Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-12-14


M out of Kansas City, and
w the CAT transport plane
was gliding along at about 100
miles an hour, some $500 feet
above sea level. The rolling
lands of eastern Kansas lay
below US.
'tNotice the erosion down
there, Art?" I asked the man sit
ting IN the bucket-seat next to
me.
Eyes, do" he replied quick
ly. pretty bad on some of those
farms, but look at the ponds, the
terracing and contour farming
on others"
The mission was a press flight,
and Art" was Arthur v. Burrowes,
editor of the News-Press, St. Joseph,
Mo. At the time was public rela-
tons officer with the Air Transport
command. A group of radio and
press representatives was being
down to Abilene for the homecom-
ing celebration for General of the
Armies Dwight D. Eisenhower. A
lot of us were looking out of the
planes windows, surveying the soil
situation as we sped through the
air.
Like many others, Editor Bur-
rowes is interested in conserving the
1sak coil Nf MiceN,,vs opI
northeast Kansas. The city of St.
Joseph, with its stockyards, pack
ing plants, cereal mills and rows of
business houses, depends on that
soil. Art Burrowes writes editorials
about it, gives space for news sto-
ries and pictures that tell about
keeping that good earth from going
down the Missouri river, into the
Mississippi, and on down to the Gulf
Of Mexico to build greater delta
there. He was that day seeing his
beloved country for the first time
from the air.
Take Mental Photographs
But for the past four years or
more, while bombers and fighters
have eircled overhead and crossed
the 48 states, American youths in
those planes have been looking down
on American cities and farms. With
practiced eye they've taken mental
photographs of hills and valleys, gull
lies and mesas, plains and noun
tains, rivers and lakes. As they
trained to be pilots, navigators and
bombardiers, they also learned
about America.
'T'm going to buy a farm when
the wars over" a young pilot told
me. "But l want to fly over and
look at it first"
knew what he meant. He want
ed to see the celebrations of the soil,
the yellowish patches where the soil
was thin, the darker shades of red
and brown, and finally, the black,
rich bottoms. He wanted to see how
much of his farm would be good land
and what percentage would be poor.
In a minutes flight over the farm
he could see every gully, locate ev-
cry pond, and view every effort at
soil conservation.
That pilot had seen soil all over
America, from the Everglades of
Florida to the hills of New England.
He had seen rocks sticking up out of
fields in Virginia and had battled red
dust over Oklahoma. He had flown
over denuded hills of Alabama and
Georgia and traced the missing soil
to the marshes down near the ocean.
Up in the air the story Of the land
b told graphically and quickly. The
chart spread out below hides moth
ing and reaches from coast to coast,
from border to border. The vari-
colored soils admit their worth. The
extent Of damage by a forest fire is
viewed within minutes. An Ohio riv-
er food, lashing out to destroy or
carry away mans home and food,
win take only a few hours to cover
from an airplane. Houses, livestock
and debris floating down the stream