To some people soil conservation is a peacetime luxury; to others it is a first essential of land use. Some say, "We are at war now, what does soil matter? Plow it up." Others say, "For many years we have been learning conservation; we must not now throwaway our gains."

Both attitudes are right if we distinguish between soils which are subject to serious erosion and those which are not, but they are wrong when applied to all soils without regard to their differences. Actually, we face the necessity of exploiting our soils to the point where we will obtain the most food and raw materials over the next 3 to 5 years. We face a serious food shortage in terms of' the needs of our armed forces, our civilian population, our allies and the hungry masses which will soon be freed from tyranny. To meet these needs we should produce the maximum amount of feeds and food products required. We also need to adjust our diets to consume more of those foods which yield the most nourishment per acre.