month. The Service assisted 154 more districts in 1948-49 than it did during the preceding fiscal year, but Dr. Bennett said it was not able to give the districts all the technical aid they requested, because be-cause of limited personnel. But he again reported more permanent perman-ent soil conservation applied to the land duriug the year than ' during any previous year. |