SOIL CONSERVATION IN ARIZONA

Arizona, fifth largest State in the nation, is a land of extremes-rugged mountains, cactus deserts, broad mesas and deep canyons, far reaches of cattle and sheep ranges, irrigated valleys and dry farms.

To many visitors it is a country of blue skies, clean, dry air, intense sunshine, clear mountain streams and lakes, fishing and hunting. To others it is the land of Cochise, "Doc" Holliday, Indian hogans, cowboys, Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, and Oak Creek Canyon.

To the consumers of agricultural products, it is a state of plentiful production in a wide variety of their foods and fibers-citrus, cottons, cantaloupes, and many kinds of fine vegetables from the tropic-like irrigated valleys of southern Arizona; beef and wool from its grasslands, and lumber from its high mountains and plateaus.

To its 10,400 farmers and ranchers, Arizona is all of these things and more . . . a new frontier in conservation farming and ranching. They are daily confronted with a multitude of complex and sometimes difficult soil, water, plant, and animal problems.

It seems paradoxical that the state produces large amounts of foods, fats, and fibers, has the highest average cash income per farm in the Nation, and at the same time has numerous widespread land, water, and plant problems of which the limited supply of irrigation water is probably the most important. Pueblo Indians recognized the necessity of irrigation and used it quite generally long before the white man arrived.

The watersheds on high mountains in the north produce most of the gravity flow water for irrigation. Water yields have been reduced by invasion of brush and juniper in many areas which originally was in grass. High water-using trees and brush along channels also use an estimated 1,280,000 acre-feet of water annually. Venturesome farmers drilled wells to expand their water supply. Continued drilling resulted in more than twice as much land irrigated from wells as from streams and reservoirs. In recent years many farmers have seen the watertable drop lower and lower in the same pump areas, thus adding to their costs of pumping. "How much deeper can we pump and still stay in business?" Arizona farmers ask.

Flash floods coming out of the mountain streams, canyons, and gulches cause water problems. These local floods usually come during the July and August rainy season often damaging canals and other parts of irrigation systems thus interrupting irrigation schedules. Floods spread rock, sand, and other debris over farmlands valued at $400 to $1000 per acre. Rushing water causes gullying and scouring of these high-producing lands and damage crops.

Another problem of considerable magnitude is the loss of water in transit from reservoirs, streams, and wells and the excessive depths to which irrigation water sometimes penetrates into the soil. Irrigation canals and ditches crossing sandy or gravelly soils may lose as much as 40 percent of the flow by seepage. In addition, some farmers lose up to one-third of their irrigation water on rough, Steep, or uneven fields by penetration of the water below the root zone of the crop and by runoff of "tail water" at the lower end of fields.

Most irrigated land, or about 1,300,000 acres, has soils of desert origin, high in mineral content but inherently low in organic matter. Here farmers constantly face the job of adding organic matter to soil to maintain good tilth, building it for taking and storing irrigation water for crop use, and establishing good habitat for soil bacteria and other life essential to crop production. Some soils puddle or crust when improperly farmed. Each condition is detrimental to crop production.

Heavy soils are compacted by weight of farm machinery. Others are sealed by downward passage of irrigation water. Twenty-five percent of the cultivated lands are alkali or saline. This problem is severe on 3%, moderate on 13%, and slight on 9%. On steeper slopes, of which there is only a small percent, rapid flow of irrigation water causes erosion. Decrease in soil fertility by leaching, caused by over-irrigation, is common on uneven and rougher lands.

There are about 60,000 acres of dry cropland, all of it being located in higher elevations of central and northern Arizona. These soils are low in organic matter. Eighty-five percent have received slight to moderate damage by gully and sheet erosion and declining fertility. Fifteen percent has been severely eroded. Some of this land is too shallow or too steep to be used permanently for crops and eventually will be used for grass or timber production.

