Soil Conservation Magazine

My "cleaning out" today took me into a box of old Soil Conservation Magazines. This one is from July 1977, Vol. 42, No. 12. The monthly publication was put together in the SCS Information Division and printed by the Gov't Printing Office. The 16 to 24 page documents were widely distributed and told of the Agencies activities. Administrator Mel Davis wrote in this issue on the importance of irrigation efficiency. The Agency's 20 Plant Materials Centers were featured for their role in the development of plants for soil and water conservation. These Centers were located throughout the United States from Big Flats, NY to Molokai, Hawaii. I had the privilege of visiting several of these Centers during my time with the Agency including the one on the island of Maui, Hawaii. This article was written by Robert S. MacLauchlan who's career took him to the top Plant Materials position in the Washington, D.C., headquarters office. I have had a continuing interest in plant materials which was stimulated by a young employee who worked in our Seward Field Office. I helped Arnold collect native grass plants and had a small grass "nursery" as part of our garden. He and his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area at about the same time we  did so we got together frequently. He worked at the Beltsville, MD, center before going to Texas and eventually becoming the South Regional PMC specialist. My "collection" of these Magazines (while not complete) goes back to 1936 and extends to 1980. I'm not aware of when publication ceased.  They contain a tremendous collection of the Agencies activities during those years. While I had read most of these as they were routed through the offices when they were published, the collection I have is from the Nebraska Historical Society when they reduced collections a few years ago.