"For the Land's Sake!" 



A Story of Soil Conservation in Pike County 



•;;:-;.i ;.,-.•,;. ;:,;■,.; r::'-:-- [_:'' -^y-:.- By John Tracy ;\;\ \- .;.;:>■ v /;:;,:.;•:;- 7; -■■;.:-;.- 



B. F. GOODIN— PIKE COUNTY 

 "My land will stay put, now." 



IF you don't think Pike county has 

 been "going down the river," you'd 

 do well to get in touch with Capt. 

 V. C. Nickerson, superintendent of the 

 Soil Conservation Service Camp just 

 outside of Pittsfield. 



Pike county borders on the Missis- 

 sippi and also allows the Illinois river 

 to cavort, a bit gaily at times, on the 

 other side of it. Now anyone knows 

 that where there are rivers there are 

 valleys and where there are valleys 

 there are uplands. The sum total of all 

 this geography is simply that ' water 

 from heavy rains seeking its own level 

 goes cheerily down the thousands of 

 Pike county hillsides taking a terrific 

 toll in topsoil and adding it to the 

 rivers and streams. The net of it is that 

 much Pike county topi oil, noted for its 

 fertility, is growing crops in some other 

 section of the country or building up 

 silt beds in the river valleys that defy 

 the best eForts of drainage and river 

 control departments. 



It became increasingly apparent that 

 a single CCC camp could not combat 

 the erosion nor control it in an area 

 as hiUy and large as that in Pike coun- 

 ty. Thus the Pike County Soil Con- 

 servation Association was formed, as 

 the bylaws state, "Realizing that all 

 the people of this county, whether 

 farmers or engaged in business or 

 professional work, are dependent on 

 the soil and its products, we have as- 

 sociated to work for better practices, 

 better living conditions on the farms 



and closer co-operation between town 

 and country in order that we may all 

 prosper. We shall gather and dissemi- 

 nate information on the menace to 

 farm lands by soil erosion and the 

 danger to our towns c^ a failing water 

 supply. We shall use pU means in our 

 power to combat these dangers to our 

 farms and towns." 



That sounds like a pretty broad pro- 

 gram. It included not only farmers 

 themselves but everyone who saw the 

 need for supporting a program de- 

 signed to protect everyone's prosper- 

 ity. It is pretty safe to say, that Pike 

 County is the first to set up a soil con- 

 servation program that is not entirely 

 in the hands of farmers. 



To accomplish this fnd, the Associa- 

 tion sent for V. C. Nickerson, former 

 infantry captain. Spanish - American 

 and World War veteran, and a land- 

 scape engineer by profession. To him 

 they intrusted the task of spreading 

 the news of what the Association was 

 attempting to do. It was he who was to 

 hold meetings regularly throughout the 

 county, and even neighboring counties 

 with similar problems, for the pur- 

 pose of getting better understanding 

 among all people affected by soil 

 erosion. Then there was the task of 

 cqipverting a CCC camp into an SCS 

 camp. Gathering about him a corps of 

 assistants including C. S. Monnier, and 

 Ed. L. Karraker, engineers, Ed. A. 



Crum, agronomist, Thomas Northrup. 

 Ed Durand, Wesley Blake, and Roy 

 Hauser, foreman, and Joe Wagner, 

 mechanic, the camp set out to try to 

 .<;tem the tide of erosioi, in Pike county. 

 Let's forget the gooa work they have 

 already done and look at the whole 

 program in its true lieht. What is hs- 



FARM ADVISER BUNN. ENGINEER MON- 

 nier end Lt. Swank. Their object — to keep Pike 

 county soil in Pike county. 



ing attempted is this — to make the 

 Soil Conservation Cor.trol Association 

 a co-operative body with such com- 

 plete understanding between farmers, 

 businessmen and professional people 

 that if government aid is removed, the 

 plan will continue to go ahead, as it is 

 now, for years to ccme. What Pike 

 county, then, is doing, is building 

 something permanen'. in place of a 

 "flash in the pan" ero^•ion control plan. 

 (Continued on page 27) 



CRUSHED LIMESTONE ON HARRIS RANCH— PIKE COUNTY 

 C. C. C. boys quarry it — Local crushers do the rest. 



MARCH. 1936 



