MALADJUSTMENTS IN LATfEClJfe^^ -^

IN THE UNITED STATES

APR 13 "U

PART VI

OF THE

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT OF THE LAND PLANNING COMMITTEE

TO THE

NATIONAL RESOURCES BOARD

CHENEY, m %im

ART BRACKEBUSCH

For aale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. - • - • Price 25 cent* (paper cover)

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT OF THE LAND PLANNING COMMITTEE
TO THE NATIONAL RESOURCES BOARD

Published in eleven separate parts

Pakt I. General Conditions and Tendencies Influencing the Nation's Land Requirements

Part II. Agricultural Exports in Relation to Land Policy

Part III. Agricultural Land Requirements and Available Resources

Part IV. Land Available for Agriculture Through Reclamation

Part V. The Problem of Soil Erosion

Part VI. Maladjustments in Land Use

Part VII. Certain Aspects of Land Problems and Government Land Policies

Part VIII. Forest Land Resources, Requirements, Problems, and Policy

Part IX. Planning for Wildlife in the United States

Part X. Indian Land Tenure, Economic Status, and Population Trends

Part XI. Recreational Use of Land in the United States

From the collection of the

z ^

Prepiger

V I li-h-pQ

ibrary

San Francisco, California
2008

MALADJUSTMENTS IN LAND USE
IN THE UNITED STATES

PART VI

OF THE

REPORT ON LAND PLANNING

THIS PAHT WAS PREPARED BY THE LAND POLICY SECTION, AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT ADMINISTRATION;

THE BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AND THE WEATHER BUREAU,

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FOR THE

LAND PLANNING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL RESOURCES BOARD

aS^"KSSS^ch

MSTCRN WASHINGTON UNIVf^S^IY

The National Resources Board assumes no responsibility for the views
and opinions expressed herein

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1935

PREFACE

On November 2S, 1934, the Nationtil Resourees
Board sul)mitted to the Presick'iit, in aceordiUiet^ with
an Executive order, its report on National Phinnini;
and Public Works in Relation to Natural Resources
and including Land Tse and Water Resources. Part
11 (if tliat report was the Re|)ort of the Laud Phiuiiiuu-
C'oniniittee. In the course of i)reparin>; part 11 of
the ai)ove report a larire volume of l)asic data and infor-
luation was collected wliicli could not then t)c inchidcd.
The ])id)hcation of the i)rcsent report is for the pur])ose
of making such data and information available to
interested persons and organizations.

The ])resent land leport lias been organized info 11
parts according to sul)ject matter anil the contributing
agencies. These II parts are matle available as il
separate publications. Organization and publication
on this basis was done because nuuiy persons and
agencies are interested only in certain ])arts of the
present re])ort, and the necessity of purchasing tiu'
whole report in order to obtain the desired part or
parts is thereby eliminated.

The ])resent land report, when conceived as a whole,
does not purport to be a complete work on the subject
of land utilization, or of its related problems and ])ro-
posed lines of action; neither is it designed to be a thor-
oughly integrated piece of work. The prhnary aim
here lias been to set forth the facts, analyses, and the
recommended lines of action as developed by each of
the various contributing governmental bureaus, divi-
sions, sections, or individiuds, on the problems witii
which each of such agencies or persons is concernetl.
The points of view are, therefore, those of the con-
tiibuting iigencies or intlividuals themselves. The
Land Planning Committee presents the report as

infornnition, but assumes no responsibility for tiie
opinions e.\])ressed in it.

This r('i)oi't was prepared uiulcr the direction of
Dr. L. (\ Gray, director of the Land Section of the
National Resources Board, aided by John B. Bennett,
who served as administrative assistant and as secre-
tary to the Land Planning Committee. Editing and
prc])aration of the report for publication were under the
direction of Mr. H. H. Erdmann, agricultural economist
of the Land Section, National Resources Board.

Authorship by agencies and individuals is aclviiowl-
edged in their respective contributions. The follow-
ing goveriuncntai agencies have contributed to the
wiiolc report; 'i'iie Geological Survey, the Division
of (irazing Control, the Office of Indian AH'airs, the
National Park Service, and the Bureau of Reclamation,
in the Cnited States Department of the Interior; and
the Bui'eau of Agricultural Engineering, the Biological
Survey, the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, the Forest
Service, the Soil Conservation Service, the Weather
Bureau, the Divisions of Land Economics, of Farm
Management antl Costs, and of I'arm Finance in the
Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and the Land
Policy Section, the Production Planning Section, the
Import-Export Section, and the Agricultural-Indus-
trial Relations Section of the Division of Program
Planning of the Agricidtural Adjustment Administra-
tion in the L'nited States Department of Agriculture.
Credit also is due to the State agricultural experiment
stations and extension services. State planning boards,
commissions, and other State organizations and indi-
viduals for aid in preptii'ation of several sections of the
report.

Land Planiung Connnittee

M. L. \ViLsoN, Chairman.
Oscar Chapman. Mokdecai Ezekiel.

W. G. Mendenhall. Jacob Baker.

H. H. Bennett. Charles W. Eliot, 21).

L. C. Gray, Directar.

MALADJUSTMENTS IN LAND USE

Contents

Page
Preface iii

Section I. Desirable Major Land Use Adjustments And Their Regional Distribution 1

Introduction — Geographic investigation of desirable land use adjustments — Land use problem
regions and adjustments — Eastern Higliland Regions — Southeastern Hilly Cotton and Tobacco Re-
gion— Cut-Over Regions — The Arid and Semi-arid Regions — Miscellaneous agricultural regions —
Nonproblem regions having little agriculture.

Section II. Conditions of Areas In AMiich. Farm Retirement Is Proposed 13

Introduction — Location and amount of land to be retired — General character of social and economic
conditions — .Vnalysis of condition.^ liy regions — Southeastern Highland.s — Southern Highlands and their
margins — Southeastern Hilly Cotton and Tobacco Region — Great Lakes Cut-Over Region — Atlantic and
Gulf Cut-Over Region — Pacific Forest and Cut-Over Region — The Western Great Plains — California
Valleys and Foothills — The Columbia Basin — ^Arid Grazing and Irrigation Region — Northeastern .Agri-
cultural Region — Central Agricultural Region — Gulf Coast Prairies — Mississippi Delta Region —
Southeastern Middle Coa.stal Plain — Western Gulf Coastal Plain — Nonproblem regions containing
little agriculture.

Section III. The Program lor Retirement of Poor Farm Laml 48

The current land program — The long-time program.

Section IV. Drought Frequency 51

Section V. Rural-Urban Migration in Relation to Land Quality 53

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT OF THE LAND PLANNING COMMITTEE

SECTION I

DESIRABLE MAJOR LAND USE ADJUSTMENTS AND THEIR

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION'

Introduction

Rural distress must of course in some measure be
attributed to external economic factors which influence
price. The so-called farni problem insofar as it is a
problem common to agriculture generalh^, is correctly
associated with such price mfluencing factors as shrink-
age in demand through loss of exjiort markets and do-
mestic depression or with a credit structure poorly
suited to agriculture. It is apparent, however, that
the jioverty and destitution prevailing Iti certain sec-
tions of the countrj' as well as the capital losses suffered
through the use of land irrespective of national pros-
perity or depression, must be assigned to factors of
another sort, which lie within the process of land utili-
zation itself.

Such factors may consist of institutions which directly
or indirectly influence the use of land, or they may con-
sist of the improper adjustment of the use of specific
bodies or areas of land to the character of that land,
in very many cases, however, the immediate malad-
justment in use is controlled or influenced by an insti-
tutional factor. Thus, the uneconomically small farm
vmits found in parts of the semiarid West are in a
measure attributable to the homestead laws, which
limited the amount of land an individual could pre-
empt. Again, use of land in such a way as to facilitate
erosion is aided by tenancy, because tenant operators
have had less urge to conserve the soil resources than
owner operators. In devising measures for attaining
economically and socially desirable uses of our iatid,
both the institutional factors and the area! maladjust-
ments must be understood and dealt with.

The institutional adjustments necessary to facilitate
the best use of lands of the United States have been
discussed elsewhere. Considered here arc the malad-
justments in land use itself, leading to human destitu-
tion, losses in capital and dissipation of the land re-
source. These are markedly regional in their distri-
bution, whether or not they are traceable to insti-
tutional conditions. No single problem of land-use
adjustment is common to all parts of the United States.
In the region where they occur, some problems are
general in their distribution, while others are local.

' Prepared by C. P. Brtrnes and W. W. Wilcox of the Land Policy Seclion of
the .\in-icultural .VdjiLslment .Administration and G. T. Renner of (He National
Resource.': Board.

Even where local, their aggregate effect may be con-
siderable.

Geographic Investigation

of Desirable Land-Use Adjustments

The proper consideration of land-use adjustments
needed to effect the most desirable use of land, neces-
sarily involves understanding the areal extent and
character of the different types of land-use problems.

The National Resources Board appointed an in-
vestigator in each State, who, under the title of land-
planning consultant, was attached to the State Plan-
ning Board, and who was assigned, under the direction
of the Land Policy Section of the Agricultural Adjust-
ment Administration to study and report on the distri-
bution of land-use problems and desirable adjustments.
In most instances these investigators were stationed at
the State agricultural colleges, in order to work more
closely with staff members of those institutions, and to
have more immediately at hand the information which
had been acciunulated on land utilization. After ex-
amination of the best available evidence, and after
consultation with well-informed individmils within
their States, particularly in the agricultural colleges,
agricultural experiment stations, and extension serv-
ices, they undertook to delimit all areas or districts in
which some readjustment or reorganization of the major
uses of land seemed desirable, to characterize the
problems in each, and to indicate the nature of the
desirable adjustment.

In order to secure uniformity throughout tlic coun-
try, the land-planning consultants were asked to
report maladjustments according to a definite classi-
fication which was supplied them. While this treat-
ment did not permit as wide a latitude in designating
the dirt'erent types of adjustment as was desirable
from certain points of view, it was wholly necessary
if a systematic and comj)aral)lc delimitation of areas
throughout the country were to be secured.

In designating land-use adjustment areas, the minor
civil division was taken as the unit of consideration,
not because the necessity for improved land-use bore
any important relationship to these divisions, but
because it was necessary to compel each consultant to
consider individual areas at least as small as minor
civil divisions, if a broad generalized treatment were

Land Planning Report

to be avoided. In many instances, however, local
information made it possible to follow the natural
boundaries of actual land-use areas.

On the basis of the information submitted by the
land-planning consultants, a map was prepared show-
ing the areas in which farm problems appear to war-
rant encouragement of a change from crop farming to
stock ranching or to forestry or to some other con-
servational use for all the land in some farms or on
all of the farms in some localities (see fig. 1).^

The land-use readjustments reported as being de-
sirable did not include changes toward more efficient
management of individual properties in the interest
of greater profit, this bemg considered a matter for in-
dividual solution. The measures proposed were con-
fined to land-use adjustments needed to overcome
maladjustment leading to collective or community
misfortune not readily corrected by individual action.
Land conservation may, of course, be efl'ected by
individual action, but the likelihood of individual
initiative achieving it in the absence of some fairly
direct and tangible incentive is probably remote.
Furthermore, failure to effect it will ultmiately result
in widespread community misfortune. Its achieve-
ment is therefore quite clearly a matter calling for
public action, through the provision of specific incen-
tives, tlirough legal control of land use, or through the
removal of impediments by means of institutional
changes. Hence, the bringing about of land-use adjust-
ments in the interest of land conservation is regarded
as a matter requiring public action, rather than one
to be effected by the initiative of individual owners.

Land-planning consultants were asked to report
land-use problem areas according to the kind of adjust-
ment that appeared to be desirable. Many of the
adjustments recommended must be regarded as ulti-
mately, rather than immediately desirable, because of
the economic dislocations which would arise as a result
of their rapid execution. However, there are some
situations calling for action of an emergency nature.
In some areas of serious soil erosion, for example,
immediate measures to retard the rate of soil loss are
necessary.

Adjustments in major land use reported as desirable,
including adjustments in both type and size of operat-
ing unit, fall into six major categories, each of which is
listed and discussed below.

1. Replacement of Crop Fanning by Less Intensive
Types of Use. — The presence of crop farming ' on

^ Because of the controversial character cf many of the questions of land-use adjust-
ment, and because of the danger of injustices that might arise from errors in the pre-
liminary designation of problem areas, publication of maps showing the detailed
location of problem areas is not desirable at this time.

3 A crop farm is defined as one which has, west of tlie 100th meridian, at least
one-tenth as much crop land as pasture, and east of the 100th meridian, at least one-
fifth as much crop land as pasture. A stock ranch, as reported by the census is
therefore not a crop farm, although it may properly be called a farm.

land poorly suited to it has given rise to a train of
undesirable social and economic circumstances de-
scribed at some length elsewhere in this volume. The
problems created are widely referred to as those of
submarginal farm land.

Estimates made in connection with this study indi-
cate that there are i)robably not less than 450,000
farms, covering about 75,000,000 acres, and contiiining
20,000,000 acres of crop land and 35,000,000 acres of
pasture, too poor for people to support themselves by
crop farming.

Areas where the replacement of crop farming on
land poorly suited to it, by less intensive uses, such as
stock ranching, forestry, and/or recreation is called for,
are widespread, but are found mainly in a few im-
portant regions. The presence of crop farming on land
poorly adapted to it is attributable to several factors
which vary greatly in importance among the regions of
occurrence. The more important among these factors
are:

(1) Shifts in comparative advantage through the
settlement of new nnd more productive areas, and
through the develojjment of mechanized production,
which favors certain areas at the expense of others in
lowering production costs. This factor is particularly
miportant in the long-settled hilly and stony parts of
many Eastern States.

(2) Shifts in comparative advantage through the
difierential deterioration of lands by erosion. This
factor is especially notewoithy in parts of the Cotton
Belt, particularly in some of the old plantation areas.

(3) Inadec[uate understanding of the character and
productive capacity of the land in advance of settle-
ment, and consequently, settlement without proper
discrunination belAveen lands of different ciuality.
This factor has been notably imjjortant in the Great
Plains, and in the cut-over forest regions of the northern
Lake States, the South, and the Far West.

(4) The stimulus of exceptional prices for certain
products as a result of wartime demand, causing expan-
sion of crop production onto lands which, without
exceptional prices, cannot sustain economic farming.
This factor has been most significant in some of the
semiarid dry-fanning areas of the Great Plains and the
Columbia Basin.

(5) The availability of low-priced land as a means
of providing subsistence to those without the means,
resourcefulness, or inclination to live elsewhere. The
availability of poor land to poor people has been
a powerful influence toward the cultivation of land
w"hich is submarginal and undesirable for commer-
cial farming. Its affect is most pronounced in the
southern Appalachian, Ozark, and Ouachita highlands,
where opportunities for employment of hibor in indus-
try have been small, where communication facilities

Maladjustments in Land Use

liave been poor, and where shelter and clothing require-
ments are moderate. Its influence is felt in all regions
having poor but tillable land, but is more powerful in
those regions where the land is better able to supply
direct subsistence, and less important in the semiarid
or subhumid regions. It leads to the repeated reoc-
cupancy of abandoned farms so long as habitable build-
higs remain. Whereas the ability of certain types of
poor land to provide subsistence has been demonstrated,
their inability to provide facilities for education,
cojumunication, and health in the measure needed for
a socially satisfactory life, lias been ec(ually well
demonstrated. The desirability of undertaking with-
drawal of subsistence farming from poor lands therefore
is in large measure a social problem. Because of its
complex and manifold human implications, it is contro-
versial. It is held by some that the haven of refuge
ofi'ered by the poor lands to destitute fauulies in tune
of stress should not be closed, and that the provision of
subsistence by such lands to these, and to families of
Hniited ca])abilities, is an alternative superior to support
l)y public rehef. On the other hand, it is recognized
that tbc occupants of such hinds ai(> (|uite commonly
the recipients of public relief or other forms of subsidy,
despite their association with the land, and that in
such cases the public may he justified in insisting that
the recipients live in places where the burden of
public subsidy is least.

The replacement of crop farming by some other
major land use has been indicated as desu'able on the
hillier and stonier parts of the Northeastern States, in
the rougher and less productive jiarts of the southern
Appalachian, Ozark, and Ouachita Highlands, and of
the intervening uplands, in the hillier and more badly
eroded portions of the southeastern cotton and tobacco
regions, in the cut-over forest regions of the Great Lakes
States, the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast States, and
the Pacific Coast States, in the semiarid portions of the
western Great Plains, the Columbia Basin, and in the
central valley and foothills of California. Excepting
the Southern Highlands, these ai-e all regions of sparse
agricultural settlement, so that in many areas relatively
few farms are involved.

