Mr. YOUNG. This is another type of information estimated by these county conservation needs inventory committees that shows the conservation problems and the treatment needed. The first bar represents the total for the United States of some 444 million acres now used for cropland. The next bar shows the amount of that cropland that needs some type of conservation treatment. The difference is land that has either already been treated or is not currently in need of treatment. The red bar represents land where the problem is dominantly an erosion problem, either wind erosion or water erosion or both. The green area indicates land where the dominant problem is water, excess water, probably drainage in these cases. The yellow, dominant problems are caused by unfavorable climatic conditions. Here in the Corn Belt are about 90 million acres of our 444 million acres now used for cropland, but about 60 percent of that land is in need of some type of conservation treatment.

Again, this information will be available on punchcards so we can take it off for every county in the United States. The counties are publishing these reports themselves, in many cases. They are being summarized on a State basis and of course it will be available on a national basis.

Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Chairman, my purpose in showing those two charts was merely to indicate a type of information that will be available from this inventory. There are many other types, such as the suitable land, or the capability of land projected from the scientific surveys, also a reflection of the needs of treatment on rangeland, on woodland, and so forth.

The report of the Select Committee on National Water Resources states:

The greater part of future gains in farm production will have to come from increased yields, which now account for about half the added output since 1940. Crop yields projected for 1980 and 2000 average 42 and 75 percent greater, respectively, than yields in 1954.

I cannot estimate how much of the needed increase in agricultural production will be met by technological advances such as improved crop varieties, increased use of fertilizers and the like, although there is little question that they will be considerable. It is clear, however, that more intensive use of our croplands must be accompanied by intensified soil and water conservation measures. The problem is aggravated by the fact that at least 25 million acres of land in classes VIII unsuited for cultivation are nevertheless being cultivated and need to be converted to noncropland uses.

The conservation needs inventory also discloses that nearly twothirds of the Nation's cropland still needs conservation treatment of some kind. This is about 272 million acres, and erosion is the dominant problem on more than half of these. A full fifth of our cropland has excess water as a dominant problem.

In the field of water problems, the inventory indicates that about 8,300 out of nearly 13,000 small watersheds need project-type action to deal with flood prevention and water management problems affecting almost a million farms. These 8,300 watersheds contain nearly 1 billion acres of land, which is more than half the area of the 48 States.

The inventory of the Nation's soil and water conservation needs will be published by the States and in a national report. This inventory will provide the Service, as well as Federal, State, and local agencies, with much necessary information on the present and expected uses of land, conservation problems, and conservation work remaining to be done. Some specific uses of these data by the Service include the further development of long-time agency objectives, annual plans of operation, and annual goals; determination and adjustment of staffing patterns at all levels; relationship of accomplishments of conservation need for balanced programs by resource areas; and the development of research needs where urgent.

The inventory will provide county, State, and National summaries of important basic land and water resource data not heretofore available. Because of the keen interest that was demonstrated during the conduct of the inventory, it is also recognized that many agencies, organizations, and groups outside the Federal Government will find these data useful and applicable to their specific purposes. These include industries, businesses, institutes, professional societies, service organizations, and State agencies and commissions dealing in many aspects of land use.

I would like now to review our current progress and needs in the several programs through which the Soil Conservation Service approaches land and water problems.

CONSERVATION OPERATIONS

The amount of $89,725,000 set forth in the budget estimate will enable the Service to continue its major activity of providing technical assistance to 2,905 soil conservation districts expected to be organized by 1962 at approximately the same level as that of the present fiscal year. We are presently working with approximately 1,860,000 district cooperators, although about 530,000 of these do not yet have basic conservation plans. We hope to be able to keep up our work with those cooperators who do have basic plans, and at the same time help an additional 100,000 farmers and ranchers to develop basic plans. It is with landowners such as these that the future of our agricultural lands rests. The estimate provides $496,000 for extending technical services to the 18 new soil conservation districts expected to be organized in fiscal year 1962.

This committee will recall that it provided for the carryover into the current fiscal year of $600,000 of prior year funds for the employment of temporary seasonal conservation aids in the field. This provision has been extremely helpful this year in getting more conservation work done. The 1962 budget estimate of $89,725,000 includes an increase of $600,000 in lieu of the provision in the 1961 act for the purpose of employing conservation aids and other nonprofessional personnel on a part-time or contract basis.

Many changes are in progress on our agricultural lands as members of this committee well know. Techniques for farm production are rapidly increasing the use of chemicals and machinery for land forming and water control installations. Because of these and other technical developments the trend is toward much higher investments per acre and higher yields.

