Bio: Tennis, Bernard (Soils Award - 1960)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Tennis

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) August 4, 1960

Tennis, Bernard (Soils Award - 1960)

Bernard Tennis of the Town of Unity is shown holding the engraved plaque he received as the outstanding conservation farmer in Clark County for 1959.  (We could not copy the photograph here).

Mr. Tennis was singled out by the district SC office for the completeness of his conservation work.  He has tried to put every acre to its best long-term use.  Since he first enrolled in the Clark County soil conservation district program in 1946, Mr. Tennis has done some construction work almost every year.  Today he has on his 178-acre farm: 5,150 feet of surface drainage ditches, 14,375 feet of terracing, 2,860 feet of constructed - grassed waterways and 400 feet of diversions.  Also there are 29 acres of contour strip cropping and 10 acres of protected woodland.  A rotation of corn, grain and four or more years of hay and pasture gives added protection to his fields.

Mr. Tennis credits these soil and water conserving practices along with lime and fertilizer with improving the quantity and quality of his crops.  Mr. Tennis says, "What’s the use of applying lime, fertilizer and manure if it won’t stay where you put it."