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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1950)
_____ * SCS Is Unique: Experts Live Close to Job _ . ■ ' " - - - ■ 1 Principle of Big Business Is Employed in i Soil Organization In many respects the organ-'! izat ion- of the U. S. Soil Con servation Service, reaching from C. R. Hill, and his aides of the Holt Soil Conserva tion district, eastward to Wash ington, is unique. The Soil Con servation Service has borrowed a page from big business, and, because of that fact, it has hung up a record for business effi ciency. In this region, including Ne braska, 92.1 percent of all Ser vice funds are used in giving di rect assistance to farmers on the land. Administrative overhead amounts to only 7.9 percent. The secret of cutting over head to the minimum, Soil Con servation Service officials point out, lies largely in regional ad ministration, not of farmers noi of soil consei vation districts ov er which the Soil Conservation Service has absolutely no con- - trol, but of its own employees. The keynote of the entire pro gram can be found in a state ment made by Dr. Hugh H. Bennett, chief of the service. "When I was asked to take i-charge of a nationwide pro *'gram of soil erosion, he said, "I immediately made UP “J mind on several points which I considered fundamental, we would headquarter in Wash ington, but we would send our specialists out through the country to work with farmers cooperatively, we would treat the land accord ing to its capability and need* and we would carry out a unified rather than a haphai ard and piecemeal program. For the last 14 years the U. S. Soil Conservation Service nas operated on this basis station ing the bulk of its technical men out over the country where they are needed and not in Washington. . .-. :i—■ O’NEILL TRANSFER John Turner, Prop. ★ Daily Trips Omaha to O’Neill O'Neill to Omaha Irregular Tripe O’Neill to All Nebraska Points * ★ Telephones: O'NEILL—341-J OMAHA—JAckson 3727 ★ Your Patronage Appreciated The most valuable men in the entile Soil Conservation Service live in O’Neill and in local headquarters of the nation’s other 2,000 soil conservation districts. These are the farm conservation planners and their assistants, the men who are in the front ranks of the nation’s war on soil erosion, helping farmers get the job done out on the land, acre-by-acre. In their home communities every one knows them as John, BiLl, or Pete, the fellow who helps “our local soil conserva tion district.” No plush offices for these fellows. They find headquarters where they can. Offices matter little because they are usually out in the field from morning to dark anyway, particularly during the crop season. They wear hob-nailed boots ; which are no strangers to mud or barnyard manure and their working uniform may be denim or khaki work pants. They go to church, belong to the local commercial or Lions club, pay local taxes, since many of them own their homes, and vote in the town elections. Many of them in this state are native Nebraskans who are just as in dependent as their neighbors and who understand Nebraska s problems intimately because they were born here. Few of their neighbors would call these men outsiders from "big government” in Washing ton, nor are they. For soil ero sion must be whipped by the lo cal farmer and his neighbors and although they are techni cians they are also local citizens who understand local problems. If anyone tried to tell the farm ers who supervise their own sou district that this farm conser vation planner was trying to regiment them and tell them how to run their business, he would be hooted out of the hall. Yet these farm conservation planners and their aides are paid by the federal government. And the entire U. S. Soil Conser vation Service, including us work group headquarters at Valentine, its state and region al headquarters at Lincoln, ana its national headquarters ™ Washington, is focused m the work of C. R. Hill and his aides, and others like them. The administration of the Soil Conservation Seme* concentrates on the job of curing men like Hill and training them, supplying them to soil districts which ask for help and then furnish ing them the necessary sup plies, equipment and techni cal supervision to keep them abreast of all new scientific developments, From the work group and state headquarters they receive all necessary supplies and equip ment. Matters of technical M sistance are also handled oy these two headquarters The greater part of the teen nical help, however, comes to HOLT SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICT ANNUAL SEETHte Preceding GRASSLAND LIVSTOCK DAY STUART. FEB. 28 9:30 A.M. — 10:15 A.M. t ★ ★ ★ — Program — Financil Report i Tree Program Grass Program • Machinery Rental Progress Report All cooperators are urged to attend the annual meeting and stay on for the remainder of the Grassland Live stock Day Program Ci these local men from the re gional headquarters. The small staff at state headquarters is concerned largely with business management and administrative matters. The Soil Conservation Service has stationed most of its spe cialized technical men at seven regional headquarters through out the United States. This saves traveling back and forth to Washington. It also cuts costs tremendously and gives quick er service. A. E. McClymonds is the re gional director in Lincoln but neither this headquarters nor the one in Lincoln or Valentine has any authority over farmers in Holt Soil Conservation Dis trict or any other farmers. The Soil Conservation Service es tablished these headquarters to administer the work of its own employees in helping Nebraska farmers. By concentrating its techni cal men in a regional headquar ters, the Service can provide Hill and other local men with technical help on any special problem, such as a matter in volving advanced engineering, agronomic or range problems, which may come up. In regional headquarters are engineering, agronomy, forest ry, biology, soil and other tech nical divisions. These are head ed by technical men who are specialists in their respective fields. It might not be feasible or economical to hire a comple ment of highly advanced men of this type to help field men in just one state. But by region al administration, such special ists are available to all six states of this region which means a substantial economy, Soil Conservation Service offi cials point out. Operating out of the regional headquarters, also, are other advanced men known as zone conservationists. The two who come to the Holt county district : on special problems which Hill may encounter, are Joe Turell and D. R. Vollicott. Such zone teams include an engineer and an agronomist. Their area cov ers the northwestern Nebraska and western half of South Da kota and southeastern Wyom ing where problems and their solutions are similar. There