SOIL SURVEYS

Good progress in all phases of soil survey work was made during 1960. Soils were mapped on slightly more than 50 million acres during the year. This brought the total acreage mapped in detail in the United States to more than 658 million acres or about 53 percent of the agricultural lands in soil conservation districts. Thirty-eight soil survey reports and maps were published during the year.

Right at this point I would like to ask Dr. Kellogg to explain some photographs illustrating the soil survey work.

Mr. KELLOGG. This is an illustration of a soil scientist doing his work in the field. After we have set up a classification of the soils in the county and determined the principal kinds of soil to be found, he goes over the land and examines the soil at depth and draws the boundaries of the various kinds of soil on an aerial photograph.

Soil samples are collected for laboratory data. As just one example, this photograph shows a technician determining the percent of clay-the fine material in the soil, which has a great deal to do with its permeability to water, erosion hazard, and factors of that sort. We must take these factors into account in interpreting the soil for different uses.

When the maps of a county are completed, we publish them in the form of a report and map. In the process we assemble the photographs for the whole county. Here we see a shot of a machine making the printed map.

This photograph illustrates the continual explanation that we make of our soil survey as we go along. The soil survey of an area has been partly completed and some of the soil maps are displayed. These gentlemen here are interested in what the soils can be expected to do. This could be a group of soil conservation district supervisors. Lately we have had much demand for this work for planning urban uses. I think that all of you have seen examples at least where people have lost their houses, or have not been able to operate their cesspools properly, because of houses being built on improper soil. For urban use and also for highway planning we are having greatly increased demand and use of soil surveys.

I think all of you are already familiar with the soil survey reports published when the work is done. These contain the soil maps and descriptions, along with interpretations on soil engineering, crop yields, and so on.

Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you.

CHANGES IN USE OF SOIL

Many of our agricultural soils, although used continuously for many years, are now used very differently than they were formerly. We have some 70,000 kinds of soils in the United States and they respond differently to needed combinations of practices. Some soils that were highly prized 35 years ago are now being used for forest trees and in other extensive ways. On the other hand some soils considered unfit for use only a few years ago are now being intensively developed because they respond to new methods of management.

Thus, changes both in technology and in population are leading to drastic adjustments in rural land use. In order to have efficiency of production, for farmers as well as consumers, these adjustments should be guided by sound soil surveys. If investments are used on soils, which respond to the application of adapted practices, farmers can produce abundant food and fiber efficiently. At the same time it is important to conserve the other soils for forestry, urban expansion, range, and recreational uses because many of these uses will also expand in the years ahead.

As part of the changing scene in this country, requests continue to increase for conservation assistance by owners and managers of nonfarm land. These include homeowners in urban fringe areas, zoning, and planning boards, camp operators, highway departments, rural residents, part-time farmers, and the like. In most instances requests come through soil conservation districts. We are meeting some of these requests under priorities established jointly by soil conservation district governing bodies and the Service with first attention in the district continuing to go to bona fide farmers and ranchers. To the extent possible we are working with such people in groups; and for the most part our assistance is limited to consultative services, including the furnishing of soils information, with some help on conservation practice application. Requests for this type of assistance have been increasing steadily, and will undoubtedly increase in the years ahead as more and more people who work in cities make their homes in rural areas.

Besides this, we are called upon for assistance in reclaiming stripmined areas to reduce the effects of erosion and water pollution and to convert such land to wiser and more profitable uses.

PLANT MATERIAL ACTIVITY

As this committee knows, the testing and evaluation of plants that show promise of having conservation value is carried out through working arrangements with soil conservation districts and Federal and State agencies. When the value of promising conservation plants has been fully tested and appraised, it is our policy to encourage commercial seed producers and nurseries to assume full responsibility for large-scale production and distribution.

In accordance with our policy of continually reappraising all phases of our operations, we recently completed an administrative review of our plant materials center activities. The findings show conclusively that the centers are playing a highly important role in conservation. They also indicate that 3 or 4 of the 18 plant materials centers are not achieving the objectives assigned them as successfully as are others. The best results are obtained from the centers operated by the Service directly rather than through cooperative agreements with other agencies. We propose to look further into this situation and take whatever corrective action is indicated.

NEW REPORTING SYSTEM

On the 1st of January of this year, after 2 years of development, testing and training, the Service installed a new and comprehensive single time-reporting system. This system will enable us to divert