If there were some standardized simple remedy for the ills of the land that could be applied indiscriminately, the job of soil conservation would be comparatively easy. But there is about as much variety in erosion and the performance of the water and wind as in the landscape of the country. Before any work is done, each farm or ranch is carefully analyzed, both as a piece of land and as a business enterprise. One of the best, and certainly the most promising, of the devices yet invented by man for dealing democratically and effectively with maladjustment in land use, as well as for carrying forward positive programs of desirable conservation, and for maintaining the work, is the soil conservation district. These activities in the United States show that fundamental readjustments between land use and land capability, on a far-reaching scale and in wide geographic variety, are not only technically possible, but economically practical, and socially essential.
Productive soil is life, and productive soil is vanishing with each passing year.
The Hugh Bennett Lectures . The Agricultural Foundation, Inc., North Carolina State College, June 1959. Usually it is marginal land that breeds marginal farming and marginal farmers. Land use according to its capability conforms with natural law. The ready availability of good land and wildlife for so many generations gave rise to a careless and prodigal attitude toward our wealth of natural resources.