are other features of regional administration which bring about a substantial saving in overhead. Office supplies, pick-up trucks and many other items necessary to keep Hill and his assistants working effi ciently are bought at regional headquarters. Quantity purchas ing saves money on such ma terial. All aerial maps and other photographic work necessary to the farm conservation planner's operations are made in one cartographic plant at the regional headquarters in Lincoln. Hence, one set of employees and one invest ment in equipment takes care of 6 states, which would oth erwise have to be duplicated in each of the 6 states of the region. National headquarters of the U. S. Soil Conservation Service in Washington are largely re sponsible for developing broad policies governing the technical work and coordinating the pro gram throughout the United States. The staff there is small but adequate to do the job. For C R. Hill, the national office of Soil Conservation Ser vice is a “far off” name which few farm conservation planners have time to visit. The typical farm conservation planner is avyare h' had to meet pretty rigid requirements to qualify for his job. He knows the Ser vice will send him to a training school if he needs it and will keep him constantly informed on every new technical develop ment which research may re veal. His checks, though usual ly smaller tha private industry would pay him, come regularly and he seldom lacks the sup plies he needs. But neither Hill nor his as sistants concern themselves greatly with the ins and outs of big scale operations else where in the Soil Conservation Service which saves the tax payers a great sum of money annually. They are more con cerned over how soon they can get to the farmers who have applied to the district supervis ors and help them get started on their conservation plan. For these are Nebraskans and the Service’s local representatives, after alL And the local job comes first Steers Gain 225-275 Pounds Per Acre — At Lincoln, under normal rainfall, steers grazed on brome grass-afalfa pasture can be ex pected to gain from 225 to 275 pounds per acre per steer. At 20-cents per pound of gain, the return per acre of grass is equivalent to a com yield of 50 bushels at $1 per bushel. Con sidering cost of production, the pasture should give a greater net return than the corn. At the same time the grazed land would be improved in produc tivity, whereas the corn land would be reduced in productiv ity. NO QUOTIN' TIME’ IN CONSERVATION Evenings, Sundays Spent In Organizing Data For Edition There is no phrase “quitting time” in soil conservation work Of course, the same thing holds true in many industries and oc cupations. After a cooperator has his farm laid out for conservation practices, the job is not com pleted. There is still operation of the farm along conservation mea sures, and a maintenance of the various engineered projects, such as terraces, shelterbelts, waterways, etc. Soil conservation is a full time job in the operation of your farm, day-by-day, week - by - week, year-by-year, and cen tury-by-century. The editor of The Frontier asked for our help in publishing the Holt Soil Conservation edition because of the realiza tion that conservation is vital to the strength of our country. The conservation idea must be instilled in this generation, the next generation, the next, so that it automatically becomes a part of the farming operations for centuries to come—long af ter our time. C. R. Hill believes this too, and took on the gigantic task of organizing and editing with the aid of L. F. Bredemeier. They are both employees of the Soil Conservation Ser vice, with a set salary and certain work to do. They are so much in earnest and sin - cere in their belief that con servation is vital and profit able that there was no "quit ting time." Mr. Hill gave the conserva tion practical application on farms by day, and by night gathered and assembled the ma terial for this vital message to Holt county farmers. When it came press time, Hill did not declare a “quitting time.” He spent his evenings, Sundays, and all available extra time helping The Frontier staff in properly presenting and organ izing the material for publica tion. There is no “quitting time” for the soil conservation prac tices. As far as the conservation ed itors are concerned, there will be no “quitting time” for pub licizing conservation and its tend0 t0 the indlvidual and the , ‘'We have pledged before and ve stiL pledge as much space available in our regular paper for the “preaching of the gos pel” of conservation and the “practicing of the preaching" of that gospel. “We believe that the future of the county, towns, state, nation, and over the world lies basical ly in a productive agriculture. We are selfish tn our beliefs— though in a round-about way "We feel as the Holt coun ty farmers progress and pre duce. our county and our town will progress and pro duce, and we will, in turn, reap some of the benefits of an economic stability. “We believe'that if the soil is held, we, too, will be able to hand something to our children, as will the farmer who practices approved methods. “We feel that our own small part in publicizing conservation —while the actual application is up to the farmer—will be felt and appreciated five hundred years hence. “There is no ‘quittin’ time’ in conservation of resources." Good dairy cattle make very efficient u£% of roughage and pasture. These car. be grown as conservation crops. Grass roots granulate the soil, thus making it easier to work and more receptive of water. GeHhe Cat "That Gets You There # Also —Two Other Great j Willys-Station Wagons 2-Wheel-Drive Station Wagon with 4-Cylin der Engine. Overdrive at no extra cost. 2-Wheel-Drive Station Wagon with 6-Cylin der Engine. Overdrive at no extra cost. The 4-Wheel-Drive Willys Station Wagon keeps going through road and weather conditions that stop others cold. You can count on its powerful all-wheel traction to get you through deep mud, sand or snow—to keep rolling on slippery ice with less skidding. It climbs grades . . . crosses roadless country . . . goes places im possible for conventional vehicles. This new Willys model is a comfortable, smooth riding car for six with plenty of luggage room. It’s doubly useful, too. Rear seats lift out to provide big load space in thn full-size all-steel body. See and drive it today. * f f * i V « \|£ Also Full Line of Massey-Harris Farm Implements and Kaiser-Frazer Cars OUTLAW IMPLEMENT CO. — TONY ASIMUS — Phone 373 Wert O’Neill Ranchers - Farmers •—1 - If OUR HOGS & CATTLE WILL BRING $$ MORE $$ AT THE O'Neill Livestock Market HE SELL CONSIGNMENTS ONLY Fresh Consignments Are Sold Every Thursday Beginning at 12:30 P.M. “WHERE BUYERS AND SEILERS GATHER EVERY THURSDAY” For Outstanding Livestock! ! ★ ★ ★ O’NEILL LIVESTOCK MARKET Verne and Leigh Reynoldson, Managers \ ____