88 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



payments if you increase the acreage planted in crops you can 

 sell. Your county has been allotted a certain acreage for corn 

 and wheat. This acreage is a little less than people usually 

 plant, so that all of the farmers have to cut down a bit in their 

 production. 



A good three quarters of those present vote to accept this 

 plan. While you are at this meeting, you elect a farmer 

 to represent you in the county committee. This committee is 

 composed of farmers, the county agent, and the Triple A man 

 who will work out the details of the agricultural conservation 

 and crop reduction program for your area. 



A few weeks later you get a work sheet. This is a plan to be 

 filled in by you showing just what you're going to plant, where 

 you're going to plant it, what fertilizer you Ye going to use, and 

 so on. When fall comes one of the local farmers hired by the 

 county committee calls to see just how you have carried out this 

 plan, if you have met all the government requirements for using 

 fertilizer on the worn-out land, for planting clover on the 

 eroding 25 acres, for fencing your cattle out of your woodlot, 

 and so on. The government pays you a certain amount of the 

 cost of the seed, fence, and fertilizer you have had to use. The 

 amount it pays you depends on what you do and the total 

 acreage of your farm. The total payment is not more than $1 

 for each acre tilled. Since you have 200 acres of crop land, the 

 most you can get is $200. 



One day in the fall of 1936 a man from the State Conserva' 

 tion Department drives up with a ranger from the National 

 Forest in the next county. They start to talk to you about the 

 Conservation District Law. The idea, they say, is to work out 

 a plan of land-use management for the region in which you live. 

 You learn that already a petition signed by your neighbors has 

 been sent in asking for the right to form such a district. 



You decide that this is a good idea. Various land-use experts 

 have been making a survey of the county land resources. You 



