-Holt County Soil Conservation District . . . Narrative Report Herein is our report of the 1953 activities in the Holt Dis trict. In the table (at right) and m the further account of the ac tivities and relations we wish not only to appraise our accom plishments, but also to clarify the job ahead. Summary and Evaluations The first column of figures represents the actual accom plishments of cooperators in 1953. The second column shows the total work done in coopera tion with the Holt Soil Conser vation District since its begin ning 10 years ago. The figures under "current needs” though only estimates are indicators of the job ahead for the Holt County Soil Conservation Dis t'rct. The determination of this third set of figures was made in this way. First, the total con servation needs of the Holt District in a given practice was calculated from state recon naissance surveys and Soil Con servation District surveys and maps along with field observa tions of the local service techni ti&ns. From this total was taken the combined total of the work accomplished by District coop erators and represents in each practice a close estimate of the current needs in the District. One can further compare the “on land todate” figure with the ‘•current needs” figure on any given practice to determine the degree of speed of accomplish ment over the past 10 years of Soil Conservation Service activ ity in the Holt District. Cooperation In 1953, the state fish and game commission planted five wild life areas in the district. In a new and slightly different project for 1954 the commission • • t an plant up to six belts of ce dar trees, four rows per belt, for game cover in the district. All that the farmer is required to do the first year is prepare the .... ground and fence the area from livesock. The district carried on several successful activities and events in conjunction with the local extension service. There were joint tours and gatherings throughout the year as well ss a joint annual meeting last March. Help by the technical staff of each service further tes tifies to a high level of coopera tion between the Soil Conserva tion District and the extension service. Equipment and Labor Greater efficiency and output per dollar machinery investment and per hour worked marked 1953’s operations. Chief credit must go to our part-time em ployee, Virgil Laursen, who concerned himself with the per formance of the equipment as though it were his own. Every hour’s use of the various pieces of machinery seemed to account for some tangible form of out put. A hired labor total of 2, 238 Mi man hours cost the district $2,354.06. Sizeable operations are further indicated by a total of $3,777.18 worth of seed pur chased for resale. Most of the seed was purchased locally. Also $1,682.32 worth of trees were bought by the district and near ly all of them planted. The seeding equipment was used extensively with the ex ception of the Van Brunt grain drill which was sold. Nearly all of the equipment was involved in a new operation on a demonstrational plot south of Page. The district is very proud of the first year’s results of this five-year project. Much credit is due one of the Holt, District’s board of supervisors, Raymond Heiss, in whose fam ily estate the tract of land be longs. (See story of vetch test1 plots elsewhere.) Business Decreases In summarizing the Holt Dis trict operations for 1953, our to .. tal volume of business shows a decrease from 1052. Our finan cial position, however, shows improvement in that receipts well exceeded expenditures and our nt worth statement was $7, 926.08 as of December 31, 1953, compared to $6,509.07 as of De cember 31, 1952. It should again be mentioned that all the equipment herein referred to is owned and was [ paid for by the Holt Soil Con servation District, a local coun tywide organization. No state or federal finance was ever used in procuring or maintaining this equipment with the exception of an F-20 Farmall tractor, a pull type tree planter, a western land roller, a small stripper and a scales. Federal expenditures are used only for the local staffs salaries, their equipment and instruments. The local district and its equipment is not a part of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, but merely the means by which the service can extend tachnical help to farmers and ranchers. It might be well to mention that the activities of the district are carried ou by a five member board. The members are: Stan ley Lambert of Ewing, chair man; Raymond Heiss of Page, vice-chairman; Elmer Juracek of Star, secretary; Clarence Ernst of O’Neill and Elmer Allyn of Stuart. The board spends at least one day per month in ses sion, plus additional time on special events involving district activities. These positions are filled by a special election in which all land owners are enti tled to vote. The elected repre sentatives serve for a period of four years