172 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



ways of restoring eroded land to a point at which it will again 

 support a reasonably large population. The Soil Conservation 

 Service also directs the erosion control activities of about 360 

 Civilian Conservation Corps camps. It also assists in carrying 

 out plans for Soil Conservation Districts that have been estab' 

 lished under the Soil Conservation District law (see page 79). 



Another Soil Conservation Service attempt to establish suc 

 cessful land'use management in the range states is a land pur 

 chase program. This agency has ninety-five land utilization 

 projects which contain 2,000,000 acres of land. 



The first step in the program was to purchase key areas of 

 land. These key areas were regions in which land ownership 

 was so confused that no one owner had enough land to run a suc 

 cessful ranch. The Soil Conservation Service land, plus nearby 

 state and private land, was re-leased to cooperative grazing or 

 ganizations so that one large unit of grazing land could be 

 brought under the control of the association. With enough graz 

 ing land, and control of the number of animals to be grazed on 

 that land, the grazing organizations had a better chance of suc 

 cess than the small owners with too many cattle and not enough 

 range. 



When buying land, areas were selected in which water holes 

 for livestock could be developed. Before leasing the land to the 

 grazing associations, these water holes were developed, wells 

 were drilled, poor areas were reseeded, fences were built, soil 

 erosion was checked, and the quality of the range was im 

 proved. In one region the Soil Conservation Service estimated 

 that the costs of local government had been cut by as much as 

 10 per cent because the land purchase program made it possible 

 to close certain roads and consolidate schools. 



In general, the Soil Conservation Service project is a land 

 purchase, range improvement program designed to make it 

 possible for ranch owners to organize and develop a successful 



