FOREWORD 
The program of the Soil Conservation Service is based on the treatment of 
farms and ranches in their entirety. It involves soil- and water-conservation 
operations directed at the best use of land and the rain that falls on the land. 
Contour cultivation, terracing, strip cropping, and many other practices 
are used to control erosion and conserve rainfall in the soil for crop use. 
Rainfall is likewise stored in ponds and reservoirs. 
Farm ponds and reservoirs are not only a source of stock water, a refuge 
for waterfowl, and a home for fur-producing muskrats, but also under suit- 
able conditions they may be made as productive of protein and vitamin-rich 
food, acre for acre, as is highly developed livestock pasture. To make every 
acre productive of the crop that it can yield best, the land operator will want 
to stock properly and manage his pond or reservoir for a crop of food fish. 
Farm ponds are already contributing materially to the Nation’s wartime 
food-production program. With proper management they can contribute 
a great deal more. Managed ponds on American farms and ranches have a 
potential production of 100 million pounds of palatable fish annually. Every 
pound of fish so produced supplements our domestic meat requirement and 
aids in overcoming the pronounced reduction in our supply of marine food 
fish. 
H. H. BENNETT, Chief, 
Soil Conservation Service. 
Washington, D. C. Issued November 1943 