In the poorer agricultural areas, characterized by
inade(|uate land resources and many destitute riual
people, it is thought that the interest of both individuals
and conununities would be best served if a ]iart, ranging
from one-lifth to most of the farmers, could be relocated
ultimately on better land or in other occupations, and
the poor hin<l retired from farming and devoted to scmie
other productive use. However, in very many cases
this relocation would consist in the transfer of settlers
from isolated locations on poor land to more compact
agricultural communities iieai'l)y, wiiere they could

receive the benefits of community services, such as
roads and schools, at a cost which they could bear.

In each of the areas of this kind it is recommended
that measures to prevent agricultiu-al occupancy of
poor laiul, not now in farms, and not agriculturally
desirable, be instituted. Such measures would involve
establishing constructive nonfarm uses for these lands.

The desirability of retiring crop farms from agricul-
tural use in any area is contingent upon finding sonu>
alternative occupation or situation for the displaced
l)opulation which would bring about greater well-
being. The a])parent lack of such alternatives at the
present time has occasioned reluctance in some vStates
in designating areas where tliis adjustment should take
place. In most ])roi)osed i-etirement areas a gradual
elimination of crop fanning should take ])lace as o])-
l)ortunities arise, although certain areas of acute dis-
tress may require wholesale action of an emergency
nature.

2. Instituting Constructive Use and Management of
Forest and Uiif -ore r Tjnidx. — The pi-oblem of instituting
constructive use of forest laiul was rejjorted in ail tlios(>
parts of the country where large bodies of forest or
cut-over land are found in private ownership. The
problem was not wideh" reported in those parts of the
Intermountain and Pacific States, where the forest is
principally in public ownership.

The United States Forest Service recently undertook
a survey of desirable modifications in ownership, use,
and management of forest land. In reporting desirable
adjustments in forest-land use, particular attention was
given by the land-planning consultants to those situa-
tions wiiere the development of constructive manage-
ment of forest land would facilitate the continuance of
agriculture which would otherwise be decadent. Situ-
ations of this sort were reported m the forest regions of
each of the Pacific Coast States, and in many of the
forest regions of the Southern, the Appalachian, and the
Xortheastern States.

The problems of forest land-use adjustment center
around the failure of forest land to contribute very
effectively to the support of communities, and around
the inadequacy of the forest resource near large con-
suming regions despite abundance of forest land. To
overcome these deficiencies, adjustments in manage-
ment and use of forest land must be facilitated, in most
instances by institutional adjustments, notably in
public fiscal policy.

3. Increasing the Size of Farms in Order to Provide
Adequate Family Living and Permit Soil .\ fa inte nance. —
In certain regions an important percentage of the farms,
while they are on land capable of supporting cro])
faiiuing, are too sniall to provide an adcciuate family

Land Planning Report

living under the type of fanning or cropping system to
wliicli tlie land is best suited.

In nearly all areas an increase in the size of farms
would result in a decrease in the number of farms and
therefore in displacement of some farm families. Esti-
mates made in connection with this study place the
number of families which would need to be relocated as
a result of desirable enlargement of farm units at about

80,nnn.

Two general kinds of situation call for larger farms:

(1) ^^^lere the type of farming and cropping systems
are adapted to the land, but the unit does not con-
tain enough acres to return the operator a fair living.
(A variation of this situation is found in certain irrigated
sections of the West, in which the water supply is
insufficient to provide a fair living for each unit. Here
larger farms may signify primarily more water per unit,
although increase in both land and water may be
involved.)

(2) Where the type of farming, or the cropping sys-
tem needs to be made less intensive in the interest of
soil conservation, or otherwise in the interest of better
adaption to the character of the land, thereby requiring
a larger acreage, to provide an equivalent return. This
change in the type of farming or cropping system would
consist of (a) the use of grass or legumes for longer
periods in the rotation, (b) the replacement of parts of
the crop land by permanent pasture, or (c) increasing
the proportion of forage crops on land where grain
yields are too low and unreliable to provide reasonably
adequate living. (A variation of this situation is found
in certain irrigated sections in which the water supply is
inadequate, or is being progressively depleted, and in
which fewer, and therefore larger units, accompanied
by an increase in the proportion of less intensive uses, is
needed.)

A general increase in the size of farms in many agri-
cultural areas would doubtless result in more efficient
operation and larger returns per farm. The displace-
ment of many farmers, however, to permit already pro-
ductive farms to yield a higher return is difficult to
defend under present conditions. The recommenda-
tion that farms be made larger is therefore limited to
those cases in which the small size of unit leads to des-
titution because of the small volume of business, or
contributed to soil depletion because family support
requires too heavy cropping.

Increasing the size of farms usually involves the
annexation or consolidation of adjoining operating
units. The redundancy of fai'm families created by
this process must find land or a means of subsistence
elsewhere. Obviously the availability of better oppor-
tunities elsewhei'e will influence the rate at which this
adjustment can be made.

Although adjustments in size of farms have occurred
and will probably continue to occur through mdividual
action alone, a general movement toward larger farms
in many areas cannot be effected easily by such indi-
vidual action. To the extent that this difficulty pre-
vails, the acquisition of adjoining operating units
to bring about farms of most desirable size in an
orderly manner requires collective or cooperative action.

The problem of undesirably small farms is distinctly
regional in importance. There are doutbless a. few
uneconomically small farms in every area, but the
problem is much more pronounced in certain regions.
On the whole, farms tend to be too small in the rela-
tively less-productive areas; that is, in areas where
more acres are required to return a hving imder a con-
servative cropping system. Important areas where
this adjustment is recommended are the western
Great Plains, the erosive areas of the western and
southern Corn Belt, the general fanning areas of the
Ohio Valley and southern Illinois, certain erosive parts
of the Cotton Belt, and numerous irrigated areas of the
West.

In the Great Plains, one encounters increasingly dry
country, with increasingly low and irregular yields of
dry-farmed crops as one travels westward. To com-
pensate for this lower productivity per acre, more
acres per unit are required to provide an equivalent
living. Farms therefore average larger in the western
than in the eastern and more humid portion of the Great
Plams. The difl'erence, however, in many cases is not
as great as is warranted by the greater aridity of the
western portion. Failure properly to modify the home-
stead laws so that the size of homestead unit was in
accordance with the productivity of the country,
resulted in 160- and 320-acre farms being preempted
in areas where at least R40 acres were needed to support
a family. The low and unreliable rainfall dictates, in
many places, the use of summer fallowing to conserve
moisture, thus increasing greatly the requirement for
land per operation unit. The marked unreliability of
wheat yields due to an erratic chmate suggest the need
of combining a range-livestock enterprise with grain
growmg to help tide operators o\er jioor gram years.
To accommodate the addition of a range-livestock
enterprise to a farm, a larger acreage will generally be
needed. Attempts at grain farming on acreages that
are too small have resulted in outright abandonment of
farms after every extended period of low rainfall.

Soil and erosion specialists have found soil erosion
and soil depletion to be a serious problem as a residt of
overcropping in the loess hills of central Nebraska, on
the dissected plains of southern Nebraska and northern
Kansas, and in the hilly areas of southern Iowa,
northern Missoini, and western Illinois. A continua-

Maladjustments in Land Use

tion of ovoicnippiiip: on these erosive lands will pro-
gressively lower their productivity. Low yields per
acre in the western areas and small acreages per farm
in the southern and eastern areas make it desirable, if
not necessary, to maintain or even increase present
])i'oduction per farm in these areas in an cfibrt to main-
tain incomes. Thus the introduction of more grass and
hay production for the region as a whole ideally should
he accompanied by proportionate consolidation and
enlargement of farms. The present demand for land
on the ])art of large mimbers of young rural people
unable to migrate to urban centers, as well as on the
l)art (if urban people wishing to move to the country,
limits the possibilities of obtaining better o])])ortunities
I'lsewluu-c f(H- families who would be displaced by a
process of faini enlargement. Further investigations
may find a solution to this problem in the readjustment
of farm organizations without increasmg size of units.
The introduction of more labor-using enterprises, such
as dairying and poultry raising, would eflVct the
decreased acreage of crops if conditions were favorable
for the marketing of increased quantities of these
products.

Farmers in the general farming areas of the Ohio
Valley and southern Illinois are not only handicapped
by less productive soil but have less total land and less
tillable crop land per farm than Corn Belt farmers.
Larger farms with a higher proportion of the land in hay
and grass would make possible a more adequate living
on the more les'cl lands and would in addition ]u-cvent
continued erosion on more rolling land. The introduc-
tion of improved machinery and improved technicpie
in agricultural production has increased the disadvan-
tage of farmers in these areas in crop production as a
basis for commercial agriculture. Farmers on the
better lands have been able to make more general use
of these improvements. The downward trend in total
rrop acreage is an indication of the adjustments farmers
in these areas have been forced to make as a result of
this increasing disadvantage. Consolidation of farms,
with a liigbcr proportion of the total land devoted to
the production of hay and pasture, would mean a con-
titiuiiliou of Ibis trend. Althougii this r(\!j,inn unde-
ninbly lun^ds, in line with changed economic conditions,
a better adjustment between tj-jie of agricultural ])ro-
duction and natural resources there are even more
serious problems whose solution may have (o be
given precedence. The difficulty of finding better
opportimities for the families displaced must be over-
come l)eforc a geiuM'al program of extensification of
type of fai-ming can be undertaken.

In the Cotton Belt, State land-planning consultants
report scattered areas from central Texas cast to South
Cart)limi where erosive hiiul is farjued too intensively
and where the farms are not large enough to permit

the most desirable type of land utilization. Indica-
tions are that a readjustment could be effected by
returning to forest cover those lands having steep
slopes, and by bringing into crop production other
lands having nuire juodcrate slo])es on which terracing
and otlu'r jueasures would economically conserve the
soil, making sm-e that each farm contained enough
smooth land to meet the crop requirements of a farm
family. Such a readjustment would ])rol)ably not
require any net change in the population of the areas,
or in the acres of the ]U'incipal cro])s. The detailed
plans for such readjustments in a few ])articular areas,
and e.xperimental and demonstratioual jirojects to
determine their feasibility, are urgently ncn'ded.

Irrigation projects in numerous cases have been
blighted with too great a subdivision of the lauil to
permit an economical system of farming. In other
instances there has been lack of sufficient water to
supply properly all the units dependent upon it. Some
irrigation projects depending on wells as the source of
their water supply, are experiencing progressive lower-
ing of the water table. Tliis points to future difficul-
ties, even though water depletion may not yet have
progressed to the point of causing economic distress.
The situation is analogous to that of soil depletion.
Correction of these jnaladjustments implies larger
farms in some cases, or, if water shortage be a limitijig
factor, a shift to crops requiring less water (in conjunc-
tion with larger farms) is required. The solution of
these difficulties will vary with each irrigation project.

4. Changes in Cropping System to Reduce Erosion
Without Lirreasing Si~e of Farms. — In cases where
changes in the cro])ping system are required in order
to control erosion, enlargement of the farju unit nuiy
also be necessary; more often it is not. Changes in
cropping system or in farm practice in order to con-
trol erosion are reconunended in jnost agriiultuial
areas where serious erosion is taking place .Vmong
the larger areas in which changes in the cropping
system without cnlnrgcuicnt of farms is reported as
desirable, are the Piedmont ujilnnd from N'iiginia to
Alabama, the Mississippi silt-loam u])hui(ls of western
Kentucky, Tcimessee, and Mississijipi ; the hiLrhland
rim of Kentucky and Tennessee, the hilU of
southern Ohio and southern Iiuliana, the Driftless
Area of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the loess prairies
of Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas, the Black
Prairies of Texas, the Redbeds Plains of Texas and
Oklahoma, the High Plains of Texas and Oklahojua,
the Palouse wheat coimtiy of Washington, Oregon,
and Idaho, and juany valley and foothill areas of
California. The specific changes in crojjping system
were not det(U'mined.

5. Afore Jiidiriotis Cse of the Range. — LTncontroUed
use of the public domain range has led to forage deple-

G

Land Planning Report

tion, accelerated erosion, injury to water supplies, and
other difficulties. The passage of the Taylor Grazing
Act is expected to overcome many of the difficulties
arising from unregulated use of the range, through es-
tablishment of grazing districts in wliich grazing will
be adjusted to the range resources. The problems of
range grazing are common to much of the arid regions
of the Great Basin and the Southwest, with somewhat
less important occurrence in the Great Plains. Injuri-
ous use of privately owned range land has been re-
ported in Texas, CaUfornia, Idaho, and elsewhere.

6. Improving Drainage, Flood Control, or Water Sup-
ply to Permit the Continuar^ce of Economic Agriculture
on Existing Farms. — It is occasionally true that the
provision of some improvement in drainage, in pro-
tection from flood, or in water supply, requiring col-
lective action for its accom])lisl)ment, will remedy a
condition of distress on farms. This type of adjust-
ment is needed in widely separated local areas, but is
not characteristically required in any broad region. It
is reported as desirable largely in the form of unprove-
Mients in dndnage in tbe Southern and Ctmtral States,
and in the improvement of water supply and/or draui-
age In some of the Western States.

This adjustment should not be confused, on the one
hand, \nth the provision of works to bring new farms

into existence, or, on the other hand, with the provision
of improvements by the individual farmer on and solely
for the benefit of his o\m farm. It is proposed only in
those cases where the lack of an improvement, which can
not be effectuated by individual action, stands between
desirable agriculture and imdesirable agriculture.

Land-Use Problem Regions and Adjustments

Understanding of the major areal differences in land-
use problems will be increased if the country be divided
into broad regions, each having a characteristic i)attern
or association of land-use problems which distinguishes
it from adjoining regions, and the land-use adjustments
in each be discussed. In this connection, attention is
called to figure 2, a map of land-use problem regions.

Eastern Highland Regions

Xortheastern Highlands (hilly or stony parts of the
New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, and Maryland). Major adjustments advo-
cated: (1) Widespread local replacement of crop farm-
uig by some other productive land use, (2) institution
of constructive management of forest land.

^Yliile this region still has much uneconomic farming
in its hillier, stonier, more remote, or otherwise less-

U.S.OEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

FI0URE2.— Each of these large regions bas a characteristic combination or pattern ofland-u.se problems, which differs in some important respect from that in adjoining regions.

Alahdjustnients in Land Use

productive parts, the tibandonment of farming on much
of the least desirable land has already taken place in
response to changing economic conditions, particularly
in New England. This adjustment has been facilitated
by the development of sources of industrial employ-
ment in the region, and by the openmg of more pro-
ductive agricultural lands inthe West, both of which
offered better livelihood than agriculture on the steep
and stony lands. Despite tliis economic adjustment
in the past, there appears to renuim m agricultural
use a considerable body of farm land so poor as to offer
little hope of yielding a reasonable return for the
farmers' labor even under conditions of national pros-
perity. (See description of social and economic con-
ditions in areas in which it appears desirable to encour-
age discontmuance of croj) farming.)

Much of the land in the region is forest luiul not in
farms. Although intensive forest management is prac-
ticed in some localities, and although the recreational
use of forests is important, much forest land is con-
tributing very little to the support of local communi-
ties. It is believed that a more constructive use of
the forest land in parts of tliis region would provide
alternative or supplementary emploj-ment in siifficient
quantity to support stable part-tune agi'iculture and
local wood-using industries, antl to maintain com-
munities which would otherwise be decadent. Local
e.\am])les of woodworking industries using nearby forest
land inider sustained-3'ield management, and providing
a stable basis for community support, are to be found
in this region, notably in New England. An imjjortant
consideration m regard to the importance of construc-
tive forest management in this region, is its proximity
to |)opulous industrial wood-consuming centers, now
deriving much of their forest products from regions
1,000 to 3,000 miles distant.

Probably the most noteworthy example of desirable
forest land utilization under private ownership is pre-
sented by northern Maine. Unlike most other forest
regions, much of northern Maine has almost no scat-
tered agricultural settlement and no local governmental
organization. Having Uttle interspersed settlement,
the forest land has not the burden of supporting roads,
scliools, and other governmental services. Tax revenue
from forest land, therefore, needs to be little more than
enough to provide fire protection. Moderate taxation
in this section permits forest landowners to hold their
properties for continued forest production. It reduces
the tendency to "cut out and get out", notable in
regions where the forest must support local govern-
mental activities.