without pay. In addition to the work per foirmed by the district equip ment much conservation work in the form of dam building, terraces, waterways and drain age ditches, etc., has been done by private contractors. Educational Activities Many groups and publications again helped to promote conser vation agriculture in 1953. Ail the county newspapers have gpnerously printed periodic articles of the district’s acitvi ties. The Frontier will again carry this annual report in a special edition — the fifth year in a row. In line with our “program for greater service” there were nine educational, informational meet ings with a total attendanc of 1,460. One meeting was held with 118 rural teachers present. A highly successful event was an “all conservation day” pro gram for the seventh and eighth graders of Holt county and their teachers. . Assisting the district in plan ning this entire program was an eoucation committee consisting of D. E. Nelson, superintendent of the O’Neill public schools, Miss Alice French, county super intendent, A. Neil Dawes, coun ty agent, Gene Closson, a rural teacher, and Clarence Ernst, su pervisor commitee chairman. Six interesting demonstrations were held in 1953—two on grass waterways, two on terracing, one on grass seeding, and one on tree planting. The district or ganized or helped with four tours. Farms and ranches with out standing conservation program^ were visited and three distri ..t winners were selected. Making the tour and judging the uniis were these people: Judge D. R. Mounts, Clerk of District Court lar Moss, Soil Conservation Tech nitians C. R. Hill and Weston Whitwer and SCD Supervisors Raymond Heiss and Stanley Lambert. The three winning units were the Joe Wagman farm north of Emmet, Hamilton ranch south of Stuart, and the Lee ranch north of Amelia. Essay Contest The newspapers gave full cov erage to the 1953 grade school essay contest which was spon sored by the Holt Soil Conserva tion District. First place award went to Brenda Margritz of district 8, O’Neill, on her essay, ‘My Idea of How Conservation Can Help Farmers and Ranch ers in Holt County.” The essay contest judges had a very tough time selecting the three winners from a total of 44 entries from 14 schools. Highlights The annual meeting was held last March in conjunction with the extension service. The event featured a very interesting talk on nutrition by Dr. Doretta Schlaphoff, chairman of the uni versity home economics depart ment. Another feature was a report by Chris Mack of WNAX on his tour of service in the mid dleeast with the point four pro gram. Mr. Mack’s slides and ac companying talk were very de scriptive and informative. Methods of Accomplishments Accomplishments of projects and practices is brought about by various means. There is an indispensable means of promot ing conservation agriculture on farm or ranch—that is by per sonally contacting the cooperator on his unit. The local staff does a commendable job of making these contacts, but to accomplish the desired ends by personal con tacts only is impossible from the standpoint of time available. Other means such as tours, dem onstrations, special meetings, etc., have been adequately men tioned. They indeed help, but these gatherings too often do not reach enough people, or at least those who most need the infor mation. What is needed is a burning desire in every cooperat or to protect the God-given re sources of soil and its rightful cover. Ihe local staff was kept very busy in 1953. Much work was done in carrying out duties vith the agriculture conserva tion program. The local staff was charged with determining need, laving out plans, and checking performance in all construction or permanent practices. It must be emphasized that definite and final approval on plans for var ious constructions must be made by the technicians before wor-c can be started on a project. Otherwise the completed pro ject might not meet PMA specifi cations for payment. To help the local staff in ttfis work a five percent fund (in Holt county in 1954 will be five percent of $81,000) is provided from the to tal PMA budget with which the SCS can hire help to work on ACP practices. Enthusiasm Wanted The List of accomplishments in the district attests to sound work of the local staff and tneir devotion to the ideals of soil conservation. We hope both old and new cooperalors pick up some of this enthusiasm for conserving their soil resources. During 1953 the changes in U.S. Soil Conservation Service and the possibility of shakeups in personnel were for a time dis concerting to the local board of supervisors as well as to the technical staff. Few changes have thus far occurred to alter the good Relationship between the U.S. Soil Conservation Ser vice and the local district. We sincerely hope that the policy makers do not contemplate in ducing the district staff which is already overburdened. We must further voice disapproval of the arbitrary manner in which regional offices of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service were abolished without any so —a called “consultation with the grass roots’’ of the established conservation program. The Holt Soil Conservation District looks forward to ever greater progress in the task of conserving soil and water re sourcs in our county. