Continuation of Conservation on the Land

This is a continuation of the "Conservation on the Land" blog page that I wrote yesterday about Verlon and I walking over a Farm that we had seeded to native grasses 50 years earlier. The picture is of me in front of the Red Cedars that were shown yesterday. After writing what I did yesterday, decided that I should tell "The rest of the story". It goes back to March 20, 1944 when Dad rented the 160 acre farm from Anton Tesar in Tobias, NE. We called it the "Roth place" since that was the name of the people who lived there some years earlier, and had kids in country school with us. We farmed the cultivated land on the place during the years of '44, '45, and '46. The cropland was eroded and covered with sunflowers & cockle burrs. 

 In December of 1956, the farm was sold at a bankruptcy auction. I had talked to the Attorney whose family held the mortgage and bought the place on March 1, 1957. We had all the cropland terraced and seeded it to Native grass. We were able to get it in the Federal Soil Bank program (Conservation Reserve) for 10 years. During the first 3-4 years it was necessary to spray and to clip at a 7-8" in height. The picture used as the "trademark" for my blog shows how the native grasses looked after about 5 years. We were able to extend the federal contract and in August of 1966, Dad and I helped the neighbors "put up" hay from the Meadow that had never been in the contract. In June of '67 we talked to a farmer from Lancaster County about selling the place to him. We completed the deal in December of 1967 and utilized the funds for Kids College tuition. So we owned it for 20 years and walked back over it after another 30 years.