By reducing the cost of carrying tuuberland, and
thereby fostering sustained forest production, the
tendency to unload forest land onto the agricultural

land market is reduced, and the tendency to introduce
scattered or uneconomic agricultural settlement in the
forest area is avoided. In part, the situation has
resulted from the early lumbering practice of culling
rather than clear-cutting. The continuously producing
forest resulting from this practice is in contrast with
the idle forest land remaining after clear-cutting in
our more recently exploited forest regions, where cut-
over lands, unprofitable to hold for forest production,
have been disposed of for agriculture, or have become
tax delinf[uent.

Tins example of desirable forest land-utilization is
noted because it appears to be an outstanding case of
the avoidance of the maladjustment of forest-land use
characteristic of many of our forest regions, and is
indicative of what might be achiextMl tliinimh coiu-
parable land-use adjustments elsewiiere.

Sotdhern Highlands and their Alargins. — Major ad-
justments advocated: (1) Widespread local withdrawal
of crop farming in the roughest areas, converting lanil
to constructive use (see description of social and eco-
nomic conditions in areas in which it is proposed to
encourage withdrawal of arable farming); (2) institu-
ting of constructive management of forest land; (3) in-
creasing size of farm units in the less rugged areas to
permit greater acreage of pasture per farm, and to
provide enough acreage per farm for an adequate family
living; and (4) instituting of erosion control measures
in the better farming areas, where no increase in size
of farms is necessary.

UnHke the rougher and less desirable parts of the
Northeastern Highlands, the steeper parts of the
Southern Highlands have not, in general, experienced
much migration from rural areas. On the contrary,
in some sections farm population has increased, and in
some, notably in eastern Kentucky, it has increased
mucn beyond the capacity of the agricultural land
resources to support it.

Unlike the Northeastern Highland region, urban and
industrial enterprises were not present in this region in
sufficient number to provide alternative employment
to very many of the people in the poorer areas who
failed to make an adequate living on the lantl. It is
beheved, however, that a more efi'ective use of the forest
land in the steep or stony sections would support a
part of the population which would otherwise be forced
to migrate from the area, or to suft'er jirogressively
greater future privation.

Much of the smoother land in the nortiiern and west-
ern part of the region, particularly in Missouri ami
Arkansas, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and
southwestern Ohio, is relatively poor crop land. It
might be better suited to pasture than forest, and when
operated in large livestock farm units should be capable

8

Land Planning Report

of laaiutaiiiiiig ecouoraic farniiug. It is thought that
many farms in these areas are too small at present
to provide adetjuate family living luuier the type of
farming best suited to land of its eliaracter. Some of
the hilly lands of southeastern Ohio and West Virginia
are superior grazing lands, and if operated in farms
somewhat larger tlian at present could, it is believed,
support desirable agriculture.

On many of the better and more heavily cropped
areas in this region, erosion is active, and immediate
measures are required to conserve the land resource.

Southeastern Hilly Cotton and Tobacco Region

Major adjustments advocated in tliis region which
includes tidewater, Virginia: (1) Local withdrawal of
crop farming, converting land withdrawn to con-
structive use (mainly forest); (2) introduction of
erosion control measures in the better farming areas:
(3) institution of constructive management of forest
land; (4) establishment of larger farms in the interest
of erosion control and adecjiiate farm income (mainly in
Mississippi).

On the poor, and particulazly the more eroded lands
in tnis region, it is beheved advisable to discontinue
crop farming in part at least, and to devote the land
released from crops to forest production. (See dis-
cussion of social and economic conditions in area;? in
which it appears desirable to encourage withdrawal ol
crop fanning.) On the superior farm lands of the
region, which embrace mainly the smoother parts, it is
desirable for agriculture to continue. It will be
urgently necessary, however, to use much of these
smoother lands under cropping metiiods wnich reduce
erosion if further reduction of the already diminished
acreage of good land in the region is to be prevented.

Prior to the advance of the bollweevil into this region,
soils of heavier textui-es were at little disadvantage in
cotton production, e.xcept where, as in the Piedmont,
they occupy steeper slopes, and therefore tend to erode
more rapidlj^. Under conditions of bollweevil infesta-
tion, however, finer textured soils experience greater
incidence of bollweevil injury because of the later
maturity of cotton grown on them. The washing off of
sandy-surface soils, particularly in the Piedmont, ex-
poses a sandy clay subsoil less desu-able for cotton, even
if the land is not mjured by gullymg.

Much of the crop production in this region is carried
on by share-tenants and croppers. Merchant and land-
lord credit secured by a crop requires that tenants use
their labor m producing cash crops, preferably non-
perishable crops, rather than subsistence crops or live-
stock. This has led to much continuous cultivation of
row crops, on the same tracts, to the encouragement of
soil erosion. Supervision of tenants by the landowner
in the interest of good farm jjractice is generally

inade(|uate. On the larger holdings, particularly, sujier-
vision of the many small tenant farms is difficult.
Institutional changes, notably in tenure and credit
systems, will be necessary to facilitate desirable adjust-
ments in land use in this region.

In scattered areas the enhu-gement of farms too small
to provide adecjuate income has been indicated as a
desirable adjustment. It is probable that income is
limited, on family operated farms, not so much by the
acreage available, as by the acieage in crops for which
family labor is available. Idle arable land is inter-
spersed throughout most pai-ts of the region. Enlarge-
ment of units would ])r()bably be with the objective of
getting enough land in any one unit to permit tJie crop
land needed to sujjport a family to be located on smooth
productive land.

It is believed that a more efi'ective use of the forest
lantl, which occupies a large portion of the total area of
the 2-egion, would materially increase the base of eco-
nomic support. Forest growth is rapid, and a number
of s])ecies of high utility are native to the region. At
present little consideration is given to management of
the forest land as a source of farm or of communitv
income.

Cut-Over Regions

Great Lakes Cut-over Region. — Major adjustments
advocated: (1) Instituting constructive management of
forest land ; (2) widespread local discontinuance of crop
farming, and conversion of the land withdrawn to
constructive use.

Exploitation of the forest in the northern Lake States
began more recently than in the Northeastern States.
Large-scale methods of harvesting and clear-cutting
left jnuch forest land m a nonproductive state. Tim-
berland owners attempted to dispose of cut-over land
for agricultural use. Proper discrimination between
agriculturally desirable and undesirable land was not
exercised by buyers or sellers. Scattered agricidtural
settlements sprang up in forested areas. Subsequent
abandonment of many farms accentuated the sparse-
ness of settlement, and mcreased the cost of providing
public services. The cost of supporting these services
fell on progressively fewer properties, and the mdividual
tax bm-den, including that on forest property, increased.
Forest land could not bear its carrying costs after the
timber was cut, and hence was allowed to revert to the
State or coimty, tlirough tax delinquency.

In contrast is the situation m northern Maine, pre-
viously described, where sustained use of the forest land
prevailed and where agricultural settlement was not
encouraged.

It is believed desirable to eluninate much of the
scattered settlement in the northern Lake States,
particularly that on poor land, thereby avoiding the

Maladjustments in Land Use

9

necessity for providing the unduly expensive public
services required by sucli settlements. The establish-
ment of a sustained yield management of forest land,
it is believed, would be facilitated if the expensive local
governmental services which exist, in many instances,
to serve impoverished uneconomic settlement, were
eliminated. It is believed that constructive manage-
ment of the forest land would tend to stabilize em-
ployment by providing a contmual source of material
for wood-using industries. State and Federal accjuisi-
tion of much forest land has taken place.

Atlantic and Gulf C\it-orer Region. — Major adjust-
ments advocated: (1) Instituting constructive manage-
ment of forest land ; (2) widespread local withdrawal of
arable farm land. It is indicated that more construc-
tive use of the forest land should furnish additional
sources of income for resident farmers, in some
instances in sufficient measure to facilitate continuance
of agriculture that would otherwise be decadent. The
forest country bordering the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is
a sparsely settled region, in which large-scale exploita-
tion of the timber resources has, except in the north-
eastern part, taken place relativelj^ recently. The
forest is composed in large measure of fast-growing
species of high utility, and its comparative advantage
in wood production is high. It is therefore, a region
of desirable forest land utilization.

While local bodies of desirable agricultm-al land
exist, a large part of the region is either poorly drained
or has relatively unproductive sandy soils or both. In
attempts to settle or colonize cut-over timberlands
there has been a failure to distmguish properly between
desirable and undesirable land. It has been com-
monly supposed that the long frost-free season and
mild winter clmiate adequately compensates for any
deficiency in soil productivity. In a measure, it is
true that clunate is a compensating advantage, but
on the whole, agricultural settlement in this region has
not been notably successful. After 200 years, during
which the rest of the countiy was agriculturallj^ appro-
priated, the region remains almost wholly in forest.

It is believed desirable to eliminate some of the most
scattered settlement on poor land in tliis region, and
to institute constructive management on the forest
land, so as to use most effectively a productive and
desirable forest region.

Pacific Forest and Cut-over Hegion. — Major adjust-
ments advocated: (1) Withdrawal of scattered farm
settlement occupying poor land; (2) institutmg con-
structive numagcment of forest land; (3) increasing
acreage of improved land on farms by further clearing,
and in some localities, by increasing size of ownersliip
units.

Of the great forest regions of the United States, that
of the Pacific coast has been most recently exploited.

The appropriation of cut-over lands for agricultural
settlement in this region has probably been retarted
by the very great cost of clearing land of the charac-
teristically large and thickly set stumps. Neverthe-
less some scattered settlement does exist in shoestring
valleys and on relatively poor land. It is believed
desirable to ehminatc such scattered settlement and to
concentrate agriculture in more compact communities
on better lands in more accessible locations.

Subsequent to the Forest Homestead Act of June 1 1 ,
1906, many isolated and scattered tracts were entered
for agricultural use within the boundaries of national
forests. Only in exceptional instances have these
isolated farms been capable of supplying themselves
with public services and providing their operators with
an adetjuate livmg. It is believed desirable to eliminate
many, if not most, of the scattered, privately owned
farms within national forests, in the interest of facili-
tating the administration of the forest and reducing
uneconomic farm settlement.

Equally or even more desirable is the introduction of
some sort of sustained yield management of the private
forest land in order to stabilize employment through the
continuance of forest industries wliich provide markets
and possibly part-tune employment for farmers.

Of the farms now located on desirable land in devel-
oped communities, many have an acreage of cleared
land inadequate to sujjjjort a family. The expense of
clearing additional land is, in many instances, beyond
the financial ability of the operator, except through the
application of labor over many years. It is believed
that assistance to farm owners, possibly in the form of
credit, in increasing their cleared acreage, is desirable
in the interest of community well-being.

In a considerable area bordermg Puget Sound, par-
ticularly near the lai^er cities and on the islands the
controlling or guidmg of future land-use developments
is believed to be a problem. No specific adjustment
appears to be necessary in this area at the moment,
but it is believed desu-able to undertake a classifica-
tion of land, and to establish some use-control to avoid
undesirable developments in the future, and to provide
a direction for developments to assure the uses socially
and economically most desirable.

The Arid and Semiarid Regions

Western Great Plains. — Major adjustments advocated:
(1) Replacement of some of the crop farming in the
driest and agriculturally least desirable sections by
stock ranching or other grazing use; (2) enlargement of
farms in these and other sections to permit more ex-
tensive types of fanning, with more pasture and less
crop land per farm.

Parts of the Great Plains arc subject to recurring
drought of such frequency and severity thai arable

10

Lund Planning Report

farms are uneconomic and undesirable. (See descrip-
tion of social and economic conditions in areas in vvliich
it is desirable to encourage the withdrawal of arable
farming.) In other parts of the region subject to
recurrent droughts, but wliich are somewhat better
agriculturally, it is believed desirable to increase the
size of crop farms to permit the substitution of pasture
for some of the crop land on farms, or to permit the
increased use of summer fallow on cash grain farms.

A few years of above-the-average rainfall m the
northern, or of pronounced drought in the southern
Great plams would no doubt result in a somewhat
different designation of problem areas than the present
one. The recognition of land-use problems in the
Great Plains of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Te.xas was con-
fined largely to the problem of controlling wind erosion,
although small areas in which it is believed desirable to
replace crop farming with grazing were mdicated in
Kansas and Oklahoma.

California Valleys and Foothills. — Major adjustments
recommended: (1) Local withdrawal of crop farmuig
in the less productive areas, converting the laud with-
drawn to constructive use; (2) locally, increasing the
size of farms so as to provide economic units, to permit
the e.xtension of pasture on poor or eroding land, and
to permit reduction in crop aci'eage in irrigated areas
which are subject to progressive diminution of the water
supply; (3) instituting of measures to control soil
erosion on farms needing no increase in size; (4) more
judicious use of the range so as to prevent forage
depletion, soil erosion, and injury to water supplies;
(5) provision of adequate drainage for irrigated farm
lands.

Objectives of the land-use adjustments indicated as
desirable appear to be the conservation of land, water,
or forest resources in the interest of the common good;
although in some cases, the alleviation of poverty and
the reduction of liigh cost of governmental services
associated with uneconomic use of land or scattered
settlement, is paramount.

Erosion, both on farm and range lands, requires
control to prevent further waste of the land resource.
On some irrigation projects in which ground water is
pumped, progressive lowering of the water table and
depletion of the supply is in progress. It is believed
necessary to reduce the drain by reducing acreage in
crops requiring water within the project until a stable
condition is reached. Much irrigated land has been
reduced in productivity by alkali accumulations result-
ing from inadequate drainage. The provision of
drainage is suggested in these cases.

Scattered through the foothills and coast ranges as
well as on the poorer lands of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Valley are farms which it is thought should

be replaced in their entirety by stock ranches or other
grazing properties.

Columbia Basin. — Major adjustments advocated:
(1) Widespread replacement of grain farming by exten-
sive grazing; (2) more judicious use of the range, so as
to prevent forage depletion and soil erosion.

Arid Gracing and Irrigated Region. — Major adjust-
ments advocated: (1) More judicious use of the range
so as to prevent forage depletion, soil erosion and
injury to water supply; (2) withdrawal of arable farm
land from scattered dry-farming areas, replacing it
with extensive grazing, and preventing expansion of
dry-farming, also replacmg arable farming on parts
of a few irrigated areas; (3) increasing size of units so
as to decrease both aggregate crop acreage and num-
ber of families on irrigation projects which have a
population too great for water supply.

The problem of the imcontrolled use of the range
has been troublesome in this region, particularly in
those sections in which the dominance of public
domain range, makes impracticable the fencing of
private lands. Stockmen, unable to control, by fenc-
ing, the use of the land their stock graze, are forced to
keep their ranges overstocked and grazed to the limit
in order to prevent the appropriation of forage by new-
comers. The Taylor Grazing Act provides a means of
overcoming tliis problem by the establishment of graz-
ing districts, in which grazing will be under control.
As its provisions are carried out, the extent of eroded
and overgrazed range may be materially decreased.

There is also some overgrazing, erosion, and conse-
quent injury to forage and water supply on privately
owned ranch lands, and on Indian reservations, where
some measiu'e of improved range management is desir-
able.

In the arid portion of Texas, where the grazing land
is almost entirely in private ownership and under fence,
overgrazing and depletion of the range appears to be
less common than in the public land States.

Other land-use problems of the arid grazing and
irrigated region are small, widely scattered, and have
to do with the use of low-grade dry-farnnng land which
should be returned to grazing, and with occasional irri-
gation projects having inadequate water supply and
poor soil, or with land which is in financial distress.

Miscellaneous Agricultural Regions

Northeastern Agricultural Region. — Major adjust-
ments advocated: (1) Local withdrawal of crop farm-
ing in a few scattered areas; (2) instituting of erosion-
control measures in some of the hillier areas.

Although possessed of a great deal of land of low
agricultural productivity along with much that is agri-
culturally desirable, the northeastern agricultural

Maladjustments in Land Use

11

region is one of the less important rejjions in point of
the magnitude of hind-use problems. In a long-settled
region of tins sort, land use has hail time to become
fairly well adjusted to land character, and is, therefore,
reasonably stable. Parts of the region are urban and
industrial, rather than agricultural. Land-use prob-
lems of importance are restricted mainly to the southern
part, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
Delaware.

