The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1947-12-25
The importance OF
Soil Conservation
In My Community

In My Community
Essay by Patty Cunning
ham, which won first place
in the county and fourth
place in the state Soil Con-
servation essay contestS.)
In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat thy bread, till
thou return unto the ground;
for out of it vast thou taken:
for dust thou art, and unto
dust thou shalt return. These
words are taken from the Old
Testament, Genesis 3:19.
It probably never occurred to
most of us that the dirt under
mans feet is the source of his
physical being and that soil
conservation is nothing more
nor less than conservation OF
human life wherever it is lived,
in the city as well as the
country.
Soil conservation is no new
subject. It undoubtedly is older
than any recorded history. But
it has been reborn here in the
United States only within the
last ten years.
i In studying the subject ]
found that I had first to con-
slider man himself. Man is a
land animal. He can leave the
land for periods of short dura-
ton to go to sea in ships or
fly through the air in planes.
But to make even these brief
trips he must obtain the ma
terials from the land with
which to make his ships and
planes. His trips from the land
are limited by the amount of
fuel for his engine and food for
himself that he can bring from
the land, and soon he must re-
turn to replenish both.
Upon the land man is en-
tirely dependent for his mers
existence. He extracts from it
food to sustain his life and give
him emery, fiber for clothes to
protect his body and keep ii
warm, wood to build shelter
against the elements and ore
from which to fashion tools
with which to work. So no
matter what he is doing, re-
gardless of how far removed
from the actual tilling of the
soil, he is actually working on
the land. Of all the industries
of value to man. agriculture is
first in economic Importance.
Man can live in a state of saw
agry without coal and iron and
oil. He can sustain life in GER
tain climates without clothes or
wood, but he absolutely cannot
exist without food.
The soil which sustains life
lies in a thin layer of an av-
erage depth of seven Or eight
inches over the face of the
land. The land beneath it is
dead and sterile. If this layer
of top soil could be represented
on a 24-inch globe. it would be
as a film three millionths of an
inch thick. That film is all
that stands between man and
extinction. His hold upon ex-
istence then is very slight. Is
it any wonder then that soil
conservation in my community
is so important.
Many wars have provided
tragic demonstrations of the
basic Importance of the land
Germany and Japan greedily
engaged in huge land-grabbine
sprees which threatened the
very survival of civilization, be-
cause they knew that posses.
sion of the natural resources o.
the earth carries with it thu
control of the populations. Anc
it is for the same reason tina
the United Nations resisted
those land grabs at such ter.
rifle expenditure of human lif'
and property.
Man influences the ckaracte
of the soil through blowing
cultivating, harvesting, defor
erstration, irrigation, manuriny
and farming practices in gen
eral. It is within his powe
either to increase or decreas
the productive power of tn
soil. According to authorities O,
the subject, unfortunately TO
himself he has too often bee,
guilty of decreasing it. There
fore in most instances he mus
supply calcium and phosphoru
and nitrates and other chem
icals whsre such are lacking
Some soils are rich in all o
these. For instance, it has lon.
been known that animals rails
ed on soils like those arount