On range lands within the last 70 to 80 years, compo-

Position of vegetation has changed significantly. In many instances less palatable and less useable grasses, weeds, brush, and shrubs have replaced original high quality forage. There has been a severe encroachment of brush on about 500,000 acres of private and state land that was once high beef and wool producing grassland. Estimates of the condition of private and state-owned grasslands are that one percent is excellent, 16 percent good, 43 percent fair, and 38 percent poor. The result of these changes in vegetation is an increase in gully and sheet erosion and considerable decrease in pounds of beef and wool produced.

Farmers and ranchers, many of them pioneers or sons of pioneers, have long recognized their land, water, and native plant problems. In search for a solution it became evident that they needed a local organization that would allow them to work together to plan and carry out their conservation programs. Various business interests joined with them and in March, 1941, the state legislature passed an enabling act providing for the organization of soil conservation districts in cropland areas.

Under this law, a soil conservation district (SCD) is an organization of farmers within definite established boundaries. It constitutes a legal subdivision of the state similar to incorporated towns. These districts are initiated by petition of landowners and become established by law if 65 percent of the votes cast by landowners within the proposed area are favorable.

District affairs are conducted by three elected supervisors who are empowered to assist farmers and irrigation and drainage companies in making and applying conservation plans. The program is entirely voluntary. Districts do not have powers of assessment or power to force any landowner to carry out a conservation program.

Soon after passage of this legislation, farmers began organizing soil conservation districts so that they could get their conservation programs underway. On December 15, 1941, Camp Verde SCD and Bridgeport SCD, both near Cottonwood, were voted into existence as the first two soil conservation districts in the state. On the next day, farmers northeast of Flagstaff voted to organize San Francisco Peaks SCD third in Arizona. On the following day, December 17, 1941, similar action was taken to organize Navajo County and Apache County SCDs. Within five years, 38 SCDs had been organized. This way of planning and carrying out their local conservation programs proved so popular that Arizona farmers now have 46 soil conservation districts containing 85 percent of Arizona's farms and ranches.

The soil conservation division of the Arizona State Land Department has been a major factor in SCD organization and operation. Wayne Kessler, head of the division under the direction of Roger Ernst, state land commissioner, has rendered valuable assistance to farmers by supplying information about how SCDs can be organized and managed under Arizona laws.

Farmers and ranchers provide the leadership by election of district supervisors who work without pay in the conduct of their district's business. They make district programs and work plans, arrange for assistance from federal and local agencies, and help farmers and groups of farmers plan and carry out conservation programs on farms and develop irrigation and drainage systems.

Many district supervisors have traveled to neighboring soil conservation districts to advise in organization and management problems. Frank Gyberg of Cornville, Moroni Larsen of Solomon, David Lee of Safford, Wm. R. Bourdon of Snowflake, Orval Johnson of Short Creek, C. R. McGee of Casa Grande, and Frank McElhaney of Wellton are among these conservation leaders.

Water conservation: Lining irrigation ditches with concrete

Each soil conservation district obtains technical assistance from the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) which supplies assistance to help prepare farm, ranch, irrigation, and drainage system plans and lay out the practices on the land.

Under the local farmer leadership, Arizona SCDs have done an amazing job in the 14 years since the first district was organized. Soil, water, and plant conservation is big business in a state where the first wagon road was cleared to the west coast only 110 years ago.

Soil conservation district cooperators have expended more than 37 million dollars in putting conservation on their croplands; are currently spending at the rate of $5,200,000 per year. To complete the program on cropland in accordance with present day thinking, they will spend, based on present costs, an additional $100,000,000. Federal cost sharing through Agricultural Conservation Program and loans by Farmers Home Administration for conservation work have provided significant help to farmers in the application of conservation conservation practices.

Arizona SCDs have cooperative agreements with 4,640 farmers; have assisted 3,200 of them in the prepara-tion of basic conservation farm plans. These plans are tailor-made for each farm, designed to fit needs of land and farmer.