Central AyiicuHuial Region. — Land-use problems are
reported mainly in the southern part of this region.
Major adjustments advocated: (1) Institution of meas-
ures to control erosion on farms without necessitating
increase in size of farms; (2) increasing size of farms in
order to permit the use of erosive land for pasture and
to reduce the acreage in crops; (3) local withdrawal of
crop farming hi widely scattered small areas, devoting
land withdrawn to forest or recreation.

This region is responsible for much of the volume of
the agricultural production of the United States. On
the whole, agriculture here has been marked by the pro-
vision of a relatively good family living and the support
of fairly stable public services and histitutions.

Immediate land-use adjustment in tliis region is
mainly concerned with soil conservation. Erosion con-
trol is believed to involve the replacement of intertilled
crops, notably corn and cotton, by close-growing crops
or pasture, by keeping erosive land in grass, legumes, or
pasture for a longer part of the rotation, or by keeping
the most erosive slopes permanently in soil-protectuig
cover. In certain areas, many of the farms may need
somewhat larger acreages to provide adequate uicomes
after makhig this adjustment. In some of the other
areas in the region, larger acreages per farm woidd not
be necessary.

Gulf Coast F/airie. — Major adjustment advocated:
Provision of additional drainage.

The Gulf Coast Prairie of Texas and Louisiana is
characterized by naturally poor drainage. Much of
tiie land, when artificially drained, is productive; some
havuig impervious subsoil is used for rice growing under
irrigation. It is believed that additional drainage to
Ijenefit some of the land now in farms will promote
agricultural stability.

Mississippi Delta. — Major adjustments advocated:
(1) Provision of additional drainage and/oi' flood con-
trol for farm land in some locahties, (2) local withdrawal
of crop farming on a few widely scattered areas.

The Mississipjji Delta, the extensive body of alluvium
along the lower course of the Mississip])i Kiver, con-
tains some inherently productive bodies of land. How-
e\er, mucli of it is now pooi'ly drained or subject to

overflow and agricultural settlement is confined to the
better-drained parts, which are densely settled and
intensively used.

Estimates of the productivity after drainage of the
parts of the region now poorly drained has been a matter
of controversy. Much of the soil is unquestionably
fertile, but poor drainage and frequency of overflow
have retarded its development. Much of the poorly
drained land has fine textured (clay) soil very retentive
of moisture, requiring skillfully constructed w'orks to
effect satisfactory drainage.

Some of the soils are reputed to have good structure
and when drained, to l)e among the most productive
cotton soils of the country. Others are notably less
productive. It is evident that proper tliscrimination
between productive and less productive land was not
exercised in undertakuig drainage enterprises, as there
appears to be some poor land in many of them. Tax
delmquency on the poorer land has, in some instances,
intensified delinquency on the better lauds, suice
drainage taxes have been applied to reduce the debt of
the entire district, rather than to reduce the propor-
tionate debt of individuals. Hence, ui such cases
farmers on the better lands have dehberately allowed
taxes to bect)me delinquent.

It is believed that refinancing of some drainage
enterprises would contribute to permit local stabiliza-
tion of agriculture.

In some instances inherently productive laud has
been provided with inadequate drainage. It is believed
that aiklitional drainage would make possible the
establishment of economic agriculture in some of these
cases.

Southeastern Middle Coastal Plain. — (Middle coastal
plain of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North
Carolina, and Virginia.) Major adjustments advo-
cated: (1) Instituting constructive management of
forest land; (2) local withdrawal of huid from crop
farming in a few widely scattered areas.

The southeastern middle coastal plain embraces the
undulating or gently rolling lands of the Coastal Plain
extending from Virginia to Alabama just iidaiul fmni
the poorly drained coastal fiatwoods of the Atlantic
and Gulf coast cut-over region. H\ce|)t for tlii> ell'ect
of an undesirable and unstable form of tenure in nuiny
sections, agricultural laiul use is probably more stable
than in the other regions of the Southeastern States.
Because of the generally smooth surface, erosion is only
locally a serious problem. So many of the farm families
are tenants operating small farms that the average
income of families in much of the region is not high.
Because of the high labor requirement of the piincipal

144090 — 36-

12

Land Planning Report

crops (cotton and tobacco), it is not certain, however,
that individual famihes could well operate larger
acreages.

Much of the land is in woods, although notably
less than in the adjoining cut-over region. It is
believed that a more effective use of much of the
forest land would add materially to community income.
The region is desirable for forest production, as it con-
tains valuable, rapidly growing native species, and is
relatively accessible to the large wood markets.

Western Gulf Coastal Plain. — Major adjustments
advocated: (1) Increasing size of farms to obtain
economic units and to facilitate erosion control; (2)
introducing measures to control erosion on farms,
without necessitating increase in size of farms.

In character of landscape, that part of the rolling
Coastal Plain west of the Mississippi River resembles
that to the east in Mississippi and Alabama. No
doubt the shorter period of agricultural use, and there-
fore of erosion, wliich tliis region has undergone, as
compared with that east of the Mississippi, helps to
explain the difference in adjustments recommended in
regions which superficially resemble each other.

The changes toward larger farms advocated for much
of this region, is apparently an attempt to anticipate
the effect of too intensive cotton and corn cropping
which is in evidence in certain longer-settled regions,
by permitting reduction in intensity of cropping and
by introducing more pasture. Control of the process

of erosion by land management can, it is believed, pre-
vent the impairment of land resources to a point beyond
the margin of economic agriculture.

This region further resembles the southeastern hilly
cotton and tobacco region in the high percentage of
land operated by share tenants, and in the low aver-
age income per farm family. The problem of land
tenure is an outstanding one throughout most of this
region, and the most desirable measures of adjustment
for its solution are not readily apparent. The matter
of soil conservation is closely related to the system of
land tenure, and its satisfactory establishment will
probably depend on a change in the character of tenure.

Palouse Wheat Region. — Major adjustment advo-
cated: Instituting measures of erosion control without
necessitating change in size of farm. The Palouse
wheat region, as defined here, embraces the better
watered and agriculturally superior part of the Co-
lumbia Plateau wheat region. Wheat yields exceed
those in most other cash grain farming areas. Erosion
is active and is accentuated by the practice of rotating
wheat with fallow. It is believed that measures to
control erosion are essential to the continued stability
of agriculture in the region.

6. Non-Problem Regions,
Having Little Agriculture

The remaining regions have httle or no agriculture
and no very important problems of land use.

SECTION II

CONDITIONS OF AREAS IN WHICH FARM RETIREMENT IS

PROPOSED'

Introduction

The following discussion is limited to an analysis and
description of social, economic, and to a lesser extent,
physical conditions of those areas from which it is pro-
posed to retire a substantial proportion of the farms
from arable agriculture. Such areas are indicated in
section I of this volume. A discussion of the program
for bringing about tlie retirement of the farms and tlie
conversion of the land to a more desirable use is taken
up in section III.

The land in the areas from which it is proposed to
retire a considerable number of farms is not only
substandard for agricultural production, but also so
poor in geographic location that opportunities for
employment off the farm from which supplementary
income might be secured are almost negligible. This
is the land commonly referred to as "submarginal
land." The continued agricultural occupance of such
land has created and continues to create social ail-
ments which are both acute and far-reaching in their
effects. The general welfare would be better served
if a vast amount of this land were removed from
arable farming and devoted to other purposes. There
is all too obviously little possibility of improving the
condition of farm inhabitants in such areas as long as
they remain in their present location and number. As
a consequence, a considerable number of the occupants
will have to be moved in order to effect a balance be-
tween the population and the land.

The solution proposed for bringing about this ad-
justment is to first identify and locate all of the so-
called submarginal land in this country and then to
retire a considerable acreage of it from arable farming
and put such retired farm lands into forest, grazing,
recreational, or some other desirable use. This is not
a new solution; it is rather a rationalization of an old
situation — farm abandonment. This latter phenome-
non, which is really nothing but forced farm retirement,
has already occurred in many of the areas under dis-
cussion. Any farm retirement plan would, therefore,
merely seek to make it selective, to speed up its opera-
tion, and to render it a form of social saving rather
than allowing it to remain a form of social waste — a
saving of both human and natural resources.

■ Prepared by C. L Hendrickson of the Division of Land Economics, Bureau ot
Agricultural Economics, K. U. Parsons of the I^and Policy Section, Agricultural
.Adjustment .Administration, and O. T. Henner of the National Resources Board.

At the very outset the question must be raised as to
what is submarginal land. No satisfactory single
answer can be set forth because of the numerous vari-
ables involved. The matter maj', however, be ap-
proached from the standpoint of soil. In the National
Resources Board Report of December 1, 1934 (pt. II,
report of the Land Planning Committee, p. 127), the
soils of the United States are classified into five grades
on the basis of physical productivity. The first three
grades comprise about 35 percent of the area of the
country and are essentially agricultural in their en-
tirety. Grade five, comprising 46 percent of the total
land area, is essentially nonarable and hence nonagri-
cultural. It is therefore grade four land wliich causes
most of the trouble. This class consists of more than
360,000,000 acres of land, and comprises nearly one-
fifth of the total area of the Nation. In a sense this
land may be regarded as marginal land because, while
it is physically possible to cultivate much of it, there
is usually no economic profit in doing so. However,
tliis type of land would seem to invite agricultural
occupance without giving warning of resulting low
income; only the more discriminating person is able to
withstand its lure. Indeed, it is probable that one-
tliird or more of all grade four land is now so utilized.
The result of such utilization has been the creation of
an extensive social and land problem, or what is often
termed the "submarginal land problem." Certainly
conditions do not warrant permitting more of this
grade of soil to be put into farms, and much of that
now in farms should be removed from such status.

While the matter of soil fertility is perhaps the larg-
est factor in determining whether or not land is classi-
fied as submarginal, it is by no means the only factor.
In the arid and semiarid portions of the West, scattered
settlement, remoteness from markets, and rainfall
conditions are contributing factors. In the forest and
cut-over sections, scattered settlement, prohibitive
cost of land clearing, and sometimes wetness or stoniness
are important. In the areas of highland farming,
impossibility of mechanization of agriculture, disas-
trous erosion of steep lands, dispersed rural settle-
ment, presence of topographic barriers, and inaccessi-
bility to markets, complicate the issue. In the better
agricultural areas, submarginal land conditions are
the results usually of erosion, soil depletion, or local

13

14

Land Planning Report

variation in natural conditions affecting physical

productivity.

Location and Amount of Land to be Retired

The results of the methods used in locating specifi-
cally the areas of poor farming (described in sec. I) are
only approxunate, and will, therefore, have to be re-
fined by closer scriitiny^. In general, however, most
of the areas have been satisfactorily located within
which the retirement of land from farming is desirable
and advisable. Such areas are found in every State
and if combined would form a total greater than the
extent of New York, New Jersey, and tlie New England
States. The population on the farms involved totals
well over 2,000,000.

In general, the so-called submarginal farm lands of
the United States he in four different sorts of situations:
(a) Ai'id and semiarid areas of the West; (6) rugged
hilly areas of the South and East; (c) forest and cut-
over areas in the South, North, and Pacific Northwest;
and ((/) scattered through the better agricultural re-
gions in all parts of the country.

If has been prelmiinarily estimated that more than
450,000 farms, containmg over 75,000,000 acres, should
be retired. This includes some land in strictly agri-
cultural areas, together with probably half of all grade
four land now in farms. It would include all of such
grade four land were it not for two circumstances.
Fii'st, some grade four land can i)rofitably remain in
cultivation because of compensating economic factors
which are the results of favorable geograpliic location.
Second, a good many farmers on grade four land can
profitably' remain on farms incapable of providing
thenr with a living because of the possibility of part-
time emploj'ment off the farm. National and State
forests, recreational areas, game numagement areas,
mines, and rural manufacturing are examples of em-
ployment of part-time farmers on poor land.

Summarized, the recommendations for retirement of
farms and farm acreage may be stated as follows:

Classification

Acreage to
be retired

Western dry lauds

Ozark, Appalachian, and New England

Better fiiriniug regions

Forest and cut-over regions

Total for all regions

75, (HXI, 000

From this classification it is apparent that nearly
half of all land proposed for retirement lies in the
western dry areas, principally the Great Plains.
There the land has been put under extensive cultiva-
tion in large units of ownership and operation. For
this reason relatively few farms are involved in the
proposed readjustments.

In marked contrast to tliis are the southern and
eastern highland areas. Here are involved a great
niiml)er of farms and a large total population, hut a
smaller total acreage.

At first glance, the farm-retirement figures for the
better agricultural regions, extensive though they be
in total area, seem unnecessarily large. If these
figures are resolved into two components, however,
considerable light is shed upon the problem:

Better farming areas

Farms (or
retirement

Acreage for
retirement

129,000
32.000

11.000.000

All other agricultural areas

4.000,000

Most of the farms to be retu-ed ob\'iously lie in the
South, whereas other agricidtural regions contain
relatively few. Similarly, in the case of "problem"
farms in the etistern and southern highlands, of a total
of 176,000 farms, fully 125,000 he in the Ozark-South-
ern Apjialachian region.

The ajjpalling extent of the human aspects of the
problem in the southeastern United States may be
noted when it is seen that within the section which is
usually known as the .South there are more than 63
percent of the hirms recommemled for retirement,
whereas there is only 29 percent of the acreage so
designated.

General Character of Social and
Economic Conditions

The use of lands for agriculture which are unsuited
for agricultural purposes is almost always productive
of certain social ills. Some of the more pronounced of
these are (a) small incomes and consequent low plane
of living, (b) low level of community life and morale,
(c) financial difficulties of local government units, (d)
waste of individual and social effort, and (e) the exploi-
tation of people who are ignorant of the facts and
conditions in these areas.

Land Values. — The farms to be retired are located
in iireas where land values are in general very low.
(See accompanying map of the value per acre of farm
land and buildings.) There are two situations where
this does not hold true: Certain areiis are shown on
the land-value map as having a high average value of
farm land anil buildings, particularly in the West,
where the high value is due to irrigated land or other
land of high value, associated with much lower-priced
farm land or nonfarm land. In such areas there are
many poor farms which should be eliminated from agri-
cultural production. There are also large areas of
low-valued land used onty for gi'azing with few farms
dependent ii|)on tirable agriculture, and consequently
there are few farms to be ehminated in those areas.

VALUE OF FARM LAND AND

y

HI

,^u

.4W

AND BUILDINGS PER ACRE

*-"

'•\W

^V- '

31

s

i-i

_^s

NATIONAL RESOURCES BOARD

AND
FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION

DOLLARS
PER ACRE

[^Under 10

m3 iO- 19

^g 20- 39

m 40 - S9

^^ 60- 99

100 - 179

180 and over

MINOR CIVIL DIVISIONS
WITH LESS THAN THREE FARMS
LEFT BLANK

SCALE I 5.000,000

100 l&O 200 250

■:^'

. ■y'

BASED ON 1930 CENSUS

Maladjusfments in Land Use

15

Income Conditions. — Tlie tnt;il \;iliio of production
of tho fiirnis to be retired was $L'():^,(; 10,000 in 1029.
This includes ])roducts consumed \iy the fjiiiiily ;is
well as those sold or traded. A \ery large proportion
of this — 4.5 percent — was consumed on the farm and 5")
percent was commercial j)ro(]uction. Tiiese pei'cont-
ages, wlien compared witii i:> i)ercent fin' prothicts
consumed on tlie farm and S7 p(>rcent for products sold
from the farm for all farms in tiie rnif(>d States, show
that these farms in the p<ior fai-miim' areas are nnicli
less commercial than are the other fainis of the countrv
as a whole (see fig. '^). There is consid(Mat)le variation
in tiie degree of commercialization on (licse farms
locateil on ])oor land. Those located in the (ii'cat
I^Jains, the Columhia Basin, the Interior Basin, and
I lie Cotton Belt are more highly conunerciali/.ed than
'hose in other regions.