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Holt SCO Reviews Its 10-Year Record Many of you may remember signing a petition for the forma tion of the local soil conservation district during the fall of 1943. Then followed a period of ad vertising the petition and the vote of all land owners and the formation of the district. The for mal approval was given at the statehouse when it was signed by iFank Marsh, then secretary of state, on January 27, 1944. Came the election of the first board of supervisors. The four elected by the land owners of the county were: E. J. Revell of Star, Walter G. Sire of O’Neill, F. E. Keyes of Inman and Louis Bernholtz of Page. D. E. Bowen of Page was appointed by the state commit tee. The first meeting of this board was held March 12, 1944. A list of all supervisors and term of office follows: Dave Bowen, Page, March, 1944-April, 1952. F. E. Keyes, Inman, March, 1944-March, 1952. E. J. Revell, Star, March, 1944 March, 1952. L. G. Bernholtz, Page, March, 1944-June, 1950. Walter G. Sire, O’Neill, March, 1944-April, 1946. uarl u.a:nuei i, jawing, npui, 1946-June, 1950. Elmer Allyn, Stuart, April, 1950-present. Clarence Ernst, O’Neill, June, 1950-present. Raymond Heiss, Page, June, 1950-present. Elmer Juracek. Star, March, 1652-present. Stanley Lambert, Ewing, March, i952-present. Loren Bredemeier assumed the duties of work unit conser vationist in April, 1944. As a matter of interest for those who knew Lorenz, he moved from O’Neill to Valentine in 1948 when the Cherry County Soil Conservation district began op erations. Since then he has ser v ed as district conservationist for Cherry, Brown, Rock, Keya Paha, Boyd and • Holt counties, and now is serving as state range conservationist with head quarters at North Platte. Others of the technical staff of the Soil Conservation Service serving the Holt district during the past 10 years are as follows: Murry Cox, C. B. Crook, Earl Spendlove, William H. Shorer, W. D. Whitwer, Orville Indra, C. ,R Hill, A. L. McMaster, Merlyn Shaw, Charles Sorensen, Harold Young. Part time employees in cluded: Dorothy Karo, John Sorensen, Harold Wilhoit, John Jardee, Gillmore Estenson and Virgil Laursen. Two college stu dents have worked with the technical staff for six weeks during the summer for college credit. They are Louis Reimer, jr., and Harold Tegeler. The activities of the district’s operations have grown steadily since the beginning 10 years ago. The service placd on loan a Farmall tractor, tree planter and grain drill in 1945. A few years later in 1949 these were granted to the district. The district pur chased a Dunham seeder treader in 1946, mounted tree planter, John Deere Van Brunt drill and A-C combine in 1950, a skew treader and clipper cleaner in 1951. In 1946, it rented a small tract of ground from the Burlington railroad and erected a frame buiuding for grass seed storage. In 1950, they rented additional storage and warehouse space from the late R. H. Shriner. The district has provided an outlet for much of the native grass seed produced in the county and has carried a con siderable volume of business in seed and trees. The all time high for volume of business was reached in 1952 when receipts totaled $17,578.88 and expendi tures were $17,705.71. F. S. Brittell served as dis-. trict manager from September, 1951, to October, 1952. Since that time Virgil Laursen has served in that capacity on a part time basis. In the spring of 1953, the board organized under what is known as the program for greater service. Elmer Allyn, chairman of the finance com mittee, appointed the following on that committee: F. N. Cronin, O’Neill National bank; J. G. Brewster. Tri-County bank, Stu art; John Newman, Newman Oil Co., Stuart; Robert Keating, International dealer, Atkinson; and Harry R. Smith, John Deere dealer, O’Neill. This committee approved a resolution to sell affilliate mem berships of Holt Soil Conserva tion District at $10 each or greater and that all such money should be used to promote pub lic interest in the activities ot the Holt Soil Conservation Dis trict. Tho following purchased memberships in 1953: O’Neill National bank, O’Neill Livestock Market, Elkhorn Valley Nation al Farm Loan association, O’ Neill Production Credit associa tion, Outlaw Implement Co., Harry R. Smith Implement Co., Shelhamer Equipment Co., O’ Neill Grain Co., Marcellus Im plement Co., Wm. Krotter Co. and First National bank, all of O'Neill; Newman Oil Co., Tri County bank, C. R. Myers Im pxement, Weichman Implement Cow Wm. Krbtter. Co., all