480 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



use planning approach to enhancement of beauty; that is, working 

 beauty actions in with other activities. 



3. The Farmers Home Administration is to provide financial as- 

 sistance to individual landowners, eligible under its programs. 



4. The Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service is 

 to provide cost sharing for practices and programs that contribute 

 to natural beauty. 



5. The Rural Electrification Administration will make a continu- 

 ing effort to develop ways for reducing costs of installing underground 

 utility lines. 



6. The Office of Information will provide over-all coordination 

 of the information activities to assure lots of publicity and making 

 a fuss over accomplishments of local groups. 



7. The Agricultural Research Service, Economic Research Serv- 

 ice, and the Forest Service will undertake research and provide in- 

 terpretations of past and current information. 



8. All agencies are to review present landscaping plans of prem- 

 ises they administer and take action to improve them. 



9. The State and local technical action panels are directed to work 

 with State and local rural area development committees to deter- 

 mine the "what is to be done" programs needed in their respec- 

 tive areas. These programs should be locally prepared and ap- 

 proved. Target areas should be the primary concern of the 

 programs to assure a reasonable rate of progress, and to assure atten- 

 tion to "first things first." 



To complement all these assigned responsibilities in the country- 

 side, a modest grant program is needed. It can be based upon the 

 Soil Conservation Act of 1935, the Clarke-McNary Act of 1924, the 

 Food Agricultural Act of 1942, and the Soil Bank Act as now pro- 

 posed for amendment in the Congress. This grant program should 

 be designed so that the Secretary of Agriculture may enter into agree- 

 ments or contracts with responsible units of governments or other 

 responsible organizations. The purpose is to plan and carry out 

 programs of resource conservation and development that will con- 

 tribute to enhancing the beauty of the countryside for the long-term 

 good of rural and urban people alike. 



The grant program also needs to provide for the preparation of 

 plans by units, such as counties, so that component parts of a beauty 

 action program will fit rather than be in conflict. 



In the Department of Agriculture's programs, especially those on 

 the national forests, we fit together and manipulate the elements that 