Prior to the making of farm plans, soil surveys are made to obtain basic information essential to determining land use and conservation treatments needed. These surveys have been made on 1,092,000 Arizona acres.

SCD cooperators have applied nearly 30 percent of the needed conservation practices on their croplands. Following is a list of the major conservation practices established to date:

In addition, SCD cooperators have applied other conservation practices, including cover cropping, rough tillage, deep tillage, stubble mulching, leaching of alkali and

Windbreaks:

For the protection of irrigated fields

salts below the root zone of crops, irrigation to wet the ground to depth of expected root growth before planting, and fish pond improvement. They have developed wildlife areas, farm ponds, waterways, improved and stabilized stream channels, constructed or improved irrigation ditches, and installed irrigation pipelines.

One of the most spectacular conservation developments since 1950 is the extent to which irrigation ditches have been lined with concrete. This is due largely to the development of a slip form machine that lays concrete while moving along the the ditch. It lines a mile of ditch in four hours at a cost much less than any other method yet devised. Length of Arizona farm ditches lined to date, most of it with the slip form machine, is equal to the distance from Los Angeles to New York.

Another vital development is the return of stubble and stalks to the soil. Fifteen years ago clouds of smoke covered agricultural areas from burning stubble fields. Now farmers protect their harvested fields from burning and work the stubble and stalks into their soil.

Most construction works, chiefly land leveling and ditch lining, is done by contractors; some by farmers using their own equipment. Gila Valley SCD owns and operates equipment valued at more than $200,000. Why are Arizona farmer cooperators of soil conservation districts planning and applying conservation programs so rapidly on their farms? Frank Gyberg, president of the State Association of Soil Conservation Districts, says: "The soil conservation district movement is the best program this or any other nation has devised to achieve conservation. It works at the grass roots level. Districts are freedom of action in its purest sense. You elect your own supervisors and a district can be dissolved just as readily as it was organized. All we ask of the federal government is the scientific aid and knowledge of soils men, engineers, and other specialists. The soil conservation district is the American way of getting the nation's No. 1 job done. We must and shall get it done because soil, water, and plant conservation is basic to everything on earth."

Adolph Mongini, dairyman in the Verde-Oak Creek SCD points up his experience like this: "By adopting a sound soil and water conservation program, I honestly believe we have saved $3,000 a year in feed. For the past 12 years that means a saving to us of $36,000. Without the help of Soil Conservation Service technicians working with me on my conservation problems, we would not know what the answers are today."

"Due to technical aid I have received from my district," Robert Cockrill, Pinal County cooperator in SevenEight SCD, declares, "I have much better use of irrigation water. I am able to irrigate more land economically after receiving the help of SCS technicians."

"After we releveled the land and put in new concrete headgates," Claude Neal of the Big Sandy SCD says, "the same land could be irrigated in less than one-half the time and we got a more even penetration of irrigation water. This gives us increased yields at less cost."

Dr. Lavell S. Hoopes of Thatcher has been a cooperator with Gila Valley SCD about ten years. His program has been more along soil management lines than mechanical practices. Land leveling and ditch lining are planned for the future so he can handle irrigation water more efficiently. "I have concentrated first on building up my soil tilth and fertility by rotating irrigated pastures with my cotton," Dr. Hoopes comments, "and I feel that this has been very profitable. Because my soil will take water more rapidly and hold a lot of it for use by the plants, I don't have to irrigate as often as many farmers do and my yields are high. This year my cotton was irrigated only twice. If I hadn't built up soil structure and organic matter content, I would have had to irrigate five or six times and fertilize heavily to produce as good a crop. It looks like about two and a half bales per acre."

These statements are typical of Arizona farmers. They like to plan and conduct their conservation programs. They know that their programs give them sustained and efficient use of land and water and that conservation pays.

