Photograph of severe gully erosion.

Photograph of erosion caused by unprotected farmer terrace outlets and road ditch run-off. Field on the left has been terraced for 8 to 10 years. Terraces had too much fall. Roadside ditch will be sloped and added with Bermuda grass. Road graded and field on left will be terraced to conform with standard grade and land slope as recommended by SCS. OK-8087

Photograph of the Hill Hudgins family inside a squatter shack on land purchased by the U. S. Government. This family of eight lives in a one room shack with a kitchen adjoining. They have cleared 13 acres of forest land selling pine cross-ties and poles as a livelihood.

Photograph of Hobbs Western Timber Company workers loading cross-ties onto train cars.

Photograph of Hobbs Western Timber Company workers loading cross-ties onto train cars.

Photograph of workers cutting pine poles for split fence posts at the John Westmoreland & Sons Mill.

Photograph of a squatters' shack on 40 acres of land belonging to a firm of investment brokers. Tenants say they have cut 1000 pine poles from adjoining fields in the last two or three months. Two men cut about 20 cross-ties a day. High quality timber is thus being wastefully cut. With proper care this timber would provide high-grade, salable building material. This tract will revert to McCurtain County and will go on resale in May, 1941. OK-8140.

Photograph of peeled pine poles ready for market.

Photograph of a typical, run-down squatter's shack surrounded by overcut timberlands and eroded fields. Tenat works on Works Progress Administatration (WPA) projects for $2.32 a day. The monthly wage is approximately $15.00 a month. A garden of peas, sweet potatoes and other vegetables helps family eke out a meager existence. OK-8139.

Photograph of a typical, run-down squatter’s shack—surrounded by overcut timberland and eroded fields. The tenant works for the Works Progress Administration [WPA] earning $2.32 per day. The monthly wage is approximately $15. A garden of peas, sweet potatoes and other vegetables helps the family eke out a meager existence. OK-8139.

Photograph of a run-down squatters’ shack in the Land Utilization [L.U.] project area. The only visible source of income is the sale of small amounts of stovewood derived from adjoining overcut woodlands. OK-8138.

Photograph of an interior of a squatter family shack on land recently purchased by the US government. This family of 8 has cleared 13 acres of forest land selling pine cross-ties and poles as a livlihood. House is a one room affair with kitchen adjoining. OK-8127.

Photograph of transient squatters in Idabel. Land Utilization (L.U.) Project. Family travels in a variant o fthe horse-drawn Hoover wagon, a seeming house on wheels. A typical mode of travel in McCurtain County. OK-8134.

Photograph of a typical squatter's shack on land recently purchased by the U.S. government. This family has cleared 13 acres of forest land selling pine cross-tiles and poles as a livelihood. The house is a one room affair with a kitchen. Family consists of a husband, wife and 6 children. OK-8126.

Photograph documenting the US Government Land Utilization [L.U.] program, showing the interior of a squatter family shack on land recently purchased by the US Government. This family of 8 members lives in a one-room shack with the kitchen adjoining. They have cleared 13 acres of forest land selling pine cross-ties and poles as a livelihood. OK-8128.

Photograph of “Water passing over farm pond spillway draining into incipient gullies at bottom of slope. Spillway will be shaped, gullies sloped, dam raised and dam and spillway sodded to Bermuda grass.”

Photograph of Edgar Landrum standing in front of a gully in natural draw. The back of the photograph proclaims, "Gully in natural draw. Banks were sloped and channel solid sodded to Bermuda in spring of 1941. Drainage area from cultivated field approx. 60 A. Mr. Landrum (in photograph) says this gully was very active and threatening his cultivated land but since establishment of Bermuda erosion has been practically stabilized."

Photograph of an UNIDENTIFED man in the background watching the sheep grazing on Bermuda, grama grasses, and buffalograss in contour furrowed pasture. The back of the photograph proclaims, “Sheep grazing Bermuda in contour furrowed pasture for conservation of soil and moisture and to promote growth of desirable grasses. Principle grasses are buffalo, Grama grasses. Furrows constructed in spring of 1941.”

Photograph of 19 acre seeding of weeping love grass on an old cultivated field for pasture. Seeded in 1941 in rows andcultivated. Seeds were harvested this year [1942]. OK-8456.

Photograph of road bed sloughing off into gully caused by excessive run-off from adjoining cultivated fields. Conservation farming methods would have prevented this. OK-8450.

Photograph of J.B. Cutrer, left, and Dr. H.H. Bennett, chief of the USDA SCS, right, watching a young Guernsey cow enjoying a good meal of fine clovers in improved pastures established in the Fall of 1941 at a cost of approximately $17.00 per acre, not including labor. Cutrer says "When the herd was turned into pasture on April 23, 1942, our daily milk production ranged from 275 to 300 pounds. Two weeks later, milk production ranged from 600 o 625 pounds. Also saw a large savings in food. Cattle have grazed continuously except for a short time when taken off to all clovers and grass to reseed. Health of herd has also improved. Cows have no trouble at calving time." The Cutrers established their first improved pasture, 2 acres in 1939; in 1941, 22 acres were developed and in 1942, 35 acres were established. LA-D7-3.

Photograph of two UNIDENTIFED men, one of them looking upstream, surveying the drainage ditch known as the Huey-McNair Project. The back of the photograph proclaims, "Looking upstream along drainage ditch known as Huey-McNair Project. Rod shows depth in this 9 foot cut. Side slopes are 2-1, the bottom width is 3 feet. Road on right will be graded down by Parish. Ditch crosses road in the background."

Photograph of R. T. Douglas and his field. The back of the photograph proclaims, “Pig weeds grow on fertile land where I planted corn twice this year,” says R. T. Douglas. “My fist planting washed out and the second planting had just started growing when this field was flooded a second time, I’ve got about 75 acres on which there will be a total crop loss this year. If my new drainage system had been completed in time I expect I’d have made 40 bushels of corner per acre here from the first planting.”

Photograph of a string of bass, blue gill, bream and catfish just caught from a 48 acre fertilized pond on the Dunmon Ranch. None of the fish are over 18 months old; the bass average between 1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds each; bream and blue gill average to ¾ pounds each. Jack Whitley and Henry T. Peebles, ranch hands, are holding the catch. TX-41, 630.