Low income is the basic cause for many of (he (hlli-
culties prevalent in submarginal land areas. Small
incomes are found, however, in good as well as in ])oor
sections. The so-caJled suf>marginal land areas are,
to state the matter briefly, merely those where tfiere
appears to he no possibility of increasing the returns
on low-income farms. The c:ross income in some

instances may a[)p(>ar (o he f.airly large, hut that [)art
available for- family living ma.v 1)C wholly inadecjuate
because of very high costs; in other instances, where
theie is little cash outlay, a small gross income may
l)rovide a much bettei- ih^ income. It is the net income
axailahle for the family living, therefore, which really
determines the |)rofitableness or unprofitableness of
farming, and hence is one of th(^ imi)ortant criteria
used to determitie whether or not land should remain
in agriculture. Outside of areas of specialized ])ro-
duction, such as the Cotton Belt or the Wheat Belt,
most of the farms on submarginal land are getu>ral
farms, and even in (he poorer parts of the s|)('ci;dized
farming regions general I'ai'ms an^ ipiitc conunon. On
this type of farm whei'e, during more prosperous times,
the gross production may average .$,500 (including the
])ro(lucts consumed by the farm family), the actual cash
income available for family living will be less than
.$2.50. On geiKMal f.irms in the Cotton Belt the gross
production averages $:?00 or less and the net cash
income is only a little over .$100.

A picture of the inadequacy of the living available
from submarginal land is given in table I. This siiows
how an income of .$2:^.5 in cash and .$2(i.5 of honic-grown

FlcrRE .f. ("iiiniiier<i:il agriculture ischamctcrisiiciif iiraciirally all parts of the Cnitoii State.';, cvcept the Siiutliern A|ipalachians. In sever..»l coimtios of e.islern Kentucky only
about one-fourth of the products of the farms, iiieasureil by \'aUie. were sold in 1929, according to the census. On the other hand, ui most of the States westward and soutli-
we.stward from Iowa, also in northern and central lllitiois, parts of Indiana. Ohio, Xew Vork, and •\rassachu.sel ts, and in nearly all Now Jersey, over "JOi>ercent of the products
of the farms were .sold. These figures are heavily weighted by the larger farms, which sell nearly all their iiroducts. However, in all the United States in 1929 there were only
500,000 ■■self-siiiricins" farms, that Ls, farms on which more than half the products were used by the farm family. This is about 8 percent o( all farms, o-xcluding the 340,000
part-time farms, many of which are also self-sufficing.

16

Land Planning Report

products, and one of $120 cash and $180 of home-grown
products, tends to be distributed. This is compared
with the distribution of living costs during reasonably
prosperous times of farmers in better fanning areas.
One hundred dollars is the minimum amount of cash
needed to provide the barest outlay of those food
necessities which cannot be produced on the farm. A
cash expenditure, therefore, of $60 or less means that
the people do not have adequate food. That many of
the families in these areas are imdernourished is e\'i-
dent. Dietary studies in two counties ha^ang consid-
erable areas of the type of land under consideration
show a decided lack of iron, calcium, phosphorus, pro-
tein, and vitamins in the diets of the people. An ade-
quate supply of the first 4 elements was found in
only 3 out of 41 families in the poorer county and in
7 out of 15 in the county wliich has less of the poorer
land. In neither of these two counties are all the farms
on land as poor as that which it is proposed to retire.

Table 1. — Distribution of farm family living when the total annual
value of family living is $300, $.500, and $825, and with cash in-
comes of $1S0, $235, and $-500, respectively

■ lEscluding housing]

Total value

Furnished..
Purchased.

Food

Furnished

Purchased

Clothing

Household operation

Furnished

Purchased

Furnishings and equipment

Transportation

Personal care

Medical care

Formal education, recreation, gifts outside the fam-
ily, and community welfare

Savings

$300

$500

180

265

120

235

$230

$350

(170)

(250)

(60)

(100)

30

60

25

40

(10)

(15)

(15)

(25)

2

10

2

4

3

ID

3

10

5

10

0

6

$825
325
500

$450
(300)
(ISO)
100
85
(25)
(60)
3D
25
20
3D

60
25

The comparison of the living provided by these low
incomes with that provided by incomes of farmers at a
higher level shows that a large proportion of the low
incomes goes for the bare necessities of life and a very
small proportion goes to make Uving more worth wliile ;
food and clothing, 82 and 87 percent as compared to
67 percent, and for those items making for a higher
plane of li^^ng (the items listed under "Furnishings" to
"Savings"), 10 and 5 percent as compared to 2,3 per-
cent. Housing has not been included in the discus-
sion above. There is much more variation in the hous-
ing on this poor land than in the other items. In
areas where farming was prosperous at one time and
in individual instances where the farmer has moved
onto the land in possession of sufficient capital, the
houses may be fairly adequate. But on most of the
farms situated on poor land the housing is relatively no
better than the other aspects of living. Even the num-
ber of rooms available is often inadequate, and such
facilities as running water, telephones, and electricity,
are almost entii-ely lacking.

Public Services and Institutions. — Schools, roads,
churches, and other community facUities. are also mea-
ger and of poor quality. The schools provide for little
else than teaching children to read and write, ^^^len
a comparative study is made of the value of school
property, school expenditures per pupil, teachers' sal-
aries, length of school session, average attendance, and
such other items indicating the quality of schooling,
these areas rank veiy low. A very large proportion of
the farms to be retired are located on unimproved dirt
roads. It is probable that of these farms less than one-
third are on improved roads of any kind. For the
country as a whole, over 60 percent of all farms are on
roads improved to some degree. Some of the counties,
in which considerable areas of this poor land are located,
have but one graveled road, that connecting the
county seat with a neighboring county seat. These
areas could not provide even the schools and roads
which they do possess if it were not for State and Fed-
eral aid for roads and State aid for schools. Church
facilities are even poorer, for here they are compelled
to depend to a greater extent upon their own resources.
In the southern mountain areas, many counties from
which it is proposed to retire land from arable farm-
ing, have a church membersliip of less than one-third
of their population as compared with nearly one-half
of the rural population of the country as a whole. The
community, because of the poor roads, inadequate
schools and churches, cannot contribute much to a
fuller life for these people. Spontaneous social group-
ings do not occur; clannislmess and extreme individ-
ualism are prevalent.

It is not surprising that people who are living at the
economic margin even in prosperous times have to rely
upon reUef when their low income is curtailed. Infor-
mation regarding the relief burden in these poor areas
is not available, but data for counties having large
areas of submarginal land indicate that the relief bur-
den is much above the average for the United States.
In some of these counties over half the population was
receiving relief in May and June 1934. For those fam-
ilies on distinctly "problem land", it is probable that
from one-fifth to one-third are on relief. For the relief
load by counties, see the maps showing relief for Octo-
ber 1933 and May 1934.

The conditions described below, however, are not
those wliich have resulted from the present depression,
from drought, or from other unusual causes. They
are conditions under which the farmers on such land
lived in more prosperous times, conditions better than
those likely to prevail in the future, and vastly better
than those at the present time. The inadequacy of
the results to be obtained from cultivating poor land
can only be realized when they be compared with the
results to be obtained from farming in other areas under

Maladjustments in Land Use

17

similar general economic conditions or to conditions
under which it should be possible for them to live else-
where, considering the resources and technical knowl-
edge that are available.

Some of tliis land has always been of low quality and
has always pro\-ided a low level of Uving for the people
who have operated it. Other land may have at one
time supported the people on it at a comparatively
adecpiate level, but the soil has become so depleted
that it now provides a very meager livelihood. In
other areas, the competition of better land has reduced
the income on this relatively poor land so that a satis-
factory return is no longer possible. In the more re-
cently settled areas a few exceptionally favorable crop
years, or high-pressure salesmanship, have induced
families to settle on land which should never have been
cultivated.

Problems of Loral Government. — Costs of local govern-
ment vary widely among the different areas of poor
land. In some densely populated poor-land areas,
particularly in States which have offered little assistance
to local units of government in the attainment of high
standards of public services, the total dollar costs per
capita of local government are very low. Such
expenditures buy only the minimum of services —
salaries of public officials are small, roads poor, and
school buildings often inadequate. In many instances
schools have heavj' enrollments per teacher, therebj'^
creating a minimum cost for providing instruction.

Some economies in government might be possible
through reorganization, particularly by the consolida-
tion of small counties, but in general these areas already
are at bedrock of expenditures. What is actually
needed is a reorganization of the economic basis of the
community, a circumstance which would provide a
redirected use of the resources and afford the people
of the region greater economic opportunity and greater
abilitj* to support governnrent.

In the poor land sections of some States one may,
on the other hand, find a very expensive system of
local government with costs high in relation to both
population and taxable property. Particularly is
this the case in the settlements within cut-over and
dry farming country, where farm homes or small
communities are widely scattered. Here many forces
converge to produce high costs of local government:
Sparse settlement, wliich requires the administrative
costs of the numerous local governments to be appor-
tioned among a small population; and the scattering of
families, which necessitates many miles of road for a
few farms, a school for a few children. In 5 typical
northern Wisconsin counties, 38 towns have more
than 1 mile of road per farm, an arrangement which
costs the State $40 per mile in town road aid. There
ore literally hundreds of small schools throughout tliis

vast sparsely populated frontier zone. The furnish-
ing of such facilities is a heavy burden both upon the
State and upon the more productive parts of the coun-
ties, and m this type of area very significant savings in
school and road costs might be effected by a redistri-
bution of the population.

The demonstrational jirojects of the subnuirginal
land program have not yet been carried to the point
where the analysis of particular projects will yield a
complete picture of the fiscal conditions throughout
the problem areas. A few final proposals are avail-
able for study, however, and offer striking testimony
concerning the financial distress in submarginal land
areas.

In one Montana purchase area 40 percent of the
elementary schools have less than 10 pupils per school.
If the relocation of settlers be carried out as projected,
it is estimated that the removal of 1,000 families to
irrigation and other types of farms would make possible
an annual saving of $60,000 in schools alone. This
shift would make possible an additional estimated
savings of $50,000 each year in expenditures for roads
and comity poor relief.

In the Lake States the evidence is equally persuasive.
In one submarginal land purchase project area there,
63 percent of the farmers receive less than $100 farm
income per year. By relocating the isolated settlers,
savings of more than $100 per family in school costs
and State road aids alone are likely. A few cases
have been cited where the net cost to governmental
agencies is $500 or $600, even $1,000 per family. In
one land-purchase project area it has been estimated
that the average isolated farm family in nonagricultural
zones costs the various units of government $400 per
year more than paid in taxes.

The scattered settlement of these people combines
with the poor soil on which they live Ln a conspiracy
to keep them in poverty. In one project area in
Minnesota involving 268 families it was found that
on an average the homes were 19 miles from a shipping
point, 7 miles from a store, 20 miles from a high school,
and 27 miles from a doctor. Under such conditions
even a minimum of governmental and community
services must be expensive.

The thousands of rural commimities which are built
upon poor and ill-used land fall between the extrejues
indicated by the above. In some densely settled
areas costs are now at a minimum, although the serv-
ices are inadequate; at the other extreme are the com-
munities where settlement is sjiarse, and serious effort
is made to provide adequate services. In these latter
areas State assistance is sometimes generous. Taken
as a group, they offer great possibihties of reduction
in fiscal expenditures through relocation of persons
itiid reorganizations of government.

18

Land Plaiiiiivg Report

The costs of local croverniiipni on poor land in those
States which maintain hio;h standards of services may
be iihistrated by two Midwestern States — Wisconsin
and Indiana — which contain very different kinds of
poor-land areas. In 1932, in practically all coimties
of Wisconsin within what is commonly called the cut-
over region, costs of local govcrnnient exceeded 5 per-
cent of the true valuation of all property in the county.
In one coimty the costs were equal to almost 9 percent
of the triie value of the property. In five other coun-
ties in the Ughter soils area of the central part of the
State, total costs of local government exceeded 5
percent. In marked contrast to these comities, total
local government costs in the predominantly rural
counties of southern and eastern Wisconsin were
slightly more than 3 percent of the true value. Suni-
larly in the poor-land counties of southern Indiana
total local government costs in 1931 varied from 4
percent to almost 7 percent. In the better agricul-
tural areas the total costs of local government were
usually below 3 percent. Thus in these two States,
total costs of local government were from 50 to 100
percent higher in the poor-soil areas in relation to the
underlying property, than in the counties with the
better land.

Not all of the burden of local government costs,
however, is borne by local payers of the general prop-
erty tax. In recent years, particularly smce 1920, the
majority of States and the Federal Government have
developed a system of subventions, commonly known
as State and Federal aids. With the exception of
certain emergency-relief grants for maintenance of the
unejnployed or to prevent the closing of poor schools,
only a small amount of the Federal aids have gone to
the. direct assistance of the local imits of government.
The State aids, however, are now an established part
of the system for financing services performed by local
governments, and in practice these aids are usually
financed from sources other than the general property tax.

The mam purposes of State aids are either to assist
or induce the local governments to attain higher
standards of services or to equalize the burden of
those services which are recognized as being of wide
public interest. The school equaUzation laws are
instances of a highly developed usage of the latter
principle. vSince these State aids have been grafted
onto an existing system of local finance based upon
general property-tax revenues, it is to be expected
that any equalization of burdens would be related to
the amount of taxable property or general property
tax revenue produced within the various units of
government. Thus, in any genuine^ progressive sys-
tem where equality of burden is attempted. State aids
wiU be higher in the poorer areas. This is illustrated

by the experience of both Wisconsin and Indiana where
subventions amount to between 25 and 40 percent of
the total costs of local government in the poor land
areas, in contrast to an average of 10 jiercent or less
in the better rural coimties or in the industrial counties.

Even with the assumption by State aids of the mark-
edly greater percentage of the cost of local government
in the poor land areas, taxes le\ned for the support of
local government have been much higher in the poor
areas than in wealtliier portions of the States. The
total of local levies in 17 northern Wisconsin coimties
for county, town, school district, and city or village
taxes in 1932 exceeded 3 percent of the true value. In
one county the average rate exceeded 6 percent. Total
levies in the better farming sections averaged about 2
percent. A similar difference of from 50 to 75 percent
of the rate of the better areas e.xisted in Indiana in 1931.
Preliminary investigation indicates that generally poor
counties still pay higher rates of taxes in spite of the
many Uberal and progressive systems of State aids.

That this burden of taxation is greater than the
owTiers of property could or would bear is shown by
the high rate of tax delinquency and reversion in
northern Wisconsin and other cut-over areas. ^Yhile
tax delinquency has not reached such proportions in
Indiana as in northern Wisconsin, chronic tax delin-
quency has been most frequent in the poor-land areas
of the southern part of the former State.

The high costs of local government in poor-land
areas, both to the people living in the territory and
to the remauidcr of the State, point to the conclusion
that cost of government is determined by what may
be termed the institutional pattern of the community,
and in an agricultural community the institutional
pattern is determined by the land use. In the Ameri-
can scheme of things, persons engaged in farming are
dispersed over the land, and government services are
supplied to them at or near their doors. This manner
of dispersal means, on the basis of the probaV)ilities of
past experience, a small population scattered over a
large area of new country. In the poorer sections ill
adapted to farming, this widely scattered settlement
seems to persist for a long time.

This suggests, fiwthennore, that the only alternative
to expensive government in sparsely settled localities
is such a change in the use of the land as will modifj^
the institutional pattern of the community. In some
areas this can be accomplished by increasing the popula-
tion to the point where roads, schools, and marketing
facihties may be used more intensively. In others,
there is probably no alternative to abandonment of the
area for agricultiu-al uses and turning the land to a more
extensive use, such as timber growing or livestock
grazing.

Maladjvstments in Land Use

19

Analysis of Conditions by Regions

Social and economic land ])rolil(Mns vary greatly from
one part of the covmtry to another. Nevertheless,
they tend toward general similarity over large areas or
regions. A detailed discussion of the human conditions
together with a brief description of the physical aspects
of submarginal land is herewith presented regionally.
The discussion and data apply only to those parts of
each region in which the land is definitelj^ submarginal.
Within each of the general land-use regions there are
excellent agricultural sections, to which the descrip-
tions are not applicable. Within each region, however,
are numerous so-called submarginal areas to which they
definitely do apply. The discussion which follows is
based upon the regionalization set forth in section 1
of this report.

Northeastern Highlands

The Xew England and Middle Atlantic States
consist largely of rugged hill country, with inter-
spersed fertile valleys and lowlands. In a few loca-
lities, as the White Mountains and the Adirondacks,
the relief assumes mountainous proportions, while in
parts of Pennsylvania the region locally assumes a
plateau aspect. Hill country, mountain, plateau, and
interspersed valleys, because of general similarity in
their land-use problems, may be grouped together as
the Northeastern Highland Region.

Scattered through this region there are districts
containing many submarginal farms which in the
aggregate contain more than 7,000,000 acres of farm
land. The existence of these unprofitable farms is
due to poor soil, rough topography, stonmess, and, in
a few localities, to isolation.

