HENRY MILLER, LEFT, A E. ROSE, SUPT. PIPER 

 "Hi. .mbition - ♦» m.k. . good f.rm beHer. 



•"""S "> Dr;l/ed Row,; 



i V I ^i^ EE that fellow over there 

 ^^^^ cutting capers on the land- 

 V^^y scape. Look at him go 

 'rouna tne hill. What's he doing, 

 writing a figure S with that tractor.' 

 Such crooked plowing. And he's leav- 

 ing strips between the lands. Is the 

 guy crazy.'" 



You'll hear plenty of such remarks 

 from the uninitiated within the next 

 few years. But believe it or not that 

 around-the-hill plowman isn't dizzy, 

 asleep, or cracked. More than likely, 

 you'll find him a level-headed, alert 

 fellow ... a member of his county soil 

 conservation association ... a recruit 

 in the growing army of contour farm- 

 ers. 



All over Illinois, wide-awake folks 

 are keenly watching this big new thing 

 in agriculture. Contour and strip farm- 

 ing on rolling land are coming. A 

 handful of co-operators encouraged by 

 County Farm Bureaus and soil con- 



By GEORGE THIEM 



servation camps are leading the way. 

 They compare with the first users of 

 limestone, the pioneer sweet clover and 

 alfalfa growers, the original boosters 

 of vaccination aigainst hog cholera, and 

 the leaders in a host of other new 

 wrinkles now accepted as good farm 

 practice. 



Not long ago we stood in the barn- 

 yard of Henry Miller, Carroll County 

 Farm Bureau member. You can look 

 over the roof of the old Miller home- 

 stead and see one of his fields atop the 

 hill. Here on these 120 rugged acres, 

 Henry's father, a German immigrant, 

 settled 47 years ago. And here Henry 

 has grown to manhood wise in the ways 

 of stopping that farm from sliding 

 down into the creeks and rivers of 

 northwestern Illinois. 



"It's my ambition to leave this farm 



better than I found it," he said simply. 

 An ambition worthy of any man. 



Led by Supt. L. R. Piper and A. E. 

 Rose, agronomist, of the Mt. Carroll 

 Soil Conservation Camp, we climbed 

 the slippery yellow clay road up a steep 

 grade. It was drizzling, the tail end of 

 an 18 hour rain. An astonishing and 

 beautiful sight awaited us. Across the 

 hills and valleys of this unglaciated 

 area were cavernous ravines and gulleys 

 capable of swallowing a freight train 

 with plenty of room to spare. But on 

 the Miller acres there were no gaping 

 wounds in Mother Earth. Thick blue- 

 grass carpeted the water courses. Here 

 and there were little dams and dikes, 

 some home-made in earlier years, others 

 built more recently by the CCC boys. 

 These little mounds of earth guided 

 water around to grass flumes where it 

 slowed up to a walk in its inevitable 

 march to the sea. 



On top of the hill where the land 



I 



t 



WHIRLWIND TERRACER DRIVEN BY CCC LAD 



GEO. SHOLTIS 



"Sh* Shore Can Throw the Dirt." 



HYBRID CORN A LA CONTOUR 

 "Alfalfa Sod and Terracing — A Fine Combination.' 



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