James Paul “Buck” Buchanan

Topics

Politics

Description

Buchanan grew up on a farm in Grimes County, studied law at the University of Texas, practiced as a county attorney and judge in Fayette County, and served in the state house. He went on to be the U.S. Representative for the 10th District from 1913 until his death in 1937. In 1929, as chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, he introduced an amendment to a bill appropriating funds for the Department of Agriculture that responded to Hugh Hammond Bennett’s reports on erosion losses. The funding allowed creation of a soil erosion research program, underwriting ten erosion investigation stations across the country, including two in Texas (at Temple and Tyler). These stations helped to document soil losses, to teach farmers ways to reduce erosion, and to find a sustainable way out of the Dust Bowl.

Location Notes

In 1928, Buchanan visited the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at Spur, and saw the plowing techniques and "syrup-pan terraces" developed there by Ray Esther Dickson. Evidently this encounter inspired Buchanan to author the amendment funding the first ten soil erosion experiment stations in the U.S. A Texas Historical Commission marker exists at the former TAES facility, so a sign there might be duplicative. Perhaps a better spot would be at the current office of the NRCS, 312 Willard Avenue in Spur, which continues to carry out the soil conservation mission.