effect it is having on private companies. Of course, it is also of real benefit to companies like yours, too. We appreciate your coming before us, sir, and will give attention to this matter. Mr. THORBURN. I certainly appreciate your time and for giving this consideration. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1951. AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMS WITNESS MERL B. PEEK, ASSISTANT SECRETARY-MANAGER, NATIONAL RECLAMATION ASSOCIATION Mr. STIGLER. The committee will come to order. We have with us Mr. Merl B. Peek of the National Reclamation Association. We will be glad to hear your statement at this time, Mr. Peek. Mr. PEEK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee. I appear before you today in behalf of the settlers on our reclamation projects. The settler depends on the soil-conservation technicians for assistance with respect to his farm distribution system, individual irrigation structures, flood-control protection by effecting measures for runoff and water-flow retardation and soil-erosion prevention on watersheds, and loans for farm ownership, operations, and small waterfacilities structures. It appears to us that the recent secretarial order coordinating the Soil Conservation Service work with the Production and Marketing Administration-"Agricultural conservation program" fund is is a step in the right direction. We commend to you a transfer of some $18 million from the APC Administration funds to the Soil Conservation Service operations for a resident technician in each county to handle the responsibility of a technical direction of the ACP program. Such a move will materially assist the orderly process and progress of applying sound permanent conservation practices on the county lines in the West. We hope, too, that provision can be made for taking care of the needs of the soil-conservation districts as they are established during the next fiscal year. Farmers Home Administration is particular important to the new reclamation settlers in supplying, in part, credit needs for farm development. Water facilities, as well as small water facilities on the dry lands in the West, Forest Service program, flood control in the national-forest lands, reseeding, fire and insect control are of great importance to us in protecting our downstream installations. We are aware of the present demands on the Federal budget for the fiscal year 1952 and the subsequent years. It is our sincere desire to be helpful to this committee in making available to you any information we may have with respect to these agricultural programs which I have mentioned herein. I have just highlighted my statement, Mr. Chairman, and I ask that it be inserted in the record at this point. Mr. STIGLER. It may be inserted. (The statement submitted by Mr. Peek is as follows:) My name is Merl B. Peek. I am assistant secretary manager of the National Reclamation Association, an organization of western water users founded 20 years ago. I appear before you today in behalf of the settlers on our reclamation projects, who look to the Department of Agriculture for aid in technical assistance with their land- and water-use problems-flood-control protection by effecting measures for runoff and waterflow retardation, and soil-erosion prevention on watershedsand loans for farm ownership, operations, and small water-facilities structures. The settler on most of our project lands which have gone into production following World War II is probably a veteran. You will find that in a great majority of cases he is a hard-working young fellow with a family, who is putting his longprojected foresight, intelligence, and ability to work against the chances of nature, bis limited financial standing, and his continued good health to make his venture a success. Actually, creating new productive agricultural lands is one of our last frontiers in this country. It is an inspiring sight to watch these rural communities develop, grow, and prosper. Under the reclamation laws, the Secretary of Interior is authorized to "require of each applicant (including preference-rights exservice men), for entry to public lands on a project such qualifications as to industry, experience, character, and capital as in his opinion are necessary to give reasonable assurance of success by the prospective settler. The Secretary is authorized to appoint boards in part composed of private citizens, to assist in determining such qualifications" (Fact Finders' Act, December 5, 1924 (43 Stat. 702, 43 U. S. C. 433)). A similar procedure is followed with respect to the small Wheeler-Case units constructed by the Department of Interior and settled through the aid of the Department of Agriculture under the authority of the Water Conservation and Utilization Act of August 28, 1937 (50 Stat. 869), as amended. With respect to privately owned lands, which are brought under later-developed irrigation and water-storage facilities, the farm pattern and the farm improvements are well established. Some changes in machinery and, of course, farming methods, as well as land leveling and development, are necessary. However, these farmers are established; and their financial problems, outside of additional need for technical aid and watershed protection and flood control, can generally be handled through their own efforts. We congratulate the Secretary of Agriculture in announcing, as departmental policy, the following: "The basic physical objectives of soil-conservation activities by the Department agencies shall be use of each acre of agricultural land within its capabilities and the treatment of each acre of agricultural land in accordance with its needs for protection and improvement." Certainly, this fundamental policy of both the Soil Conservation Service, which has long followed such a policy, and the Production and Marketing Administration in providing technical assistance and in the use of "Agricultural conservation program" funds will mean greater productive capacity for our lands over the long pull of an extended national-defense effort to meet the needs of an everincreasing population. The Soil Conservation Service technicians are needed more than ever to assist the reclamation settlers, both old and new, at least 75 percent of the lands of which are within soil-conservation districts. We cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of protecting and improving the repayment base of such lands, which means good land, with an adequate water supply and the farmer know-how. Our settlers need continued technical assistance with their farm lay-outs and individual irrigation structures, with their land-preparation efforts, especially land leveling; with cropping, irrigation, and drainage practices, plus watershed and flood-control protection. We particularly like the "local autonomy" concept of the soil-conservation district. The services of the technicians are thus available at the will of the district, which is established under State law and operated by the farmers themselves. With respect to the Farmers Home Administration, the reclamation settler looks to that agency for credit needs, which cannot be supplied by private lenders. Actually, when the new settler gets his raw land on a Federal project, he is required to create a place to live, create his farmstead water facilities, acquire machinery for his use or cooperative use with his neighbors, purchase farm animals, seed for his crops, and the other many necessities with which to start his farm operations. The need for this type of credit is particularly acute in the Columbia Basin project area, where the Bureau of Reclamation currently plans to bring from 68,000 to 87,000 acres of new land under cultivation in 1952. The required financial capital of potential settlers for operations as determined by the Secretary of Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture vary slightly on the projects in different sections of the West. For instance, on the Heart Mountain unit, Shoshone project, Wyoming, the Bureau of Reclamation requires each potential settler to have a "net worth" of $3,000 in assets which can readily be turned to cash. The average farm plot in this unit totals 116 acres. The average "net worth" of those selected settlers totaled $7,500 each. Under recently published regulations issued by the Secretary of Interior, each potential settler on the Columbia Basin project "must have a net worth of $4,000 and 2 years of farming experience since reaching 15 years of age.' Farm units in this project area vary in size from 49 to 125 acres. Farm-development loans are particularly necessary to the settlers on new projects. Without adequate credit assistance, settlers on undeveloped reclamation farms lose an extremely large productive potential by the dissipation of their labor in unproductive operations. Varied, too, is the estimated need for future capital in excess of the individual "net worth" of each settler. A prominent banker at Scottsbluff, Nebr., the heart of the North Platte project, one of the first reclamation projects, estimated that the average irrigation farmer, exclusive of his farmstead buildings and improvement, had an approximate $7,000 invested in equipment alone. The Government's settler agent on the Heart Mountain unit, Shoshone project, Wyoming, estimated the average minimum capital investment for each settler will total $8,000 less the house and farmstead improvements. In response to a questionnaire on the subject of credit needs on operations alone, forwarded from our office to irrigation districts all over the West, we find an estimated figure of $9,320 for machinery needed by the reclamation farmer on the Kansas Bostwick district, Missouri Basin project; and an estimated $18,600, including a house at $6,500 on the Columbia project; and $11,750, including a house at $5,000 on, the Wellton-Mohawk project, Arizona. Water facilities loans aid the reclamation settler in meeting his domestic water needs, as well as permit the dry farmer to transform his operations to a diversified irrigated farming. In the range country, an adequate winter feed supply for livestock, when the range is covered with snow, may mean the difference between keeping or disposing of the foundation herd. We have great interest, too, in the work of the Forest Service in our western watersheds. The efforts of this agency to reduce erosion on the forest and range lands, and thus reduce the sedimentation of reclamation reservoirs are of vital interest to us. So-called critical areas which need greater watershed control measures are those in central Washington, where flood runoff has caused great damage to the communities and valuable orchard lands of the Yakima and Wenatchee Valleys; and the middle Rio Grande where some heroic and immediate measures must be effected to save and maintain a very productive area. The activities of this agency are valuable to us in that the national forests occupy about 20 percent of the area in the 11 Western States. These areas produce about 53 percent of the total runoff. In the Columbia River Basin and in the Central Valley, Calif., these forests occupy about a third of the total area, but supply about two-thirds of the total available runoff. In the Rio Grande, where they occupy only a fourth of the area, they produce 60 percent of the total water supply. We respectfully urge that the current program of reseeding, reforestation, fire, and insect control be continued insofar as possible for the next fiscal year. We believe these recommendations are in the public interest, and will effect an economy over the years: (1) Land and water use practices accelerated in order to maintain and where feasible improve our lands productive capacity in view of our current defense effort and an increasing population; (2) Encourage basin-wide and conservation programs under the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Soil Conservation Service, Farmers Home Administration, Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management to continue under a cooperative effort, with actual authority to act placed largely in the field personnel of such agencies. (3) Encourage greater Farmers Home Administration and Soil Conservation Service cooperation directed toward a sound technical program of land and water use and needed financial aid; (4) Encourage greater Soil Conservation Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and Bureau of Land Management cooperation on investigations, settlement and operations for both irrigated areas and conservation measures on related watersheds on existing reclamation projects as well as small projects. (5) Emphasize this same cooperation