The Farmville Herald And Farmer Leader

Conservation Pays Off

Does conservation of the land pay off for the farmer in dollars and cents?

A survey made in Illinois helps tell the story. Over a ten-year period, careful records were kept of a group of farms where approved conservation practices were used and also a group of physically comparable non-conservation farms. The facts produced are striking.

At the beginning, increases in farm income from good conservation tended to be relatively small. But later on they rose abruptly. At the end of 10 years, the conservation farms returned eight dollars more net income per acre than the non-conservation farms.

And, of great importance, the conservation farmers maintained and improved the productivity of their land. Non-conservation farmers, on the other hand, were forced to mine their land to earn a profit—to deplete it and to progressively reduce its productivity.

The money-making practices which go to make up a complete conservation farm plan are simple. They consist of such things as proper land use, testing and treating the soil, crop rotation, good water management, including contouring, terracing and drainage; and efficient use of legumes, grasses and other livestock feeds.

Not many years ago such a program would have been far from simple. For one thing, little was known about how to conserve the land. For another, the farmer's main tools were his own muscles and those of draft horses. Now science has given us the necessary knowledge—and in modern mechanical farm equipment we have the efficient, economic tools that are needed to do the job. We can conserve our irreplaceable croplands—and we must.