control and, through sound leasing arrangements, will aid neighboring landowners to operate more successfully. The demonstration projects have served to acquaint participating farmers with proper soil and water saving practices by improving some 64,000 acres of land. The Civilian Conservation Corps, operating under the technical direction of the Soil Conservation Service, has assisted in the development of the demonstration projects. The four camps in the watershed are now working on the soil conservation district program. The Prairie States shelterbelt project of the Forest Service initiated operations on the Washita in 1934. Farmers and the Work Projects Administration have participated in planting 8,000,000 trees on 12,000 acres of shelterbelt. The Indian Service of the Department of the Interior administers the leasing arrangements on 325,000 acres of Indian lands. The cooperation of this agency will be sought in the programs aimed at increasing income through conserving the soil and water resources. STATE AGENCIES (OKLAHOMA) The Division of Forestry since 1925 has been engaged in protecting from fire the forests and woodlands of the watershed. It also assists in preparing woodland-management plans for the soil-conservation districts. The State planning and resources board has investigated, planned, and recommended the installation of 25 small flood-control dams, including estimated capacities, costs, and benefits. LOCAL AGENCIES Seventeen soil-conservation districts, comprising about 94 percent of the watershed, are organized or in process of organization (fig. 3). Farm plans have already been made for about 390,000 acres, but because of the relatively recent organization of the districts only a small number of the farms have actually been treated. Drainage districts are operating in several parts of the watershed, chiefly in Grady, McClain, and Garvin Counties. The total original bonded indebtedness of these districts was about $410,000, a part of which has been paid off. Ditches, as now maintained, both alleviate and contribute to local flood-damage problems. In Chickasha, for example, the problem has been aggravated by a diversion ditch upstream discharging into a creek running through town. County land-use planning committees composed of local farmers are already functioning in the watershed, and in four counties have begun to make detailed land-use recommendations. Municipalities in the Washita drainage area operate 11 small water-supply reservoirs having a combined capacity of some 21,000 acre-feet. The Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension Service through their experimental and educational work are doing much to demonstrate and to increase the understanding by farmers of the value of soil and water conservation measures. 00181-43 KLAHOMA Scole & SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICTS ORGANIZED BUT NOT RECIVING ASSISTANCE 1. SOUTH CADDO COUNTY ORGANIZED AND RECEIVING ASSISTANCE 3. DEWEY COUNTY 4. MOUNTAIN VIEW 5. NORTH CADDO COUNTY 6. CENTRAL NORTH CANADIAN 7. MARSHALL COUNTY 8. BRYAN COUNTY 9. UPPER WASHITA 10. NORTH FORK OF RED RIVER 11. GRADY COUNTY 12. STEPHENS COUNTY 13. CANADIAN – WALNUT 14. BARVIN-MURRAY IS. ARBUCKLE 16 KONAWA 17. BLUE AND BOGGY The educational, planning, research, and operational facilities of the above-described agencies will be utilized to the fullest extent in any flood-control program undertaken by the Department of Agriculture. SECTION IV. RECOMMENDED REMEDIAL PROGRAM A FOUR-POINT PROGRAM The remedial program recommended by the Department of Agr culture for the Washita watershed is primarily one of land use aimed at reduction in flood flows and sedimentation, conservation of soil and water resources, and the establishment of a permanent and stable agriculture. The program includes: (1) The improvement by cropping systems and the treatment of land to remain in cultivation. (2) The conversion of land to uses for which it is best adapted from the standpoint of erosion and run-off. (3) The establishment and maintenance of satisfactory cover on lands that are not or should not remain in cultivation. (4) The installation of minor structures to facilitate the application and increase the effectiveness of land-treatment programs. At the present time there are 4,989,530 acres of agricultural land in the watershed, including 2,616,705 acres in cultivation, 1,849,236 acres in pasture and range, and 523,589 acres in woodland. The remainder of the watershed is in miscellaneous nonagricultural uses. Of the agricultural land area, 4,217,615 acres are suited for agriculture and 771,915 acres are submarginal for agricultural purposes. A remedial program can be applied to the land suitable for agriculture and to 443,815 acres of submarginal land. The remaining 328,100 acres of submarginal land should be in public ownership