Stark County, the following tabulation of land 

 suitable for level benches was developed for 

 illustration: 



1,000 

 acres 



Percent 



Possibly suitable 1 

 Doubtful suitability 

 Probably unsuitable' 



315 



37.3 



150 



17.8 



379 



44.9 



Total 



844 



100.0 



1 Slopes of 9 percent or less, soils at least 

 18 inches deep, occurring in SCS Capability 

 Class II and its subunits, or in Capability 

 Units IIIe-3, IIIe-3M, IIIe-4, IIIe-6, orIIIes-4. 



2 Mixed soils or those of questionable suit- 

 ability because they do not fall into either of 

 the categories shown in footnotes 1 or 3. 



3 Slopes of more than 9 percent, shallow 

 soils (12 inches or less to rock, gravel, or 

 claypan), stony surface, presence of gumbo, 

 slick spots, coarse soils (gravel or sand), 

 fine soils (clay), poor drainage, or subject to 

 flooding. All soils in SCS Capability Classes V, 

 VI, VII, and VIII, and some of those in Class IV, 

 are in this group. 



The above tabulation does not take into account 

 the degree of regularity or the evenness of 

 the slope, mainly because there are no topo- 

 graphic data available in sufficient detail. 

 General observations of the terrain in Stark 

 County suggest that there are many areas 

 where the slopes are too complex to be adapt- 

 able to level bench systems. Detailed con- 

 sideration of smoothness of slope would prob- 

 ably serve to change much of the area shown 

 as "possibly suitable" to "unsuitable." 



Alternate Uses for Land Resources 



It was shown in an earlier section that 

 alfalfa can be produced at a profit on level 

 benches under experimental conditions. 



As farmers become familiar with the 

 practice, some of them might consider shift- 

 ing land from some other use to level benches. 

 Before making such a decision, the farmer 

 should consider which of the two alternatives 

 would be most advantageous to him, rather 



than just that one was profitable. In North 

 Dakota, wheat-on-fallow would be the most 

 likely alternate practice used for such a com- 

 parison. The comparative position of alfalfa 

 relative to wheat may depend a great deal on 

 the status of the Federal wheat program at 

 the time. Farmers know that wheat acreage 

 allotments are important farm assets, and 

 under 1969 circumstances, most of them would 

 probably be reluctant to reduce wheat acreages 

 and increase alfalfa. By affecting the relative 

 profitability of the alternate use for the land 

 resource, changes in the wheat program would 

 affect the rate at which farmers adopt level 

 benches. 



Government Conservation Programs 



Government programs which provide di- 

 rect assistance to farmers for installing cer- 

 tain conservation practices are likely to affect 

 the adoption of level benches, though the im- 

 pact of a program on the adoption of a par- 

 ticular practice is not known in detail. Pay- 

 ments for standard terraces have been made 

 under both the GPCP of SCS and the ACP of 

 ASCS for several years, but level bench sys- 

 tems were added to both programs for the first 

 time in 1969. As a result, a few benches were 

 installed this year, but it remains to be seen 

 whether cost-sharing assistance will provide 

 the incentive necessary to promote wide adop- 

 tion of level benches. 



Other Factors 



Some nonfinancial factors are likely to 

 affect the rate of adoption of level benches. 

 On most farms, it would be necessary to break 

 a slope up into many small fields to build an 

 effective system of benches. Farmers object 

 to small fields, particularly in the Northern 

 Great Plains where they are accustomed to 

 using large machinery. In the analysis, a token 

 attempt was made to account for this objection- 

 able aspect of the practice, but there is some 

 question that the assumed extra cost was 

 enough to represent actual conditions. 



To use level bench systems, many farm- 

 ers would need to change their land-use pat- 

 tern from wheat to alfalfa, a shift which 

 would be attractive only to those in a position 



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