GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 743 



Air. Walker. I do not believe we can do that under the law. You 

 are a wheat producer. 



Mr. Pace. Let it be said here that the soil-conservation practice 

 applies only to the allotment made to the county. 



Air. Walker. And to the farm. 



Mr. Pace. Although I am advised you consider many other things 

 and I never have understood why, the only thing you can consider in 

 makmg the farm allotment is the tillable acreage, crop-rotation prac- 

 tices, type of soil and topography. That is aU the law says you can 

 consider in making the farm allotment. 



Mr. Walker. I would like to make this point in connection with 

 that, the county committee takes into consideration and the procedure 

 for them to follow provides that they may take into consideration the 

 adaptability of that land for the production of wheat. If land has 

 been plowed up and is bemg put to wheat that should not normally 

 be cropped to wheat, that particular land is not adapted for the 

 production of wheat. 'V\Tien they cut do\vn on that particular farm, 

 that is for conservation purposes as well as for taking wheat off land 

 not adapted to wheat. 



Mr. PoAGE. But the neighbor who would not carry out any soil- 

 conservation practices back in 1939 is still there and doing the same 

 thing. I wish you could penalize him, but I do not laiow how you can 

 and I do not think you are going to. 



Mr. Pace. Mr. Murray. 



Mr. Murray. I would like to know how you conserve the soil 

 and raise a crop like wheat on it every year. I have heard a lot about 

 soil conservation for 10 years now and I would like to know why you 

 talk about soil conservation when you are really mining the soil. I 

 cannot really get that relationship. 



Mr. Walker. You have strip cropping to prevent wind erosion. 

 Anything to prevent wind erosion is soil conservation on the Great 

 Plains. Strip cropping is one of the thuigs. Stubble fallow is another 

 thing. Basin listmg is another thing to conserve the moisture. 



Mr. Hill. Do not leave out the tools you use to plant the wheat 

 because I think they have made more progress \vith that than any 

 other type of farming. 



Mr. Murray. How does that conserve the soil? 



Mr. Walker. That prevents the wmd from blowing the soil away. 

 Your big hazard out there from the conservation standpoint is wmd 

 erosion, not necessarily water erosion. 



Mr. Hill. Another thing you might tell Mr. Murray, who comes 

 from a cow coinitry where they do not need to depend upon the 

 fertility being put back by the crop because he can help the cow do it, 

 but you are actually leavmg so much humus if you summer fallow you 

 have improved the condition of the soil. T have seen it in my own 

 lifetime where the soil blew pretty badly but after they put the straw of 

 several heavy wheat crops back into the gi'ound and fallowed it 

 correctly, you had a better type of soil than you had before they farmed 

 the ground. 



Mr. Murray. You would not want me to believe. Air. Hill, that 

 you can take a bushel of wheat off land that is worth 18 cents, con- 

 sidering the fertility in it, at the present price of fertilizer, and tell me 

 that you will mine that land year after year and it will be in better 

 shape than when you started? 