Originally only cultivated croplands could be included in Arizona SCDs. Many Arizona ranchers for years wanted the law amended so that range and timber land also would be eligible for inclusion in their districts. They saw that the program was highly successful on Arizona cropland as well as on the grasslands of adjoining states. Under an amendment obtained in 1954, ranchers may voluntarily add their land to existing soil conservation districts or organize new districts. As in the case with farmers, their participation in their district program is entirely voluntary. They lose none of their freedom to operate their lands and gain by having the assistance of their local district in planning and carrying out their own programs on their ranches.

Arizona ranchers have been quick to take advantage of this opportunity, over 16,000,000 acres of grassland and timber land having already been added to existing SCDs. The USDA Forest Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Management, both in the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Arizona State Land Department, have joined with local ranchers who have grazing permits on federal and state lands and petitioned state and federal lands into districts at the same time that ranchers added their privately owned lands. The San Carlos Apache Indians added their reservation lands to Gila Valley SCD in 1955. Administrators of these public land management agencies, SCD supervisors, and ranchers are developing conservation plans for entire ranching units including public and private lands. District supervisors are leaders in getting ranchers and public land management agencies together in making of these plans. This coordination on the ground, where the problems are, results in a more practical and workable conservation program on the public and private property.

SCD grassland programs are designed to improve soil, moisture, and plant resources of range and watershed lands and to promote further development and economic use of increasing amounts of high quality forage for production of beef and wool. More specifically, the SCD grasslands conservation programs provide provide for:

With concentration of livestock and too heavy grazing of certain areas.

With assistance of grassland conservationists, ranch-ers have prepared and are beginning to carry out ranch conservation plans in Willcox, Santa Cruz, Pima County, Winkelman, and San Francisco Peaks SCDs.

The grassland program of Arizona districts will produce more forage and more pounds of beef and wool at a lower cost per pound, reduce soil losses on range land to a practical minimum, and reduce flood damages to rich farmlands, towns, and cities in the valleys. Another benefit of considerable value to valley people will be an increase in usable irrigation water due to the fact that high producing range forage uses less water than undesirable brush and shrubs which ranchers propose to replace with grass.

The conservation program carried out by farmers on Arizona croplands is a significant factor in record-breaking average yields of several important crops. Arizona leads all states in yield per acre of cotton, barley, and grain sorghum. Last year, according to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Arizona farmers had an average yield of 1,039 pounds of lint cotton per acre. The national average was 375 pounds. The Arizona yield per acre will make 1250 men's shirts. The national average yield will make only 450 shirts. They also had an average of 52 bushels of barley per acre as compared with the national average of 28.5 bushels and 45 bushels of grain sorghum per acre as compared with an average of 19 bushels in the nation. Many other crops, such as citrus fruits, alfalfa, melons, and vegetables are high producers. These big yields per acre are due to a combination of factors, including the conservation programs of farmers throughout the state. Continued increases in yields will come as farmers progress with their conservation work which will be nearing completion within twenty years if they apply it at the current rate.

yield will make only 450 shirts. They also had an average of 52 bushels of barley per acre as compared with the national average of 28.5 bushels and 45 bushels of grain sorghum per acre as compared with an average of 19 bushels in the nation. Many other crops, such as citrus fruits, alfalfa, mel-ons, and vegetables are high producers. These big yields per acre are due to a combination of factors, including the conservation programs of farmers throughout the state. Continued increases in yields will come as farmers progress with their conservation work which will be nearing completion within twenty years if they apply it at the current rate.

More than 400 years ago Coronado and other conquistadores failed in their search for gold in Arizona. Its farmers and ranchers have made a discovery that is much more valuable. By team work they have learned how to cooperate with nature in use and treatment of their lands. Even though there remains much to be done to get more irrigation water, they are well on their way in the establishment of a more permanent higher producing agriculture that will provide food and clothing for an ever expanding population in this prosperous state. Conservation farmers and ranchers are doing their part in the development of Arizona's resources-and doing it well.