The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1942-03-26
Farmers to Vote
On Forming Soil
District Here
Claim many advantages
possible thru united
efforts of growers

On another page of this issue will
be found an official notice of a
hearing on the proposition of or
ganizing Soil Conservation Dis
trict for the Eastern part of Benton
County. This Hearing will be held
in the AAA Assembly room, Kenne-
wick, Washington on Tuesday, Mar.
81 at 10 am. and will be conducted
by the State Soil Conservation Com
mittee at the request of approx
mately 300 farmers, who recently
signed a petition requesting such
a hearing. The state committee is
composed of Carl King, Pullman;
and g. w. Peters, Isaquah, farmers.
F. E. Balmer, director of extension;
C. E. johnson, director of state ex-
pertinent station of the State Agri-
cultural College at Pullman and Ar
thur Cox, Secretary of Agriculture at
Olympia.
AT this hearing the state commit
tee will question the farmers in at
tendance as to what their problems
are, and why they want a district or
gained. From the information Sc
cured through this questioning the
committee will determine If there
is a need for such district, and also
if there is sufficient interest to war
rant holding a referendum, at which
all land owners would be entitled to
vote on the question of organizing a
Soil Conservation District.
Through Soil Conservation Dis
trict assistance could be secured
from county, state and federal
agencies for:
I. Drainage of swampy and water
logged lands.
2. Improvement of Irrigation sys-
TENS.
8. Maintenance of Soil Fertility.
4. Land Leveling.
5. Weed Control.
6. Ways and means of preventing
wind and water erosion.
z. Range Improvement.
8. Pasture Improvement.
9. Making soil surveys to deter
mine the crops best suited to the
land and the fertilizers needed for
various soil types.
10. Making range surveys to de-
termine the proper amount Of live
stock the range will support without
depicting the range cover.
In addition to the above there will
be many other problems which the
district could undertake and get as
sistance on after they are organic
ed and study their problems. Every
farmer Within the boundaries of the
proposed district is invited and
should attend the hearing next Tues
day and he prepared to voice his in
terest and convictions relative to the
formation of this district. M you
are not familiar with the workings
of Soil Conservation district you
should attend this hearing and find
out about them. On Saturday of
last week the Farmers of North Ben
ton county voted favorably on or
ganizing a Soil Conservation dis
trict, the vote being 153 to O. Kitti-
tas Valley Farmers voted to organize
a district by a vote of 377 to go and
the Ahatanum Valley farmers voted
81 to 16 in favor of forming a Soil
Conservation district. The vote cast
by North Benton is a record as no
other district in the state has ever
voted unanimously in favor of the
district proposition. If the farmers
of other communities feel so strong
ly that a Soil Conservation district
is good thing for them, the farm
ers of Benton county should attend
the hearing next Tuesday and let
the state committee know how they
feel about organizing such dis
trict for the Eastern part Of Benton
County.