for planning the settlement and operations on reclamation projects of new land to be brought into production in 1952 and subsequent years. The two basic productive activities in our economy are those of industry and agriculture. It is essential that we keep both moving forward, geared to our present needs, without losing sight of future demands, whatever they may be. We commend these programs to you. We are aware of the tremendous demands on the Federal budget for the next and succeeding fiscal years. In the words of our first vice president, Judge Clifford H. Stone, Denver, Colo., recently made before the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee: "I realize full well that budgetary conditions may become such, from time to time, as to indicate the need for some retrenchment of domestic expenditures including expenditures for reclamation, until most urgent defense requirements are met. The 17 Western States can and will do their patriotic bit to bear that part of the bitter fruit of man's apparent lack of capacity to wage peace as well as war." I thank the committee. Mr. STIGLER. Are there any questions, Mr. Andersen? Mr. ANDERSEN. I have no questions right at this time. Mr. STIGLER. Mr. Peek, we want to thank you for coming before us and giving us the benefit of your long experience in national reclamation. We appreciate your appearance very much. Mr. Polk, would you like to say something at this time? We will be glad to hear from you. I want to say this; I have read many of your speeches in connection with national reclamation. SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE WITNESS HARRY E. POLK, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL RECLAMATION ASSOCIATION Mr. POLK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is one phase of the work with Agriculture and Interior that I have always been particularly interested in. I think, to be fair, we must recognize that there are certain duplications overlapping between the Interior and Agriculture, and you may be interested to know that just now I am in the process of naming a special committee to make a study of just how we can best serve the interests of our agricultural and water resources especially toward the elimination, shall we say, of duplications and toward a greater cooperative effort between the two Departments. I think it is very essential. Mr. STIGLER. There is no question about that. Mr. POLK. That is one of the major things we are interested in. I think the Soil Conservation Service is doing a grand job. If we can just get the two services together and correlate their efforts, I think it is going to be a great contribution to both, in the development of our water resources throughout the West particularly. Mr. HORAN. I hope, Mr. Polk, that the committee you appoint will also look into the possibility of correlating the work of the Army engineers. I notice reference is made to central Washington here regaring certain flood-control work, that that is Army engineers mainly. Mr. PEEK. That reference, Mr. Horan, is made to the uplands in the mountainous areas. Mr. HORAN. That is Army engineers mostly. Mr. PEEK. And the larger installations; yes, sir. We suggest here that they supplement those larger installations with some watershed work up above them. It is a picture that must be tied in together all of those agencies' activities. Mr. POLK. Congressman, you may recall last year we had a basin development committee headed by Marshal Dane out in Portland. They went into that phase that you speak of quite considerable, and the board of directors and the membership in the various States are just now in the process of studying their report, and I believe that out of that, too, will come some of, at least, the suggested solutions for the problem that you mention, which I think are certainly very timely. Mr. STIGLER. I wonder if the committee can get a copy of that report when it is available. Mr. POLK. Yes, sir. Me. PEEK. We will be glad to make it available. Mr. STIGLER. If you will send it to the committee, we will appreciate it very, very much. Again, gentlemen, thank you for coming before our committee. WITNESS JAMES P. McWILLIAMS, REPRESENTING AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION Mr. STIGLER. Our next witness is Mr. James P. McWilliams, who is with the American Forestry Association. We will be glad to hear your statement at this time, Mr. McWilliams. Mr. McWILLIAMS. I have a statement here prepared by our executive director, Mr. S. L. Frost. Do you wish me to read this or submit it for the record? Mr. STIGLER. Any way you wish to present it, sir. Mr. STIGLER. Very well. Mr. McWILLIAMS (reading): MARCH 6, 1951. STATEMENT OF S. L. FROST, EXECUTIVE Director, the AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION, 919 SEVENTEENTH STREET NW., WASHINGTON, D. C. The American Forestry Association appreciates this opportunity to appear before this committee to present its thinking on forest fires. You gentlemen, and all of Congress, are being faced with what history will probably record as some of the most monumental decisions in the life of the United States. The grave international situation, the mounting tensions of domestic affairs, the whole economic stability of America must surely weigh heavily in your minds and hearts, as they do all Americans who permit themselves a few quiet moments of honest reflection. Unlike us, the task of the ultimate decisions on these many and varied problems resting in your hands is not conducive to peace of mind. Surely you want to make the right decisions. In a crisis such as faces this country, perhaps such an apparently insignificant thing as forest fires would not appear at first thought to warrant more than passing mention. But there is more to it than that. I would like to bring to your attention the significance of the forest fire problem as analyzed by the American Forestry Association. First, may I say that the association is a private, educational organization. We have 20,000 members both in this country and 49 foreign countries. Our members are made up of Federal and State foresters, industries, bankers, business concerns, agriculturalists, lawyers, doctors, Members of Congress, governors, teachers, housewives, etc. We represent no one special interest. We are a nonpartisan group. In our 75 |