It had 2 purposes to help stop erosion and help with grain prices so there wasn't over production.iam not positive but I think it had to be rolling/hilly ground to be able to get enrolled in the program but iam not sure of that

It did not have to be marginal ground, but why in the world would anyone set back good ground and plant the marginal stuff???

Soil bank was not designed to be used on highly erodable or lower and more sensitive soils. That came in later farm bills in the 80s. My father put both of our farms in the soil bank back in the late 1950s. Our land was lowere yielding land but not considered highly erodable. Most land that went into the soil bank in our area was complete farms, mostly older farmers or farmers with lower production and management like our home farm was. It was later when there were acres set aside where farmers would set aside their lower producing acres and thus would not lose much or any production and they recieve acreage payment based on the average of their base yields for the crops, like soybeans, corn etc. They also saved coss on tilling, planting and harvesting on those lower yielding acres.
Farm subsidies started in 1949 and the base for income revenue was based on incomes from the early 1900s when the creators of the program felt there was the most parity between agriculture prices and the non ag sector. It was based on yield, acres and prices and for many of the first decades the government stored huge quantities of crops to keep them off the market to keep prices up and then release them when there were shortages or foreign trade opportunities etc. The program beng based on acres, yield and crop type does not create the best way to encourage smaller farms to be able to compete and also favors farms in areas that can raise lots of corn, beans, cotton, sorghum, suger cane, rice or tobacco. Many of those which are not gone. In 1960 there were almost 4 million farmers. Today there are about 1.9 million farmers of which about the largest 10% produce over 80% of the food, feed and fiber in the USA. So even though there is a considerable government impact on agriculture the farms that manage resources and money the best are more successful. So capitalism does play a huge role in who succeeds in farming just like all the other business sectors. The USA average for corn yield may well be over 185 bu per acre this year, which is twice the average just 40 years ago. There are states like IA, ILL and NE that will average over 200 bu per acre. Today milk yield per cow in the USA is aroun 24,000 lbs. per cow per year, over twice what it was in the late 1970s.

Bryce

I knew what average bushels of corn per acre was, but never really thought about it before. The birds I raise along with my dogs, goats and rabbits, which have corn in their feed too, consume over 11 acres of corn a year.

Keith