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FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 1958.

SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE

WITNESSES

NOLEN J. FUQUA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICTS

MARION S. MONK, JR., NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICTS

G. GILBERT COX, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICTS

HARRY H. RIECK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICTS

Mr. WHITTEN. We are glad to have you gentlemen appear before us and we will be glad to have you present your statement as you see fit.

Mr. ANDERSEN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to join in welcoming these gentlemen before us. I am sure they will give us very worthwhile testimony.

Mr. WHITTEN. We have with us Mr. Cox, Mr. Monk, Mr. Fuqua, and Mr. Rieck. You may proceed as you see fit.

Mr. FUQUA. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, on behalf of the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts we come before your committee today to speak for the governing bodies of the 2,779 soil conservation districts in America. As you know, these district officials are responsible under the soil conservation district laws of the various States for programs to conserve and improve soil and water resources. There are about 14,000 district officials who have been selected in their home communities to assume these responsibilities for local leadership in the conservation movement. All of them perform this public service without pay.

We want you to know how very much we appreciate this opportunity to again present their views to your committee. They know that you gentlemen are their friends. You have proven it repeatedly in the past. We come to you again this year to present the needs, as district officials see them, for Federal appropriations for soil and water conservation.

To be frank about it, we are very seriously concerned that the national effort in soil and water conservation will be neglected during this era of heavy Government spending for military defense and the conquest of space. We believe there is a serious need for an increase rather than a curtailment in the national effort of soil and water conservation.

GRASSROOTS THINKING

We have gone to considerable lengths this year to get a cross section of the thinking of the district governing bodies from all States to present to your committee.

Our national association officers have conducted a grassroots survey of the district governing bodies. We asked each board to furnish us with information through a detailed questionnaire. We received reports from 2,111 governing bodies. We want to tell you about some of the information we acquired from the grassroots.

Mr. WHITTEN. Mr. Fuqua, let me interrupt you there. I am always prone to read ahead, and I have read ahead on your statement. I notice your reference to watershed funds. This committee took rather strong exception to the items in the President's budget for watershed and flood protection. I do not know if they tie together, but yesterday the President did send an amended budget on those two items. I did not know if you knew that.

Mr. FUQUA. Thank you very much. We were going to mention that, although we thought we ought to read this statement.

Mr. WHITTEN. Just go right ahead. I read ahead of you.

Mr. FUQUA. This was a rather detailed questionnaire, so we won't take the time to tell you all the information. We sent you copies of the national summary which you should have by now. We hope you will receive a lot of benefit and information from this. It is very authentic. These were all checked to see that each board had a regular session when they answered these questionnaires and that there were no Government helpers taking part in the answering of the questions, and on receiving the questionnaires we turned them over to a certified public accountant who certified the answers to the questionnaire, so we feel it is very authentic in every way.

Also, a few weeks ago we held our 12th annual convention of district governing bodies in Minnesota. We had an enormous turnout from all over the Nation which strained the hotel facilities in Minneapolis. It was one of our biggest conventions. This gave us another opportunity to learn firsthand the nationwide thinking of district officials.

In past years we have told you about the progress in the soil conservation movement in the country. This year we have brought with us a chart to help show you our problem.

On the back of this statement you will find a chart which we have arranged to give you a better picture of the condition of our working program.

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The United States enjoys a tremendous and precious advantages over Russia, China, and other Communist countries. This cominunistic ideology is based on teh exploitation of agriculture and peasants to develop and support industry. Our American way has been to strengthen agriculture, so that this abundance will make possible a growing industry, and the development of sciences and technology, which in turn strengthens the whole economy as well as serving the needs of all people. We have proceeded on the principle that agriculture is a basic resource, to be carefully managed so that it may continue to be a bulwark of the Nation. The Communists continue to exploit the agricultural peoples and to divert the resources of agriculture to serve the communistic gods of industry and military might. The consequence of communistic policy has been a weak agriculture, probably the weakest factor in the entire Communist structure.

