Rural Youth 



VISIT 



8. Dakota 



By ELLSWORTH D. LYON, Director 



Young Peoples Activities 



Br.AUTH'UL laiulM.a|KS and prov- 

 ing crops were not the only vivid 

 impressions reported liy Illinois 

 Rural 'i'oiitli state committee mem- 

 bers from their trip to the Mid- 

 west E'arm Bureau Trainrnt; School at 

 Custer, S. D. 



Rural Youthers attending from Illinois 

 were three members of the state com- 

 mittee: Janet Jacobsen. Bureau; Dorccn 

 Martr. Bond, also on national committee; 

 Bob Sievers, Roik Island, and Ruth 

 Huser, Tazewell, on state and national 

 committees in 19 iH. 



Evidence of soil erosion drew manv 

 comments from the Rural Youthers. Good 

 soil practices and land use were seen 

 along the w.iy, but the problem of soil 

 erosicin viewed was so great that members 

 said it ought to be stressed in the I.AA 

 Record Rural ^'outh page. 



Ditches, sheet erosion on sloping land, 

 and layers of fine, black, rich silt loam 

 soil piled in low areas were unforgettable 

 evidence of neglect noted. 



' VC'hy," the young people asked, "do 

 tarmers let this process of erosion go on.-' 

 VX'hy do they keep these stjuare fields? 

 Why do they plow up and down the 

 hills .^' 



In some areas there was no conscious 

 effort at .soil conservation. In some fields 

 farther on there were grass waterways 

 only, with the same square fields and 

 equal disregard of contouring and strip 

 cropping. One feature causing muJi 

 comment from the young people was a 

 plowed lield (not on the contour) having 

 a long hill with a ravine running down 

 through it. In the ravine was a series of 

 dams. Each dam contained water .md 

 much silt. 



NX'ell. that s a beginning,' Bob said, 

 but it doesn t go far enough. If that 

 farmer had only plowed on the contour, 

 the dams would help.' 



A frec|uent occurrence vvaN to come 

 upon deposits of rich soil on the highway 

 pavement. In some spots the shoulders 

 are higher than the pavement because ot 

 the deposits from fields and because of 

 the transfer of the silt from the pavement 

 to the roadside by highwav workers. Easv 





lAA Organization Director O. D. Brissenden 

 (left) antvrers questions on farm Bureau 

 put to him by six Rural Youthers during 

 Midvrest farm Bureau Training School held 

 at Custer, S. D., last month. Left to right, 

 facing camera: Bob Sievers, Rock Island 

 county, Illinois; Darwin Jessen, South Da- 

 kota; and Neva Crane, Indiana, facing 

 Brissenden, are fugene H. 8ohne, Wiscon- 

 sin; Alice Feusse, Michigan; and Lucy John- 

 son, Iowa. 



Bob Sievers, Rock Island county, points to 

 a flagrant example of soil erosion where 

 black topsoll has been washed down from 

 a soybean field in Iowa. Sievers was en 

 route to the Midwest farm Bureau Training 

 School at Custer, S. O. 



to see was the elevation of piled up 

 shifted soil above fences, while below the 

 fence there is a drop of from one to three 

 feet. 



'Look at that river. " came from the 

 rear seat. Janet's close observation caught 

 this sight. We looked. The edge of the 

 muddy river bed was a deep deposit of 

 topsoil from areas which could not afford 

 to lose it. 



A soybean field with rows pointing di- 

 rectly up the hill had lost a big load of 

 its never-to-be-regaincd topsoil to let it go 

 down to the foot of the hill near the 

 highway. Here some of it was held by a 

 rapidly flowing side ditch where it had 

 settled to form a steep, sloping edge. 



One of the conclusions reached by the 

 voung people as to the cause of so much 

 erosion was that there had been a recent 

 heavy rain and the farmers were not pre- 

 pared for it. 



"But," they asked, "why were they not 

 prepared for it? Were they thinking 

 only of getting money and not of putting 

 something back into the soil?" 



Ruth asked, "Can't a farmer see what 

 is happening to his land when he looks 

 at gullies, soil shifted down to pile up 



the 



il de 



pos 



Its in 



.igainst fences, anc 

 the lowland?' 



Dorcen wondered what will happen to 

 future generations if erosion continues as 

 we saw it. We talked of lower farm in- 

 comes which will result and must now 

 actually be a fact. We discussed the 

 problems of poor teeth, impaired health, 

 lowering of standards of living and of 

 civilization itself being endangered. We 

 all felt sorry lor the farm family so care- 

 less or uninformed of good farming prac- 

 tices as to permit the processes ot eros:on 

 to rob this and future generations. 



We discussed what Rural Youth an 

 do alx)ut the problem. Our group feels 

 that Rural Youth will really change this 

 whole problem before it is too late. 'Let's 

 study soil conservation more in the fu- 

 ture. " 



At The Farm Bureau Conference, Illi- 

 nois Rural Youthers were soon absorbed 

 into the group of around 300 farm youths 

 from the Midwest. O. D. Brissenden, 

 lAA organization director, gave the key- 

 note address before the Youth Confer- 

 ence, speaking upon the theme, "Com- 

 munity Service as a Rural Youth Goal." 

 He led the discussion on such important 



24 



I. A. A. RECORD 