Farm Abandoijinent. — AMiOe it is estmiated that more
than 50,000 farms in this region should ultimately be
retired, and the land on them permanently withdrawn
from agriculture, such a figure by no means indicates
the full jueasure of the original submargiiud land prob-
lem, because farm abandonment has here been going
on for more than a centurs*. Consequently, many
farms on poor land have already been retired through
the spontaneous process of abandonment. This adjust-
ment has been facilitated by the development of sources
of industrial employment in the region, and by the
opening of more productive agricultural lands in the
West, both of which offered a better livelihood than
agriculture on the steeper and stonier lands. Despite
this economic adjustment in the past, there appears to
remain in use a considerable body of farm land so poor
as to offer little hope of yielding a reasonable return for
the farmers' labor even under conditions of national
prosperity.

Owing to population increase iti tJie coastal lowlnuds,
nuich of the adjacent highland area was well occupied

before the Revolutionary War and the remainder was
at least thiidy settled soon after. In most of the towns
of the region, the amount of laiul in agricultu7-al use
reached a maxinuun about 1810 and remained at that
level until shortly after 1.S30. The opening of the Erie
C^inal and the subsecpienti construction of railroads
facilitated the settlement of tiie Middle West and
changed the entire agricultural set-ii|) in the Northern
States. At the same time, manufactural industries
which had been scattered through small villages and
rural cojuinunities began to concentrate in large city
areas. The hill farmer cultivating poor soil and rough
terrain, soon found it ijupossible ti> compete with the
midland farmer in the production of wool, meat, and
grain. Siiuultaiu^ously both the cheai) western lands
and the high wages prevailing in nearby industrial cities
offered direct uiducements to farm abandonment. Con-
secjuently, many of the rural towns of this region have
shown a continuous decline in population since 1830.

Early Self-suflirhig Econamy.- The hill towns of the
Northeast constituted, at the beginning of the nine-
teenth century, largely self-sufficing communities.
What was true of the town or township was also true
of the indivitlual farm. Not only did it tend to meet
its own needs in food and clothing, but to supply most
of the required nonagricultural products as well.

With the development of manufacturing and trading
in the nearby villages and cities, northeastern farms
manifested some tendency to specialize in the produc-
tion of sheep, beef cattle, and daiiy products. Western
competition first ruined sheep rearing, and later drove
out the production of beef. Finally, even the making of
cheese and butter became unprofitable in many local-
ities. Today, a majority of farms in the Northeastern
Highlands are engaged in producing milk for city con-
sumption. They are, however, nnich smaller and less
specialized than the farms in the adjoining better
dallying areas.

Disifrtctn of Loin Incomes.-- Tin- returns from agi'icul-
ture in the poorer parts of this region are and always
have been small. Low soil fertility, stoniness, and
rugged topography have been reductive factors, but
almost equally important is the small size of fields which
characterizes the farms of the region and which is the
result of physical ruggcdness. Modern machmery ean
be used only to a limited extent, and the amount of man
labor required to produce the moderate yields which
are returned is veiy high. Conscfpiently, supplemen-
tary^ sources of incojne have been eagerly sought. In
much of this region, lumbering at one time offered
auxiliary winter employment. In the early jiart of the
nmeteenth century snuill local manufactories offered
part-time employment in many localities. This resulted
from the fact that much of the land in the region is aiul
always has been forest land not in farms. Although

20

Land Planning Report

intensive forest management is practiced in some local-
ities and although the recreational use of forest is con-
siderable, great areas of forest land are contributing
very little to the support of local communities.

Coal mines and oil fields (after 1859) also offered
employment in parts of New York and Pennsylvania,
as did marble, granite, and slate quarries in certain
New England towns. These various local industries
have served not only as sources of part-time wages,
but what is more important, they also have provided
local markets for farm products. Unfortunately, many
of these supplements to farm incomes have either
vanished or are greatly reduced. To a limited extent,
they have been replaced by income derived from
tourists, but this is true only in certain favored
locahties.

Small Cro-p Acreage on Farms. — The average "sub-
marginal" farm in tliis region appears to be fairly
large if measured in terms of total acreage. If, how-
ever, it be judged by amount of crop acreage or by
volume of business transacted it is very small. Even
in fairly propserous years the total production from
such farms will not average over $500 annually. By
total production is here meant not only products sold
off the farm, but those consumed by the farm family
as well. Commonly about two-thirds of the products
of these farms go to family living, whereas only one-
third or less enter commercial channels.

General Social Conditions. — Social conditions in the
submarginal parts of the Northeastern Highlands,
while superior to those in many other "problem areas"
in the United States, appear in a very poor light when
compared with conditions in regions of stable agri-
cultural adjustment.

Moreover, if many of the highland or hill towns of
New England or the Middle Atlantic States were forced
to maintain their own commimity mstitutions and
facilities from local tax funds, public services might
be no better than those in some of the self-sufficing
districts in the Southern Highlands. As it is, sub-
marginal farm conamunities in most instances are
only small patches scattered through the region. They
frequently, therefore, share the same local government
with well-to-do agricultural localities. These latter are
compelled to maintain, in large part, public services
for the poor communities with which they are politically
united. To a certain extent, subventions from the
States care for the needs of the submarginal districts.
In some areas in the Northeastern Highlands, 90 per-
cent or more of the cost of operating rural schools is
met by State aid funds. Likewise, a large proportion
of road construction and maintenance costs are de-
frayed from the treasuries of the several States. Not
only are these areas agriculturally submarginal, there-
fore, but they are really no more than mendicant

communities which constitute a permanent drain
upon adjacent more prosperous regions.

Savings Through Farm Retirement — The elimination
of "problem" farms from this region will obviously
reduce expenses for schools and roads. In one locality
comprising six rural towns, the average school ex-
penditure per pupil exceeds $100 annually; in another,
the expenditure was $71. Such costs compare un-
favorably with an average of $58.4.3 for the State as
a whole.

"Problem" farm retirement would also permit the
closing of many miles of roads, leaving only those
needed for the forest or recreational use to which the
land may be put. The savings accomplished by the
elimination of roads and schools would very soon
equal the total cost of acquiring the submarginal
farms in some of the areas in question. Moreover, in
all such areas the savings within a few years would
amoimt to a substantial portion of the cost of farm
retu'ement.

Wliile fiscal savings constitute an important item,
they are by no means the only or even the most im-
portant consideration. The principal reason for Fed-
eral or State acquisition of these lands is to provide
for those who are now attempting to eke out a living
on poor land, a chance to relocate where better oppor-
tunities exist. Such a program would also prevent
these low-grade lands from being resettled by others
who are ignorant of the lack of opportunities offered
in these areas. On many hill farms the process of
occupation and abandonment has been repeated over
and over by those unacquainted with actual conditions
on these uneconomic lands.

Southern Highlands and Their Margins

This region has been referred to as a forgotten
frontier, and its mhabitants have been called pock-
eted Americans, our contemporary ancestors, survivals
of Elizabethan England, and twentieth century pio-
neers. All of these characterizations are inaccurate,
but they do express certain elements of truth in regard
to the social geography of the region.

More than one-fourth of all farms in the United
States which have been proposed for retirement lie in
the Southern Highlands. Farm retirement here is not
a matter of economic recover^' nor of the regaming of
prosperity; the people have never been prosperous.
The highlands were first settled by frontiersmen at a
time when rugged, wooded country represented the
most desirable land. Later, the population was aug-
mented by white farmers crowded out of the Cotton
Belt by slave labor and plantation management. Be-
tween 1800 and 1860 the people of this region existed
under a lower standard of living than that of most
Negro slaves on plantations. Since the Civil War, life

Maladjustments in Land Use

21

in regions adjoining the Southern Highlands has been
increasingly commercialized, whereas it has here
largely retained its pioneer self-sufficing character.
This condition alone is enough to place the highlands
in an increasingly unfavorable light as compared to its
neighbor areas. As pointed out by Dr. A. E. Morgan,
Tennessee Valley Authority, most of the inhabitants
have never known prosperity in any form. There are
many thousands of families which have never seen as
much as $300 a year cash income.

General regional character. — 'Wliile this area is cus-
tomarily referred to as a highland region, very little
of it actually exhibits such characteristics. It is only
in northeastern Georgia, western North Carolina, and
adjoinmg small parts of Tennessee and Virginia that
the physical relief assumes mountainous proportions.
Elsewhere, the area consists of rugged hill countiy,
little if any higher than the bordering plains.

This region receives an abundant rainfall of 40 to
60 inches and in some locahties nearly 80 inches
annually; temperatures are mild and represent a
transition from continental to subtropical conditions.
Consequently, this hill region originally supported a
fine cover of trees, in fact the finest hardwood forest in
the world aside from the selvas of the tropics.

Isolation. — The Southern Highlands are located in the
east central portion of the country and accessible by
one day of automobile travel from Chicago, St. Louis,
Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cleve-
land, Cincinnati, or Detroit. Nevertheless they are
isolated to an imusual degree. In part this is due to
the physical relief of the region and in part to the
nature of the transportation pattern of eastern United
States.

Most of the main railway lines avoid this region,
skirting cither its northern or southern margins. For
many decades most sections were wholly without rail-
roads. Even today existing rail facilities are for the
most part minor lines designed for transporting timber,
coal, and other raw products. National arterial liigli-
ways also have tended to avoid the Southern Highlands.
In a few instances, however, highways have been con-
structed directly through the region in order to reduce
its isolation and make its scenery available to tourists.
At the present time many counties are acquiring their
first graveled roads, and numerous localities are still
accessible only by horseback, or by jolt wagon. Ap-
proach to the area from some quarters is made difficult
by steep escarpments and broken topography, and
travel within the region is rendered difficult by tortu-
ous rivers, labyrinthine valleys, and long unbroken
ridges.

In the relative seclusion of the highlands pioneer
conditions have been perpetuated to a surprising degree.
Far from markets and denied the possibihty of a large

cash income, families have tended to produce what
they needed for their consumption. Consequently the
region is characterized largely by general agriculture
and in many localities by self-sufficing farming.

Blue Ridge Mountain Section.— -This physical feature
is a narrow ridge in Maryland and northern Virginia,
but toward the south it widens out into a high and
rugged mountain area. In North Carolina it reaches
a width of more than 100 miles. This section has no
coal, only a moderate amount of arable land, but rather
excellent resources of timber. The more accessible
portions were logged over many years ago, but in the
more isolated districts the forests are just now being
exploited.

Arable land is, in the main, scattered through the
mountains in small patches known as coves or hollows.
These vary in size from those able to contain only one,
two, or three farm families, on up to those large enough
to support several score of families. The pressure of
population has become so great that every spot where
cultivation is possible has been occupied. The soil,
originally quite fertile, has in many localities been
depleted by overcropping. Most of these coves are
badly isolated from other similar areas and from mar-
kets. Houses and living standards are poor. Local
intermarriage has been the common practice, and
degeneracy and feeble-mindedness are said to have
resulted all too frequently. Owing to dispersed settle-
ment these people cannot be adequately served by
schools, churches, or public-health and social-welfare
workers.

Ridge and Valley Section. — Just west of the Blue
Ridge a long narrow belt of alternating ridges and
valleys, known as the Folded Appalachians, extends
from central Alabama northward to Maryland. Three
hundred miles to the west in Arkansas and Oklahoma
lie the similar Ouachitas. Many of the valleys are
floored with fertile limestone soil and the larger ones
are fairly accessible. Many of the smaller valleys,
however, are extremely isolated and frequently contain
poor shale soils.

Farms on the ridges themselves and those in many
of the extremely isolated canoe-shaped valleys are
definitely submarginal and should be replaced by
forest. Particularly is this true in the Ouachitas,
where low-grade, self-sufficing agriculture is almost
universal.

Plateau Areas. — Locally, the Southern Higldands
present the aspect of small plateaus, or elevated table-
lands bounded by steep escarpments. Sand Mountain
and Walden Ridge in Tennessee and Alabama, portions
of the Cumberland section in Kentucky, and niany of
the narrow flat-topped ridges m West Virgmia are ex-
amples of fairly level land upon the higher elevations.
In such localities, the roads, farms, and settlements lie

22

Land Planning Report

upon the ridges and upland arens rather thnn in tlie
narrow intervening valley. The narrow ridges afford
room for perhaps only one elongated farm. Wider
areas may accommodate many farms and even small
communities.

For the most part the upland soils are poor and stony,
the summers provide relatively short growing seasons,
and access to markets and outside communities is poor.
To provide public services for farms on the smaller
plateau areas is very costly and usually wholly un-
economic.

Cumherland-Ozark Hill Country. — A large part of the
Southern Highlands was once a plain or low plateau.
Stream erosion and dissection, liowever, has progressed
so far that most of it has been transformed mto an elab-
orately branching system of narrow, steep-sided valleys
separated by winding knife-edged ridges. The present
appearance is that of a rugged hill country, exhibiting
great relief in the so-called Boston and rumberland
"Moimtain" sections, but elsewhere, as in the Highland
Rim and Shawnee Hills, showing a low relief of only a
few score feet.

Agriculture. — Agricultural and other economic and
social conditions vary from one part of the Southern
Highlands to another. The Cumberland hill country,
however, may be taken as fairly typical of the region as
a whole, and hence forms the basis of discussion in the
pages which follow.

Valley land was early settled and brought under
cultivation. The natural mcrease of population, which
has not been counterbalanced by emigration, has
finally resulted m the utilization of practically all arable
land in the Cumberlands with the exception of some
of the southern portions. Unlike the rougher and less
desirable parts of the Northeastern Highlands, the
steeper parts of the Southern Highlands have not, in
general, experienced much migration from rural areas.
On the contrary, m most sections farm population has
increased, and in some, notably in eastern Kentuckv,
it has increased much beyond the capacity of the agri-
cultural land resources to support it.

In many of the so-called submarginal localities, there-
fore, much sterile and very steep land has been cleared
and planted. Except along the larger streams, there
is rarely any level land in the valleys. Hence the
fields run steeply up the hOlsides. After several gener-
ations of primitive cultivation, much land has been
eroded beyond repair and abandoned. Many a barren
field, however, is still doggedly tilled as the only means
of family subsistence. The average crop land per farm
ranges from 16 to 40 acres, and in no case is it very
large.

Social and Economic Conditions. ^F arm incomes are
exceptionally low. Within submarginal areas scat-
tered through five States in this region 40 to 00 percent

of ail farmers received an income under $600 in 1929.
The average income ranged between $364 and $391.
Since from $125 to $245 of this was living contributed
by the farm, it may readily be seen that cash incomes
are indeed low. Many a home must get along with less
than $100 in cash per year.

Poor living conditions must necessarily results from
such low incomes. Houses are often small, shake-
roofed log cabins surviving from earlier days, but more
often they arc simple board shacks, devoid of paint.
They usually possess but one story, a chimney of rough
stones and mortar, and a porch with unsightly shelves
or pegs for pails and kettles. In 1930, the average
value of 228 houses examined in Knott Coimty, Ky.,
was only $340. In some instances the value of houses
ran as low as $20.

Where the family is unusually large, a house may
have as many as 3 or 4 rooms, each containing 1 or
more double beds. Walls are commonly papered with
newspapers, windows are unscreened, and heat is
furnished by an open fireplace. Eoofs often ai-e leaky,
and most of the scanty furniture is home-made. Sani-
tary arrangements are crude or lacking altogether.
Wells are unprotected from contamination, spring
floods often sweeping the filth from a farmyard into
the wells farther down the valley.

Diet consists largely of corn bread, bacon, and
sorghiun molasses, supplemented in summer with
vegetables either fresh or cooked in bacon fat. A
survey of 41 sample diets in 1930 found that the food
habits of these people generally resulted in serious
deficiencies in phosphorus, calcium, iron, proteins,
and vitamins.

Typhoid fever and dj^sentery are common. Tuber-
culosis claims many victims, and hookworm is highly
prevalent in many districts. Serious epidemics of con-
tagious diseases are common. Doctors are few outside
the few larger toAvns of the region. Patients needing
medical care and hospital treatment are sometimes
carried on men's shoulders for many miles over rough
hill trails. The general level of physical efficiency is
low, the death rate is high, and old age comes early to
most men and women.

Bad as are the conditions m these submarginal farm
areas, those in some of the coal-mining districts are still
worse. To work in the mines, many families left their
self-sufficing farms and settled in miners' shacks with-
out even garden space. In numerous instances the
mines have subsequently shut down and have left
hopelessly stranded considerable groups of these
people.

