(The material requested is as follows:)

Number of positions and salary obligations of personnel in Information and Education Divisions of SCS

Mr. WHITTEN. I would like to have a statement in the record showing what number of people you have at the national level, regional level, and State level and how many actually in the field. Mr. DYKES. We will be glad to give you that.

(The data requested are as follows:)

Comparison of average annual positions (man-years) by level of organization—

All funds

LAND UTILIZATION AND RETIREMENT OF SUBMARGINAL LAND

Mr. STIGLER. Mr. Chairman, on page 435 of the justifications I note a reference to land utilization and the retirement of submarginal lands and right under that, land development. Now further on, I read an item of $852,175; I would like to know what area that covers.

Mr. DYKES. Land utilization projects totaling approximately 7,000,000 acres which we have under our custody, Mr. Stigler.

Mr. STIGLER. Do you propose to incorporate any new projects with any portion of this money?

Mr. DYKES. You mean are we planning to buy any new lands? Mr. STIGLER. Yes.

Mr. DYKES. No, sir; we have not bought land since 1942. We have finished up a few purchases that were pending and for which money was set aside during that fiscal year. I think we might show some land acquisition as late as 1945. I do not think we have had money for the purchase of land for almost 10 years.

ORGANIZATION OF NEW SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICTS

Mr. STIGLER. In turning to the map on page 449, I was very much interested in the white spaces shown on the map. I wish to direct your attention particularly to the State of Missouri and Tennessee and would like to know why those places are white. Is it lack of cooperation or lack of interest?

Mr. DYKES. The TVA has had a conservation program under which it made assistance available to farmers through the State extension services by providing funds for hiring assistant county agents. This program led a lot of people in the Tennessee Valley to believe that they did not need the help of the Soil Conservation Service. Farmers, therefore, did not create soil conservation districts. However, I would like to say, Mr. Stigler, that at the present time, plans are under way in the State of Tennessee for the creation of 25 districts in this fiscal year, 25 in the next fiscal year, and providing for finishing up in the 1953 fiscal year so that the entire State will be covered. The president of the University of Tennessee, the chairman of the State PMA Committee, the State conservationist of the Soil Conservation Service, the administrator of the Farmers Home Ad

ministration, the State director of vocational education of the State and the heads of other interested agencies have cooperatively formulated a State conservation program. This program is probably quite similar, in fact, to what we will have in the State programs to be prepared under the reorganization, memorandum No. 1278, which provides for the formulation of a conservation program at the State level. The leaders in Tennessee have come to believe that there is need for districts in their State and the extension service there has agreed to take the lead in an educational drive to create districts to cover the entire State in the next 3 years. In Missouri, we have not had the aid or help of the educational agencies in district formation. I cannot say that prospects are any brighter for securing such help. However, memorandum No. 1278 does put the responsibility on the State PMA committee and the State conservationist of the SCS to do what they can in jointly encouraging district formation. The Assistant Secretary of Agriculture who is to be in charge of the Agricultural Resources Conservation Services is also charged with, among the duties assigned him by the Secretary, encouraging the formation and development of soil-conservation districts. Heretofore, we have left the educational program leading to the district formation in the hands of the educational agency of the Department, and its cooperating State counterpart, the Extension Service. It seems that under this order that the Secretary expects some other folks in the Department of Agriculture to carry part of that load. We will continue to cooperate with the educational agencies to the extent possible.

Dr. BENNETT. In addition to that, in California, districts are coming in much more rapidly. It is like, it looks like we are going to cover those areas but some will be partly white because of the nonagricultural land in the mountain. Pennsylvania looks more promising. We have had a few districts come in there recently.

Mr. STIGLER. Of course, it can easily be understood where the terrain is not conducive to form a conservation district but where the land is more or less fertile, it is difficult to understand why people will not avail themselves of conservation practices. I wonder if there is any special significance to it?

Dr. BENNETT. They are going to come in now, 25 new districts. They will be formed right away. The president of the State association in California says that you can look for 25 new ones right soon in California. They will be small because of the terrain, but I expect to see them.

PROGRESS IN CONSERVATION TREATMENT

Mr. DYKES. Mr. Chairman, last year we came up with a map to show the number of districts that had been created but it did not show how much progress had been made. We have tried to provide one this year which shows more than that. These colors on this map [indicating] show where the districts are and the progress by States. Frankly, we could not show district-by-district progress. We could do it for 48 States but not visually for 2,300 districts. By the color of the districts on this map we show the percentage of the total job done in each State. In showing the percent of the total job, we have taken as the base 100 percent of the total area of privately owned farm land in the State. Then by colors we show 30 to 40 percent of the total job done, and so forth. A little explanation of that might be in order. We

have reduced all work done to one percentage figure, by conversion of acres surveyed, planned, and treated. Roughly we have said that when you survey an acre, you have completed 5 percent of the job on that particular acre, based on the cost of doing it. When that acre is planned, 25 percent of the job is done, based on the cost. The remaining 70 percent is for the technical assistance given the farmer on site to complete the work on the land. Our percentage is roughly based on weights of 5 percent for surveys, 25 percent for planning and 70 percent for assistance in applying the job.

Only in Georgia and South Carolina, both of which got off to an early start in districts formation are in the 30 to 40 percent completed level. [Indicating.] All of those in blue, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Maryland, and New Mexico fall into the 20 to 30 percent completed class.

Mr. WHITTEN. Based on your original estimate as to what the percentages mean, does that mean that those areas have got surveys and plans?

Mr. DYKES. They have been surveyed, planned, and work done. I can give you the individual figures for each item. In figuring the percent of the total job done, surveys have a weight of 5 percent; plans, 25 percent; and technical assistance in application of planned work, 70 percent. We can take any particular State. Let us take a big one where we are fairly well along [indicating], Georgia. Of the total farm area of the State, 93 percent has been surveyed, 49 percent of the State planned, and 30 percent of the area treated, which adds up to almost 40 percent of the total job done. We assign a weight to each part of the job in figuring the percent of its contribution to the total job. Ninety-three percent of the State of Georgia has been surveyed and that work will not have to be done over. Multiply 93 by 5 percent because that is the weight assigned to surveying on a cost basis. In surveying 93 percent of the State we have completed 4.65 percent of the total job in planning 49 percent we have completed 12.25 percent of the total job; and in assisting farmers to treat 30 percent of the land area another 21 percent of the total job has been finished. Adding these parts together, we find that 37.9 percent of the total job has been finished in Georgia.

Dr. BENNETT. I can add an interesting item to that. About the first of last July, there were 105 districts in the United States that were more than 80 percent finished with respect to planning and there were 16 districts in the United States that were more than 80 percent completed with respect to applying plans to the land. In other words, they are talking about celebrating the completion of the job. They are going to talk about it in a few districts.

Mr. DYKES. It seems very likely that in California [indicating] the whole State falls into 0 to 10 because so little of the State has been formed into districts. A number of the individual districts would show in blue or green if we could have prepared individual district figures. We have used one color for all the districts in a State to show where we stand by States to keep from having to do this kind of a figuring job for each of the 2,300 districts.

Mr. WHITTEN. I wish you would put in the record in table form this report by States, showing the precentages.

Mr. DYKES. We will be glad to do that.

Mr. STIGLER. I think that would be most interesting. (The information requested follows:)