ABSTRACT
IN 1935, HUGH H. BENNETT discussed the federal government's new erosion control program before the House Committee on Public Lands. He told the congressmen the program, in his judgment, ought to be administered cooperatively with such conservancy districts as the Muskingum district, organized on the watershed of a tributary of the Ohio River. In 1937, Under Secretary of Agriculture M. L. Wilson told the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities that the Department's new conservation objective of regulating land use was to include the “recalcitrant minority” who would not voluntarily conserve their soil. This objective, he said, could not be achieved through counties because they lacked the “necessary scientific traditions” and their boundaries had “political significance, but often very little if any … in land-use management.” Instead, the most suitable instrumentality, he contended, was a soil conservation district organized under state law over a “naturally bounded area like a watershed.” In 1938, Secretary Henry A. Wallace said that his Department's objective was to channel all of its resources—research, education, and “action”—to farmers by focusing on “watersheds.” 1