Though one-room schools are numerous, many of the
submarginal farms are too remote from them for regular
attendance. Equipment is often jioor and teaching
inadequate. In spite of rapid improvement in recent

Maladjustments in Land Use

23

years, and notwithstanding the cstahlishniont of schools
under home missionary and piiilanthropic agencies in
many locahties, tlie schooHiig provided the children of
families in the "problem" districts is far from equal to
that offered in other regions.

Although churches are highly esteemed, many remote
vallcj's have no religious organizations or services, and
others have only churches of ancient sects which else-
where have long since passed out of existence. Preach-
ers of whatever denomination are almost invariably
uneducated men who earn their living through fanning
or some other secular occupation. Many families in
tiie submarginal areas are quite out of touch with any
church, and comparatively small proportions of the
whole population are enlisted in the church member-
ship. Sunday schools are rarely found outside the
laiger towns. Preaching services and other gathermgs
of a religious or semireligious nature, form almost the
only organized means of social contact, there being
almost no social organizations other than churches.
Informal social contacts are limited to those of family
life and the visiting of neighbors.

In these areas public relief is a serious probleni. In
four counties, more than half the population was receiv-
ing relief in May 1934, and in some months this has
been true in an even larger number of counties. Indeed,
the whole Southern Highland region is one of a very
few sections of the country where the Federal Emer-
gency Relief Adimnistration has had to extend public
relief to large proportions of the total population (see
niiips of public relief).

Border Areas. — In southern Illinois and Indiana,
southeastern Ohio, and western Kentucky are extensive
areas which, while not strictly a part of this region physi-
cally, do exhibit manj" problems in common with it.

These border districts are nearer to the prosperous
agricultural areas of the Middle West, and aie more
accessible to city markets. Thej' are lower in eleva-
tion and less rugged in relief, and ajjproach to them is,
therefore, not diffioult. The forest and mineral re-
sources have been thoroughly exploited, and manj^ of
the more hilly farms have been impoverished by long
cultivation. Buildings are falling into disrejiair, local
markets have dwindled with the passing of lumbering,
quan-ying, and other local industries, and tax delin-
(|uency is becoming a serious jjrobleni.

Kmigration has been severe, and has seriouslj' im-
jjaired many local communities. Subventions for such
localities iiave made heavy drains on State funds. For
example, of the total amount expendetl for public
services in Vinton County, Ohio, more than half was
provided by the State. All througli the border dis-
tricts the pul)iic relief load has been heavy. In many
instances this has resulted from derelict city families
lleemg the depression and temporarily occupying tiie

many abandoned farmsteads scattered through these
hilly areas. This recent movement has brought no
additional taxable wealth to the areas in question, but
it has greatly augmented school, road, and relief loads.

Southeastern Hilly Cotton and Tobacco Region

This region extends a thousand miles southwest-
ward from the Potomac to the bluffs of the lower
Mississippi. Included in it are such diverse sections as
the old j)lantation district of Virginia, the Piedmont
Lfpland, the clay and sand hills of the upper Atlantic
Coastal Plain, the Black Belt of Alabama and Missis-
sippi, and the rolling uplands of the (lulf Coastal
Plain. In spite of this phj'sical diversity, the region
shows a definite unity in land use and in attendant
land use problems.

Much of the land in this region is rolling or hilly in
character, and therefore subject to many of the prob-
lems which are prevalent in the Southern Highlands.
"Problem" farming is almost as extensive and probably
constitutes a more urgent situation here than in the
Southern Plighlands. Consequentlj^, this region con-
tains in proportion to its area, more farms recommended
for elimination than do the latter. For these reasons, it
might possibly be grouped with the eastern highland
regions.

On the other hand, the physical relief is much less,
and the proportion of land suitable for arable faiining
much greater than in the highlands. Indeed, this
region might well be classified with the better agricul-
tural group of regions. It differs from these, however,
in its manifestation of a prevalence of "problem"
farming on submarginal land. Because of these over-
lapping characteristics, tliis region should probably be
treated as a unique case.

These so-called "problem" farms are very small in
size and contain an average of only IS acres in har-
vested crops, and have an average in real-estate value
of only $507. The proportion of croppers and tenants,
both black and white, among farmers is very high.
This suggests that most of the farming is carried on
without reserve resources. By the same token, fann
efforts are n\ainly directed toward the proiluctiun of
immediate-money crops such as cotton ami tobacco.
When market prices are low, therefore, the region
suffers general misfortune. Consecpiently, the condi-
tion of both the land and its cultivators is critical
over large areas.

Soil Erosion- With the exception of parts of tlie
Black Belt and other snudl local areas, the surface of
the southeastern hilly cotton and tobacco region varies
from moderately to steeply rolling. In places the
topography is nuukedly hilly, ])articularly in the
localities near the larger streams. A large proportion
of the total land area has been cleared and devoted to

24

Land Planning Report

agricultural uses. Crops demanding clean intertillage
have been planted on very hilly land.

Few agricultural areas in the United States experi-
ence as large an annual rainfall as does this region.
No part of it receives less than 40 inches and many
sections receive 50 to 60 inches. The rainfall is most
abundant dui'ing the summer and autumn when the
loosened soil is particularly exposed to erosion. The
heavy and sudden tliundershower occurrence of the
summer rainfall is peculiarly conducive to soil destruc-
tion. Winter temperatures are mild and the ground
is usually not frozen. Hence the abundant winter
rains are able to continue the processes of erosion
without interruption.

Rectiliaear plowing on rolling and steep liilly land
has hastened both sheet wasliing and gullying. Strik-
ing examples of this may be seen in several localities
in northeastern Mississippi, where the soil was originally
a yellow loam varying from 3 to 7 feet in thickness.
Under clean cultivation sheet erosion was so severe
that large areas were abandoned. Gullies then
developed in the idle fields, and at the same time the
sandy subsoil layer was washed out. This under-
mined the topsoil and caused it to cave in. Soon the
hills were stripped bare of their loam and only a sterile
sand covering was left. The beds of streams were
choked with eroded materials, and the valley soils
were covered with coarse sand deposits. In the end,
much agricultural land was converted into sandy
waste.

Under continuous cropping in cotton and tobacco,
any but the best grade of land soon becomes depleted.
Many fields reaching this condition are let lie fallow.
When hilly or even moderately rolling land lies fallow
without a grass cover, serious erosion soon takes place.

With so many conditions augmenting soil destruc-
tion, it is not surprising that large amounts of eroded
land are found in nearly every part of this region.
On the Piedmont section of North Carolina, for ex-
ample, 704,528 acres, or 20 percent of the total cleared
land, are estimated to be in the more serious stages of
erosion. Tliis is an area larger than the State of
Rhode Island. Prior to the advance of the boll
weevil into this region, soils of heavier textures were
at little disadvantage in cotton production, except for
the tendency to erode more rapidly. Under conditions
of boU-weevU infestation, however, finer textured soils
experience greater incidence of boll-weevil injury
because of the later maturity of cotton grown on them.
Erosion of the sandy surface soils, particularly in the
Piedmont, often exposes a sandy clay subsoil less
desirable for cotton, even if not injured by gullying.

Farm Organization. — During the early stages of
agricultural development the lands of the Southeast
were cultivated in a prodigal spirit. A few years of

tobacco cultivation robbed them of their humus and
soluble plant foods, after which they were abandoned
for freshly cleared fields. Large plantations soon
developed, based first upon indentured white farm
labor, and later upon Negro slave labor. Neither of
these types knew anything about the wise use of soil,
and the owners and overseers knew but little more.

When the system of plantations run by means of
slave labor was ended by the Civil War, there arose
gradually a system by wliich the Negroes did the farm
work under supervision for a share of the crop. At the
same time many poor white farmers, who had lived in
the Appalachian Highlands, the Piney Woods, and
elsewhere outside the plantation belt, took advantage
of the collapse in the price of farm land following the
war to secure farms. Many such white farmers settled
in the upper part of the Piedmont, and in other un-
developed or less developed areas. Large numbers of
tenants, too poor to own tools or draft animals, worked
for the large landowners on a share basis under the
name of croppers. Since the Civil War the proportion
of farms operated by tenants has steadily risen, until
1930 it was 64 percent or more in the portions of those
States lying in this region.

In some areas the land is so largely operated by ten-
ants or croppers that the use of land is controlled by
their activity. In effect, these tenants are equivalent
to hired farm labor, but, being paid in kind rather than
in cash, and operating each a separate tract, their
status is also more or less that of farm operators.
They are enumerated as such by the Federal Census.
The scheme of operating farms by means of share-
tenants accompanied by a crop-lien system of merchant
credit to tenants, was devised following the Civil War,
as a means of enabling the landowners without liquid
capital to operate their farms. It has served this pur-
pose, but has given rise to practices not conducive to
stable land use. Merchant and landlord credit se-
cured by a crop requires that tenants use their labor in
producing cash crops, preferably nonperishable com-
modities rather than subsistence crops or livestock.
Tenants, having little stake in the land they operate,
and receiving little incentive to practice good land
management because of lack of immediate benefit and
of uncertain tenure, fail to effect soil maintenance.

Between poverty and inabihty to plan ahead, neither
tenants nor, in many cases, landlords have been able
to meet the expense of raising a crop and of supportmg
their families until it was marketed and, therefore, a
large proportion of the farm operations have, of neces-
sity, been conducted on credit. Rates of interest have
been high and returns have been uncertain, varying
with the year's crop and with the market price.

Unfavorable factors. — Since credit can be obtamed by
tenants only on the security of a cash crop, one-crop

Maladjustments in Land Use

25

systems of farming have become firmly established in
this region. Cotton tends to be the money crop wher-
ever climatic conditions permit its production, although
locally tobacco and, in a few instances, other products
replace it. To a considerable extent even subsistence
crops are crowded out by these main cash products.

The tenant-credit-cash crop system of agriculture has
some very imfavorable results. The farm-tenant in-
come is too small to permit of more than a bare sub-
sistence to the family and the continuous cropping and
poor methods of cultivation promote soil erosion and
the depletion of soil fertility. This sj-stem has pre-
cluded the development of an energetic, progressive
class of landowning farmers, and has kept the standard
of living at a low level. It has tended to keep schooling
brief and intermittent and the percent of illiteracy
high — particularly among Negroes. It has encouraged
landlords and merchants to exploit ignorant and help-
less debtors and has rendered imstable both the eco-
nomic and social structure of the community. The
ravages of the boll weevil together with the low price
of cotton during the last several years have combined
to make more difficult the plight of both tenant and
owner. Even Government regulation of crop acreage
has not solved the matter. Such conditions are fea-
tures not only of the submarginal areas but of the
whole cotton and tobacco region, although they are
most serious in the poorer districts.

Standard of Living and Diet. — Over large areas 80
percent or more of the farm families report an average
annual income of less than $1,000. Indeed, a consid-
erable proportion receives less than $600 annually.
The effectiveness of these incomes is considerably
diminished by charges of 20- and 25-percent interest
for supplies purchased on credit from local stores. In
good years whatever surplus is realized is soon spent
for unnecessary articles vended by traveling salesmen
and agents.

Forest products have long provided a supplementary
income in many of the more hilly localities, but this
has been a dwindling source of revenue as more and
more of the slopes are cleared to compensate for the
fields ruined by erosion. In the more severelj' eroded
sections incomes are so low that the}' barely afford the
means of livelihood. Some farmers are so poor that
they do not own even a cow or a pig.

Houses in the submarginal areas rellect the low
income conditions rather strikingly. In western Ten-
nessee, for example, homes in the eroded districts are
built of rough lumber, unpaintcd, and badly arranged
and constructed. None have running water or sewage
disposal, many are not screened, and all are cheaply
and meagerly furnished.

In lieu of barns there are only a few sheds and lean-
tos. So poor are living conditions in the poorer parts

of the Piedmont section of this region that large
numbers of farmers, both black and white, have emi-
grated to the North or to the nearby mill cities.

The diet of the cotton farmer is usually deficient in
certain essentials, even during prosperous periods.
During hard times the diet of tenant families, particu-
larly, tends to be restricted to the "tlu-ee M's" (meal,
meat, and molasses). This, even when not deficient
in amount, is apparently conducive to pellagra. In
addition, many families on poorer lands undoubtedly
do not have enough food of whatever quality.

Tax Delin<iuency. — In many of the submarginal areas
in this region tax delinquency is high and has accumu-
lated over periods of 4 to 6 years. In 4 sample districts
the rate of delinquency was respectively 50, 56, 70,
and 100 percent. In many of the depleted and eroded
areas the land is no longer capable of contributing a
living for the tenant family and an income to the
landlord, and of earning taxes besides. As a conse-
quence, tax receipts have seriously declined and
promise to shrink further in the future.

Many of the county governments are financially in
the doldrums and some of them are so hard hit as to be
unable to maintain pubUc services and social institu-
tions. In those States wluch he partially within this
region, the counties are generally unable to meet their
pubhc-relief problems, although most of them are
making earnest attempts to do so.

Many famihes in the hilly cotton and tobacco region
are receiving pubUc rehef funds, as is the case in other
areas of "problem" farming. The Federal Emergency
Rehef Administration montlily maps, however, show
that in this region the proportion of the population on
relief is not exceptionally high. This appears to be
due to the fact that while people here need relief as
badly as those in any other area, they are so accustomed
to a hopeless plight and a low living standard that they
do not demand rehef except in du'e extremity. Then,
too, the vexatious system of store credit in vogue
doubtless cares for many cases.

^4 Poor Economic Structure. — The poorer farmers on
eroded and depleted land live most of the time on
credit. P^arm owners who borrow on notes from the
banks pay high interest rates. During 1921 these
rates ranged from 6.2 percent in North Carolina to
8.94 in Georgia. Cash and share tenants obtain credit
from their landlords or indirectly through their land-
lords from merchants and banks. Croppers depend
upon landlords or upon "store credit." In 1923 only
12 percent of all cotton producers could finance their
farming program without borrowing, and over 50
percent required credit from sjjring plowing until the
time when the crop was marketed.

This wholesale dependence upon credit not only
demorahzes the debtor but sometimes the whole eco-

26

Land Planning Rejjort

nomic structure. Frequently the debts incurred exceed
the price received from the cotton crops. When this
does not cover the store credit extended, the remainder
is carried over on the tenant's bill to the following year.
When finally the debt becomes unbearable, a tenant
family may move to anotlier community and make a
fresh start. Sometimes landlords will overlook the
debt in question, lest a change of tenants prove to be
for the worse. Wien a merchant, in turn, accumulates
too many bad debts he goes into baakruptcy, tlu'ow-
ing the burden on the wholesale houses. The net
result is general business insecurity in addition to
poverty and debtor dependency. The liigh cost of
merchant and landlord credit makes it very difficult
for tenants to escape from that status and become farm
owners. The tendency' has been, on the contrary, for
tenancy to increase and ownership to be concentrated
in fewer hands.

General Social Conditions. — Under an economic set-
up of this kinti, a sound and integrated community is
difficult if not impossible to maintain. Not only is
the population layered into definite caste levels by
land tenure and race, but, in addition, tenant families
move so frequently that usually they feel neither inter-
est nor responsibilitj' in communit}^ problems. Social
organizations are few and churches are often weak and
poorly supported. As to the people, themselves, it is
difficult to generalize. Some observers maintain that
the human stock in many of the poorer sections is, or
has become, inferior in a biological sense. If so the
problem of land-use adjustment is greatly compHcated.
What seems more probable is that a combination of
circumstances has operated almost completely to dis-
courage individual initiative and constructive enterprise

The Problem.— There is no question but that a large
proportion of the total socio-economic fabric in this
region is urgently in need of remedial treatment.
Large areas of land are being progressively diminished
in agricultural value, a process wliich has already
residted in tremendous soil ruination, and wliich is
pointing to wholesale tragedy in the region. Eco-
nomic and social stabihty and well-being are being
undermined, and locally the inhabitants are showing
symptoms of deterioration. These people are without
eithei- knowledge or resources to better then- con-
ditions. Even the States concerned are imable to
cope with the problem adequately without Federal
assistance.

