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of the permittees will be farmers who are endeavoring to shift from eash-crop farming to diversified farming with emphasis on livestock. . 1 As of October 15, 1940, payments for land and for satisfaction of mortgages on optioned land in this purchase unit had been made to individuals in 20 States. Delinquent taxes and current taxes totaling $34,000 had been paid to the treasurer of Baca County in the closing of these transactfons. The 200,- 000 acres were purchased at an average cost of $3.23 per acre, including im- provements. Supervisors of the two district,s admit that many of their land problems are not yet completely solved. Much work remains to be done. With the full help of landowners and operators county officials, and State nnd Federal agencies, they expect to continue their program of restoring the land nnd bring- ing it into productive uses. General Physical Features and Development BACA COUNTY is in the southeast corner of Colorado, It adjoins Kansas on the east and -the western extremity of the Oklahoma Panhandle and a small part of the northeast corner of New Mexico on the south, The county is rectangular in shape, and contains about 2,552 square miles,-ar 1,633,280 acres. The conservation survey and detailed istudies cover only the western 'half and southeastern quarter of the county, approximately 1,953 square miles, or 1,249,728 acres, . Baca County lies within the High Plains section of the southern Great Plains at an average elevation of about 4,500 feet above sea level. \ The area is part of an extensive plain in which the continuity of thEr gently' sloping, smooth-lying surface is interrupted by rough lands bordering its major drainage- ways. The general regional slope is to the east at the rate of 25 feet per mile. An under- ground water table lies at a depth of from 100 to 250 feet below the surface. Detailed relief of' the county varies con- siderably. The southwest and northwest sections are rough, owing to rather tliorough geologic dissection. Sharp escarpments and almost vertical-walled cliffs capped by sand- stone or basalt, many as high as 300 feet, dom- inate the relief. These form the boundaries of re"latively narrow, V-shaped valleys that lead into lower and wider, rolling valleys dotted here and there by small, broken, rock-capped mesas. Rough lands make up about 12 percent of the total area. Except for the southwest corner, the southern part' of the county south of township 34 breaks $harply toward the south and is str.ongly rolling. 34 Numerous, small intermittent drainages rise ill this area and flow southward to the Cimarron River. The remainder of the county, by far the larger part, is a smooth to gently undulat- ing plain interspersed with undulating to rolling land with some steep slopes adjacent to the streams, particularly in the northern half, The Cimarron River flows through the southeastern tip of the county and with its tributaries, North Fork of the Cimarron and Carrizo Creek, and Sand Arroyo, drains the southern quarter, The remainder is drained by tributaries of the Arkansas River; namely, Butt~ Horse, Bear, Plum, Freezeout, and Cat Lireeks, in the northern half and Lone Rock Draw in the southern half. All these streams follow a general easterly course, Except for Sand Arroyo, North Fork of the Cimarron, and the Cimarron River, the uppel'" channels of the streams are deep and narrow, in many places being entrenched to a depth of 25 feet. The banks rise sharply to join rather narrow, irregular-shaped, fiat terrace benches, which, in turn, merge into the up- lands wit.h a moderate break in slope, Sand Arroyo and the North Fork of the Cimarron, which drain a large part of the southern half of the county, are broad flat drainages with ill-defined channels in many places. No definite terraces have been formed and the reIfttively high' bottom lands, sometimes as much as one-third mile wide, merge gently into the uplands. On the flat divides be- tween streams, particularly in the vicinity of Edler, no well-defined drainage IS established. Drainage from such land is into playas, or wet-weather lakes, which have no outlet, The dominant native vegetation is short grass. On the sandy lands in the south the most abundant plant is sand sage, with smaller amounts of bluestom and yucca.' Pinon, juniper, and browse-shrub types occur in association with the short grasses on the rough broken lands, A few trees, mostly cottonwood, grow alonp; the streams, Springfield, the county seat, is in the central part of the county, It is' the largest town (1,082 population) and principal trading point, Pritchett in the west-central and Walsh in the east-central parts are towns of a little less than 500, Campo and Vilas are small community centers, Two Buttes, with a population of 158, serves as a trading center for a small irri- gation district in the northeast corner of the county. Two Buttes Reservoir, formed by damming Butte Creek, furnishes the water supply for this irrigation project of about 3,000 acres, Edler and UtleyvilJe in the southwest, Deora and Graft in the northwest, and Buckeye and Blaine in the northeast 'serve locally as outlets for cream and produce and as centers for the distribution of staple groceries and gasoline. The population of Baca County in 1930 was 10,570. Population fluctuates considerably from year to year. As a result of the extended drought and severe 'erosion conditions of the last few years, the present county population is.6,207 (1940 census). Farm population in 1938 was 3 909 according to a survey by the B.ureau of Agricultural Economics. The 1940 census reports that there were 3,282 rural- farm people in the oounty. Physical Land Conditions in the