THE GRASS LANDS 171 



once, the problem of government becomes more and more how 

 to organise its attack on range problems. In that field, we have 

 just begun. 



THE SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE 



The Soil Conservation Service has attempted to solve the 

 problem of the destruction of range land through its demon' 

 stration program. The basis of this program is the demonstra' 

 tion area. The experts of the Soil Conservation Service select 

 a place that meets these four requirements: (1) it must be a 

 typical example of erosion in the particular region; (2) it must 

 be so located that it can be visited by a large number of nearby 

 land users; (3) the land must be of such a kind that it can be 

 successfully improved by a unified erosion program; (4) the 

 farmers and ranchers in the area must be willing to cooperate 

 with the Soil Conservation Service. 



When such a region is found, the Soil Conservation Service 

 signs an agreement with the individual land'users to carry out 

 erosion control work on their land. The landowners promise to 

 continue the erosion control program for five years and furnish 

 a certain amount of labor and material. In return for this, the 

 Soil Conservation Service provides equipment, technical ex' 

 perts, and labor to list the fields, lay out strip crops, contour 

 plow the land, stop gullies, build check dams, and other erosion 

 control works. From the point of view of the Soil Conservation 

 Service, the value of this work is not so much that it helps a few 

 land'users. It hopes, rather, that the farmers and ranchers in the 

 whole region will be convinced by this example of good soil 

 conserving practice that such methods are profitable. (See 

 page 72.) 



In addition to the demonstration areas, the Soil Conserva' 

 tion Service assists in managing 36,700,000 acres of govern' 

 ment owned land in the Southwest, mostly Indian Reserva' 

 tions. On this land the Soil Conservation attempts to work out 