Russia has failed to perceive the lesson learned in northwestern Europe, and transported to North America with colonists from those countries, that there is greater total production in the long run from a combination of livestock and crops than from crops alone. The United States has tremendous resources and income in its livestock, and our people insist on even more meat, milk, and eggs. The livestock enterprises are vital in maintaining soil fertility, and they also are the only means we have of converting the grasses on pastures and ranges. and of transforming hay silage and fodder on great acreages of tilled land, into products that man needs and uses. Communistic agriculture is exceedingly weak and vulnerable in its failure to understand and use livestock. This is no time to become complacent about our agriculture. efficiency of agriculture increases at a rate at least equal to the increase in population, we will suffer. We are in the position of needing to run ever faster just to stay where we are. Research, particularly basic research, will permit us to meet our needs, if we maintain a substantial and sustained program. This is particularly true of all research relating to crops used directly by man, and of research on pastures, hay, range, and other forage which supply feed for livestock.

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Do we have enough research? The answer may be found in the consequences of the disasters and troubles which continually arise. For example, there is the spotted alfalfa aphid that suddenly, 2 years ago, appeared to threaten the alfalfa crop in a great portion of the country. Also, there are rusts, blights, nematodes, and a myriad of other insect, disease, and weed rests. We have survived each of these calamities by means of research as to causes and control measures, and application of the discovered facts to practical agriculture. We may call this protective research, and we should always have a backlog of knowledge created by a sustained research program, to counterattack each new problem that arises. For example, 20 years of alfalfa breeding in the Southwest provided a wide range of types and strains, so that when the spotted alfalfa aphid appeared it was possible to promptly identify certain strains resistant to the pest that could be increased for farmer use. It was not necessary to start from scratch after the pest appeared, and devote 10 or 15 years to finding resistant lines.

Research must develop better feeds and forage crops. It must develop better grasses and legumes for all areas; the Northeast and Corn Belt, the South, the Plains, the mountain and intermountain areas, and the Far West. It must learn how to establish and manage these improved strains, and how to harvest and store these for livestock feed. It should develop seed supplies for all to use. The importance of grasslands to the United States is very great. Our grazing lands alone (humid pastures and the great natural grasslands) provide at least half of the total feed nutrients required to support all livestock maintenance and production in this country. These grasslands need a sustained and balanced research program to explore and develop their true potential as sources of livestock support, not just protective research to guard against new enemies.

Some 3 years ago, the joint committee on grassland farming (now renamed the American Grassland Council) appeared before your committee and recommended a long-range research program, with an initial increase in funds for research in the amount of $600,000. We proposed that further increments of $600,000 be made in successive years until a total increase of $3 million had been achieved. The Congress did appropriate the initial increment of $600,000 for forage crop and range research. Although some of this dollar increase has been nullified by increased costs of operation, the research program was strengthened.

We now propose, for consideration of the present Congress, that a further increment of $600,000 be provided for forage crops and range research, to

deepen and broaden the program.

To illustrate the application of this increment, it is suggested that such funds would be very effectively employed as follows:

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We fully appreciate the value of balanced research programs, and recognize the importance of research to meet specific needs of wheat, corn, oats, rice, barley, flax, sorghums, safflower, and buckwheat. The merits of research on such crops is being presented by other representatives. The most important principles are that research must be sustained to be of greatest value, and that it should be well balanced to cover all significant phases of our crops and grassland problems. Research has paid us well, and we expect that funds for research will continue to be a most profitable and enduring investment.

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CHART 1

USA,TOTAL

OF ACRES

MILLIONS Acreage Growth in All Districts
Acreage Growth Under Cooperative Agreement

1600

1600

1597

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Mr. FUQUA. The top line shows the growth of districts in acres from 1937 to the present time. You will note that districts cover more than 12 billion acres of land. They include about 93 percent of all farms and ranches.

Eighteen States are totally covered by districts. Most of the other States have only a holdout county here or there. In only a few States is there any significant area of farmland not in districts. In all but one of these States, district organization is going on rapidly. Last year 62 new districts were organized. While there are still a few hundred more districts to be organized the organization job is well along, as you will notice by the chart.

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