[1] Selective Use of Land. 



The primary step at this stage is determination of the 

 uses to which the different parts of a farm shall be put, 

 depending on topography, the character of the soils, and in 

 some degree, market conditions and facilities. Only the 

 more fertile and level lands should be devoted to tilled crops. 

 Generally, climate and soils permitting, lands of excessive 

 slope should be given over to forests and permanent pastures, 

 as also should the poor soils; and where these conditions are 

 in combination, forestation is certainly in order. In many 

 agricultural sections of the United States are remnant wood- 

 lots. These should be conserved as potential permanently 

 productive lands, which they are when properly handled and 

 guarded from grazing, fire, and other disturbance such as 

 the rooting of hogs. If permitted, they will establish seedlings 

 and increase. These seedlings, and others procured from 

 State nurseries, of which one purpose is to make low-cost 

 seedlings available, can be used to plant other hilly or poor 

 soil areas. On some favorable sites other than natural wood- 

 lots, planting may be made such as nuts, honey-locust, 

 persimmon, briars, fruits. These measures may require 

 patient waiting before steady income is realized, but in the 

 meantime a permanent asset is being developed. 



In most sections of the country where trees are not native, 

 grasses thrive. In such areas particularly, but also in areas 

 where trees will grow, some parts of the land should be 

 assigned to permanent sod cover, and in other parts such 

 cover given a definite place in the rotation of crops. Some 

 sod cover may be for pasture and other, such as alfalfa, for 

 the intensive production of high-protein feeds. In the long 

 run some soil profiles may be so changed by vegetation, in 

 both the surface and subsoil layers, as to increase materially 

 the infiltration capacity. 



At one stroke, by such a selective use of land an effective 

 gesture has been made to Nature; the restoration of a potent 

 natural device for retardation of run-off and promotion of 

 infiltration, that is, the reestablishment of mechanical retard- 

 ing agents, humus, and a root zone for easy infiltration. 



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