of a farm or of a large area, ascertain the causes, design the 

 remedial measures to fit the circumstances, and direct, advise, 

 and aid as plans are executed. 



The advice of Soil Conservation Service is desirable be- 

 cause each farm is a problem by itself. Two adjacent farms 

 are usually different as to topography, surface cover, charac- 

 ter and combination of soils, the nature and extent of ero- 

 sion, and the desirable combination of remedial measures to 

 solve their respective problems. And although an individual 

 landowner can safely go ahead with certain measures such as 

 contour plowing or strip planting, which common sense tells 

 him are essential in almost any combination of conditions, 

 it is highly desirable that he have a lay-out map showing the 

 places on his land where particular measures are especially 

 desirable. The Soil Conservation Service prepares such maps 

 for all farms included in the areas of its demonstration 

 projects, and gives advice to all inquirers (fig. 34). 



An important aspect of regulation of little waters is the 

 necessity that measures must be economically sound; must 

 be justified by immediate and ultimate benefits which justify 

 immediate and ultimate costs. Broadly speaking, the cost 

 will consist of expenditures for labor and materials of con- 

 struction, labor and materials for maintenance, and the loss 

 of other income from the land occupied by regulatory works. 

 - It should be noted with respect to the program of an 

 individual farm that a considerable part of the cost need not 

 consist of cash expenditures. As agronomists have been 

 telling farmers for years, the checking of sheet erosion would 

 involve basically only modification of farming practices. 

 The construction of small check dams to control gully erosion 

 could be done by the farmer himself, and most of the mate- 

 rials he would find conveniently at hand. The task is much 

 like building a fence. However, cash expenditures will 

 become a consideration where the farmer undertakes the 

 construction of an individual reservoir, or a group the con- 

 struction of a community reservoir or other similar works. 



Generally, depending on circumstances in each instance, 

 benefits will consist of elimination or reduction of capital 