if a remedial program is to be applied to it. It is estimated that farmers operating 2,778,223 acres of the land that can be treated without public acquisition will cooperate in the proposed remedial program. This area is designated as the "farm land treatment area" and represents 59 percent of the agricultural land after deducting the lands that should be in public ownership. FARM-LAND-TREATMENT PROGRAM General. The program will use mechanical and cultural treatments on cultivated lands, range lands, woodlands, and abandoned cultivated lands. Three general types of treatment will be applied in each of the above-mentioned uses: (1) Management practices directed st improvement of the soil-protective vegetative cover, (2) installation of mechanical water-retarding and soil-saving structures, and (3) conversion of severely eroded intensively used lands to less intensive soil and moisture-conserving use. A complete and detailed farm plan will be prepared for each farm unit participating in the program. This plan will be developed on the basis of the best possible combination of physical land-use and economic adjustments. It will set forth by farm fields the kinds of prac tices and treatments to be installed and the time limits within which • Range lands include lands in farm pastures; woodlands include shelterbelt plantings. For detailed in formation relative to kinds, amounts and specifications of the various remedial measures, see appendix D. installation shall be made. Each participating farmer will be required to sign an agreement stipulating his responsibility for carrying out the farm plan. Physical factors, such as soil type, slope, degree of erosion, and potential productivity of the soil, and the need for and effect on flood control, will determine the type and intensity of treatment to be employed. In general, cultivation will not be practiced on soils having over three-fourths of the top soil removed by erosion, nor on slopes exceeding 4 to 8 percent. In certain cases, slightly steeper slopes which are not seriously eroded will be used for production of small grain and clean-tilled crops in long rotation with perennial close-growing, fibrousrooted crops. Soils on steep and severely eroded slopes will be placed under permanent vegetative cover to control run-off and erosion. (a) Measures for cultivated land. The proposed remedial program involves the treatment of 1,414,991 acres of cultivated land. This treatment will consist of such practices as crop rotations, cover crops, strip-cropping, terracing, and contour cultivation. The individual measures are: Crop rotations: The use of two or more crops in a definite sequence, one with the others on the same field over a period of 2 years or more. Close-growing, fibrous-rooted crops, legume winter-cover crops will be included in the practices to be carried out on all farms where the program is operative. The program will provide more continuous cover, improve physical conditions of the soil, help maintain soil fertility, increase water-holding capacity of the soil, reduce run-off and erosion, and render the soil more resistant to droughts which occur frequently in the watershed. It will also provide supplementary pasture to relieve overgrazing on permanent pastures durng critical grazing periods. Results of experiments at Guthrie, Okla., show that a 3-year rotation of cotton, wheat, and sweetclover reduced soil loss 81 percent and run-off 18 percent as compared to continuous cotton for the period of 1930 to 1935, inclusive. Strip cropping: This practice of planting alternate strips of closegrowing soil-holding crops with strips of clean-tilled crops or fallow will be used with or without terracing for the control of both wind and water erosion on all land where it is needed. All strips will be laid out on the contour except in "hummocky" areas, where strips will be established at right angles to the direction of the prevailing winds. For water-erosion control the width of strips planted to the soil-holding crops will vary with the slope of the land. Strip cropping may be used with or without terracing. Strips will be at least 18 feet wide when used in conjunction with terraces, and 30 feet wide on unterraced areas. They will be handled in such a manner as to leave stubble standing for the greatest possible length of time. Strip cropping usually will be supplemented by terraces on long slopes or on the more erodible soils. For wind-erosion control it is planned that not more than 30 rows of clean-tilled crop be alternated with not over 15 rows of soil-holding crop. Terraces: By decreasing effective slope length, terraces are highly efficient in reducing or delaying the rate of run-off and the total amount Soil and Water Conservation Investigations, SCS-ERS-3, July 1937. Red Plains Soil Conservation Experiment Station, Guthrie, Okla. |