of btuart; Page Oil Co. of Page, snd Farmers State bank and Roekey Implement Co., both of | Ewing. A total of $220 was collected i in this way and has been used as follows: National association dues _$ 50.00 7th and 8th grade cons. day expenses _ 48.50 Miss Miller’s scholarship to Doane college con. short course _ 25.00 1000 “How, What & Why of Soil Cons. Districts” pamphlets _ 8.50 Essay contest prizes, 7th and 8th grades_ 10.00 $142.00 Yesterday still another fea ture was inaugurated with a 10 ninute tape recording over WJAG, immediately following the “Voice of The Frontier.” It is hoped that this may become a regular monthly feature of the district but will depend upon reactions of the listening public and the funds available through additional affiliate member ships. Emmet News Mr. and Mrs. James Foreman and sons of Battle Creek spent Sunday morning visiting Mr. and Mrs. Frank Foreman and family. Dewayne Perry gave a party Friday afternoon at Emmet school district 20 in honor of his seventh birthday anniversary. - Curtis Peacock gave a party Monday afternoon at Emmet school district 20 in honor of his seventh birthday anniversary. Gary Buekmaster of Fremont spent the weekend visiting Nor ma Lou Foreman. Donna Perry called on Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Dailey at O’Neill on Wednesday afternoon, Februarv 24. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Fox and Barbara and Mr. and Mrs. Fritz Belzer and Jimmie were Satur day night supper guests of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Kelly of O’Neill. Joe Rotherham of Burlington, la., was a recent caller on old friends in Emmet. Mrs. Harold Givens of Stuart and her mother, Mrs. George Pongratz, visited Mrs. Georgiana McGinnis Wednesday afternoon, February 24. G. Owen (“Bud”) Cole and Robert (“Bob") Cole and Larry Schaffer went to Lexington on Saturday to attend a fraternity meeting. Mr. and Mrs. John Conard and Mr. and Mrs. Guy Cole drove to Omaha last Thursday, returning the same day. Rev. Francis Price returned home from Omaha Friday eve I—' - ning after spending several days there. Mr. and Mrs. G. Owen (“Bud”) Cole and M:. and Mrs. Larry Schaffer returned Wednesday night, Fehruary 23, from Ara quippa, Pa. Mrs. Alvin Kloppenborg and Patricia were Saturday afternoon visitors of Mrs. Frank Foreman. Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Bates and family were Sunday dinner guests at the Claude Bates home in O’Neill. I, • -'J I 3 DAYS Thurs. - Fri. - Sat. ONLY! I -----1 i RAYON FABRICS ♦♦ A choice group of fine rayon fab- g rics. Gabardines, butcher linens, | taffetas, printed crepes. 39” to 42 width. Sew now for Spring! SPECIAL.2 Yds. $1 I i _ — :: SACK TOWELS j Bleached snow-white towels. Per fects, no holes or stains. Approx. | 30”x30”. Stock up now! | 4 for . SI g--i . • ♦ SUMMARY AT A GLANCE 1953 Accom- On Cur plish- Land rent Practice Unit ments todate Needs Tree planting_AC 212 1,429 12,384 Range seeding-AC 384 5,184 105,472 Stock water dams _No. 14 130 72 Farm drains __AC 775 1,863 93,437 Proper range stocking _AC 15,197 91,553 809,575 Strip cropping __AC 576 11,990 198,046 Seeding permanent hay —AC 1,118 3,218 16,334 Terraces_Mi. 4.5 40 5,277.5 Outlets and waterways —AC 44 180 5,228 Drop spillways_No. 5 55 94 Deferred grazing _AC 3,546 29,764 908,605 Fish pond imbprovement „No. 20 20 77 Conservat’n crop rotating-AC 2,402 110,638 322,295 No. in No. 1953 todate Acres Initial agreements_93 113 142,102 Advanced agreements -53 96 . 66,273 Basic agreements---20 343 222,034 Total plans on file _ 552 429,149 VERDIGRE LIVESTOCK MARKET Report of Mar. 1 Sale Receipts—1100 hogs; 25 sheep; a few cattle. 180 to 240 lb. butchers $25.50 to $26.80; 26.60 top. Bulk $26.10 to $26.35. Over 400 head selling for over $26.00. Only 65 head in this weight range under $26.00. 240 to 270 lb. butchers $24.50 to $25.60. 270 to 350 lb.. $23.75 to $25.30. 350 lb. and up $21.50 to $23.60. Sows. $21.00 to $23.60. Feeder pigs. $26.50 to $33.00. i Loading NINE cars by rail Tuesday morning. Well bred, weil mated, meat type brood sows selling good; a lot over $100.00 per head. Will have more well bred Hampshire sows next week. I SPECIAL : Dairy Calf Sale — Friday Night, March 5 — 7 P.M. — CALF GIVEN AWAY FREE ♦ We will have 60 to 70 head of fresh calves, direct from j Barron county, Wisconsin, the heart of the dairy country, 60 miles northeast of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Holsteins, I Guernseys, Brown Swiss and Milking Shorthorns; all TB tested. These calves come straight through, loaded in Wis consin and unloaded in Verdigre. An ideal time, with spring and summer coming up to get dairy calves from a state with a reputation for heavy producing herds. Consigned by I Rex Anderson and he has a reputation of handling quality stock. Thanking you for your business and will appreciate your future business. W. LLOYD BRADY ii Owner and Mgr. tCooL }D7X10