On the poor, and particularly the more eroded lands
in this region, it will unquestionably be advisable to
discontinue arable farming, in part at least, and to
devote the land released from crops to forest produc-
tion. On the superior farm lands of the region, wliich
embrace mainly the smooth parts, and notably the
larger bodies of smooth lauds with sandy sui-face soils,

which are more desirable for cotton and tobacco and
for many of the vegetables, it is desirable for agi'icul-
ture to continue. It will be urgently necessary, how-
ever, to use even these smoother lands under cropping
methods that reduce erosion in order to prevent further
reduction of the already much diminished acreage of
good land in the region.

Great Lakes Cut-Over Region

Adjacent to Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and the
northern end of Lake Michigan is an area of approxi-
mately 100,000 square miles which is wholly unlike
the neighboring parts of the country.

Originally this was a region of old worn-down moun-
tains, of ridges covered with deep residual soils, valleys
filled with fertile alluvium, and large river systems
furnishing adequate drainage to the land. But for
many millenia this area was subjected to glaciation
on a scale now taking place in Greenland and Ant-
arctica. Today the general appearance of the region
is that of a plam, above which rise a low, ice-scoured
ridge of hard rock, smaller ridges of sand, and irregular
hills of gravel. Former valley systems have been
obliterated by glacial moraine, and present-day drainage
is rudimentary. The northern parts of Wisconsin,
Michigan, and Minnesota contain thousands of lakes;
and tens of thousands of ponds, bogs, and muskegs
dot the surface. The soils, since they are the product
of haphazard glacial deposition, are extremely varie-
gated. Some areas are closeh' strewn with granite
boulders, extensive areas are muck or peat, and others
are deep sterile sand. Central Wisconsin, for example,
contains one sand area covering nearly 5,000 square
miles.

Forests. — Wlien first discovered, tliis region was
covered with a magnificent stand of coniferous forest.
Wlute pine was the principal commercial tree, but jack
paie, Norway pine, and even spruce and fir were
associated with it. In the southern portion, beech,
birch, and maple occur with the conifers.

The Great Lakes forest was cut during the period
between 1870 and 1900, and settlement began during
the seventies. The hardwood forests farther south
had been cleared somewhat earUer and the land had
been successfully occupied by farmers. Consequently,
it was generally believed that forests on these more
northerly lands would also be replaced by agricultural
land use.

As a rule, the large lumber companies made a clean
cut of the timber, leavuig only slashings and stumps
behind. No plan for reforestation was ever conceived,
and hence the area was allowed to burn over time and
again. Not only has this destroyed the seedlings of
desirable species but it has so completely burned off
the foi'est litter and topsoil that conditions in many

Maladjustments in Land Use

27

localities no longer permit of tlie growing of these
species.

Land Settlement. — Upon the cessation of lumbering,
pieces of land here and there were bonght and cleared
by former loggers. As a general rule, hardwoods
grew on better soils whereas pines covered the more
sandy sections. Not imtil the pine stands were
depleted, liowever, were the hardwood areas cleared.
These latter released large amounts of gooil land for
agriculture, and theu' settlement was promoted by
lumber companies, State immigration bureaus, and
land development companies. Unfortunately, poor
lands were sold along with the good. High-pressure
salesmanship was used to direct streams of innnigrants,
workers Ln niijies and factories, white-collar men from
the cities, and farmers from the Corn Belt onto these
northern cut-over lands.

Some of these settlers obtained good land which
repaid the labor of clearing, but an equally large num-
ber were not so fortunate. Frecjuently they found
themselves in possession of outcrops of crystalhne rock,
of undrainable peat bogs and marshes, or of stump land
covered with granite boulders. Others found them-
selves owners of soil so light and sandy that, when
cleared, it was blown about by the wind. Even many
of those who did secure good land were faced with the
handicap of severely dispersed settlement. Patches of
good clay loam soil scattered tluough a generally
sterile sandj' region are almost worthless unless their
area is large enough to support a small community and
thereby make possible the attainment of means of
transportation, access to market, stores where supplies
may be obtained, and the acquisition of ceilain social
institutions.

Agricidture faces many handicaps in this region.
Pine stunij)s will persist for a century or more without
rotting. To clear sucli land, therefore, is a long and
diflTicult process. Soils are of the northern gray podsol
type, most of which is better suited for forest growth
than for farming. The superior soils can support a
potatoe, rye, and limited dairy adjustment, but there
are very large areas within which agricultural adjust-
ments are out of the question.

Over much of the region the winters are long and
severe. The growhig season is short, anil frosts may
occur even during the summer months. Agriculture
is cursed also with the lack of a staple crop. Hay and
root crops are perhaps best adapted to natural condi-
tions, but both are handicapped economically. Hay
together with pasture here means dairying, but dairy-
ing re(|uires expensive winter housing. Koot crops
production sutlers from the lack of nearby markets, as
does also the production of fresh milk. Consequently,
agricultui-a! crop |)o.ssibilities are decidedly limited in
the region.

144U'.IO— ;iG 3

In many of the tliiidy settled areas, roads are poor.
^Vhere the land is swanijjy, these consist of rough cor-
duroy traces in a bad state of repair, or of rude trails
skirting the muskegs and impassable during wet
weather. In the pine areas they are usually little more
than wheel tracks through sand. Most of the logging
railways have been dismantled and on the few which
remain, service is both limited in nature and irregular.

Many of the settleis have been defeated in their
attempt to clear and cultivate cut-over land. In the
northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, where
the earliest attempt at settlement of such lanfls was
matle, nearly 4,000 farms were abandoned between
191U and 1920. During the ne.xt decade .30 percent of
all farms either were abandoned or changed hands.
In 1926 a survey was made of a county in northern
Wisconsin. The survey showed that IS peicent of all
farms in the county had been abandoned. In 1931
county survey's show similar conditions in Michigan
and Mmnesota.

In recent years abandoned farmsteads have been
reoccupied in certain localities. In most instances,
this represents nothing save famihes fleeing depression
conditions m the city and seeking subsistence oppor-
tunities in the cut-over sections. The disadvantage of
this program, however, is that such families rarely aie
able to maintain themselves. Instead, they become
relief charges in already overburdened counties.

General Uneconomic Conditions. — Throughout large
parts of the cut-over region agriculture is submarginal
and nearly 4,000,000 acres of land in farms should
probably be retired from settlement. On the other
hand good land does occur in patches large enough to
support wdiole townships or at least sizable farni com-
munities. It also occurs locally where either mining or
recreational developments create markets for farm
products, or else render it feasible to carry on part-time
farming. Apart from a few such localities, general
economic conditions are very unsatisfactory.

A survey in 1934 of 3,000 isolated famihes in north-
ern Wisconsin reports the average family income to be
$291.03, of which the farm contributed less than .$100.
A similar study of 93 farms in northern Minnesota
shows the average receijits from sale of products,
labor oft" the farm, and family living contiibutcd from
the farm amounted to $568. In either case a low
income level is indicated.

As might be exijccted, many of the farmers are in
debt. In 1934, 40 percent of the isolated farms in the
northern cut-over areas were mortgaged. In some of
the i)oorer counties of Michigan 73 percent of the
farms were inuier mortgage. Moreover, the rates of
interest to these farmers were higher than in the
nearby better agricultural regions. Xeedless to say,
many of these farmers are unable to pay their taxes,

28

Land I'lunning Report

and tax delinquency on farm land has become a. very
serious problem.

Exploitation of the forest in the northern Lakes
States began more recently than in the northeastern
States. Large-scale metliods of harvesting and clean
cutting left much forest land in a nonproductive state.
Timberland owners attempted to dispose of cut-over
land for agricultural use. Proper discrimination be-
tween agriculturally desirable and undesirable land
was not exercised by buyers or sellers. Scattered agri-
cultural settlements sprang up in generally forested
areas. Subsecpient abandonment of many farms ac-
centuated the sparseness of settlement, and increased
the cost of providing public ser^^ces. The cost of
supporting these services falling on progressively fewer
properties, the individual tax burden, including that
on forest property, increised. Forest land could not
bear its carrying costs, after the timber was cut, and
hence was allowed to revert to the State or county
through tax delinquency. As early as 1920, an area
in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan
equivalent to six average-size coimties, had reverted to
the State for delinquent taxes. In Minnesota, tax delin-
quent land in practically all cut-over counties ranged
between one-fourth and three-fourths of the total in
1932. Wisconsin similarly reports a large proportion
of privately owned forest land as tax delinciuent.

In contrast is the situation Lu northern Maine, for
example, where sustained use of the forest land has
prevailed and where agricultural settlement was never
encouraged.

General Social Conditions. — The homes of most of the
settlers are veiy poor. Many are tar-paper shacks or
board cabins chinked with clay. Barns are frequently
lacking, and fences often are crude makeshifts. Al-
most invariably the farmstead is set against a back-
ground of grisly stumps or Hre-blackened trees.

Owing to the low scale of farm incomes, home con-
veniences are very few; many families lack clothes
suitable for attending church or community gatherings.
Since the decline of lumbering in the Lakes States,
many farmers find it difficult to secure part-tune labor
with wldch to supplement their scant farm earnings.
Income from farm woodlots usually has not been possi-
ble, owing to the original methods employed by the lum-
ber companies, and the subsequent ravages by fire.

The cost of schools, roads, and county government
is rendered exorbitant by dispersed farm settlement.
Many miles of improved roads are maintained for only
a few families. In one area in Minnesota it was found
that road costs per family averaged $90.88, whereas the
taxes collected averaged $7.0.3 per family. Similarly,
schools are maintained and teachers' salaries paid for
very small groups of children. In a sample community

in Mmnesota it was found that school transportation
averaged $185.61 per family although taxes collected
averaged only $6.22. Wliere settlement is as dis- J
persed as it is here, most of the land yields no taxes, '
and consequently this region is a serious drain upon
the better, more thickly settled portions of the Lakes
States.

It is believed desirable to eliminate much of the
scattered settlement in the northern Lakes States,
particularly that on poor land, thereby avoiding the
necessity of providing the unduly expensive public
ser\'ices recpared by such settlements. The establish- i
ment of a sustained-yield management of forest land,
it is believed, would be facilitated if the expensive local
govermnental services which exist, in many instances,
for impoverished and uneconomic settlement were
eliminated. It is believed that constructive manage-
ment of the forest land would tend to stabilize employ-
ment by providing a continual source of material for
wood-using industries. State and Federal acquisition
of much forest land has taken place.

Most farmers on the cut-over lands are carrying a
double load in trying to wrest a living from the soil and
at the same time to clear their land of stumps. They
are, therefore, too preoccupied, too weary after work-
ing hours, to participate in social activities or com-
munity life. Many of the settlers are foreign immi-
grants— German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Fin-
nish, Swiss, or Bohemian. Families of different na-
tionalities are, therefore, separated by barriers of lan-
guage and custom, even where distance between farms
does not prohibit social intercourse. This same factor
operates in the realm of church affairs. Consequently,
church membership in some localities falls as low as
one-fifth of the total population.

Promising Aspects in the Situation. — There is more
reason to expect local and State cooperation and even
initiative in connection ^\-ith submarginal farm retire-
ment programs in this region than in other "problem"
areas. The poor economic and social conditions here
are not of long standing and have not, therefore, come
to be accepted as inevitable. Most of the inhabitants
in the Great Lakes cut-over region have previously
been familiar with better modes of living, and desire to
have them hi their present environment. Consequent-
ly, moves to better the general regional conditions will
not meet with ])ublic opposition.

Pohtical leaders in the Lakes States are fully aware
of the hapless situation of farmers on the cut-over lands
and are eager to cooperate with the Federal Govern-
ment in any readjustment program. The States have
already done much in establishing public forests and
fire protection, while in Wisconsin many of the counties
have enacted land-use zoning ordinances.

Maladjustments in Land Use

29

Atlantic and Gulf Cut-Over Region

The Flat Coastal Section. — Along tlie Atlantic coast
the land slopes inland from sea level at a rate not ex-
ceeding 1 or 2 feet per mile. Even at the inner margin
of the region, 50 to 75 miles from tlie coast, the eleva-
tion above sea level is only 50 to 1 50 feet. Consequently,
since land slopes are very feeble, and since the annual
rainfall totals 40 to 60 inches, drahiagc conditions arc
poor. In localities where river development is |)oor,
the rainfall accumulates in extensive swamp areas,
such as the Everglades in Florida, the Okefenokee
Swamp in Georgia, and the Dismal Swamp in \'irginia.
I'pland swamps, locally called "pocosins", are also
common. Tidal marshes occur along the coast and
extend inland for some distance from the lagoons
which lie behind the low sandy barrier islands offshore.
The swamp areas, \\-ith their mnck and silt soils,
originally supported forests of cypress, gum, and
tuj)elo. The sandy interstream areas were, however,
covered with extensive pine woods, which possessed
locally an undergrowth of saw palmetto.

The Rolling Pine Lands. — Inland from the \\cc
coastal section, lie the rolling pine lands. In general,
the surface appears to be absolutely flat, but in certain
sections there are low hills, hununocks, and generally
rolling plain. In parts of these interior flatwoods of
east Texas some localities are steep enough to be
subject to rather severe erosion.

The prevailing soil type is a fine gray sand or sandy
loam, none too fertile at best, and in many places
underlain by impervious clay subsoil. Where this
latter occurs, drainage is apt to be rather poor. Here
and there are areas of almost pure sand, and less
frequently of good silt or clay loam soil. Most of tins
section was originally covered with a forest of long-
leaf, loblolly, or slash pine. Tliis forest has in large
measure been removed. Where it still exists and in
localities where second growth has matured, logging
activities are being pushed vigorously. In these
southern cut-over districts conditions generally re-
semble those in the Great Lakes cut-over region.

Settlement. — Owing to forest cover, poor drainage,
generally infertile soil, and imfavorable health condi-
tions the ilatwoods pine lands were long avoided by
agricultural settlers. Small amounts of land hi South
Carolina and Georgia were cleared and planted during
colonial times, hut these were exceptions to the general
rule. Prior to the Civil War, however, there had been
a gradual infiltration of "poor whites" into the flat-
woods of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and
the Carolinas. They were referred to as "crackers",
"tar heels", "pine woods folk", or similar terms of near
contempt by the mhabitants of adjacent regions.

Wliite yeoman farmers in the South could not readily
secure land which was capitaUzed on the basis of Negro

labor and plantation management. The submarginal
flatwoods therefore furnished a retreat for such people.
An environment of this kind is not conducive to a high
degree of initiative and other qualities that make for
successful living. Undoubtedly, the sandy pine lands
have also attracted to themselves those who were
unable or disinclined to make a living in regions of more
commercialized existence.

In southeastern Mississii)pi the rmal families on the
poorer lands are mostly squatters, deriving their living
from livestock grazed on the unfenced cut-overs and
from the sale of wood cut from forests under absentee
ownership. The number of both squatters and careless
owners is still increasing, partly through the sale of
cut-over land to city people, lai'gely ignorant of farm-
ing, and partly tlu'ough the gravitation thence of
people from adjacent areas.

Agriculture.— Perhaps the best agricultural section
of this region Ues in central Florida. Mucli of the land
appears flat, and is in part poorly drained. There are,
however, numerous low hills and gentle swells known as
hammocks. On some of these, good soils replace
the customary sand, and hardwood forests rather than
pine woods constitute the llora. Many of these have
been cleared and now support orange and pomelo
groves, the estates of winter residents, and tourist
hotels. Outside of this section, however, agricultural
land use is slight.

While local bodies of desirable agricultural land do
exist, a large part of the region is either poorly di'ained
or has relatively miproductive sandy soils or both. In
attempts to settle or colonize cut-over timber lands
there was failure to discriminate properly between
desirable and less desirable land. It lias been com-
monly supposed that the long frost-free season and
mild winter chmate adequately compensate for any
deficiency in soil productivity. In a measure it is true
that climate is a compensating advantage, but, on the
whole, agricultural settlement in this region has not
been notably successful. After 200 years, during which
the rest of the country was agriculturally appropriated,
it remains almost wholly in forest.

Only a small part of the Atlantic and Gulf cut-over
region is in farms, and the amount of land in crops is
very small indeed. Owing to infertility or poor drain-
age of soils, cotton and corn yields from much of the
land are not high. Of late years, therefore, the region
has tended toward the production of early vegetables
and small fruits, items for which it is in some respects
admirably adapted. Such crops, however, require not
only abundant fertilizer but a progressive type of farm
management. Many farmers of the flatwoods liave
been unable to supply eitiier, but have adhered to
traditional pi-actices. It is therefore believed desirable
to eliminate some of the most scattered settlement on

30

Land Planning Report

poor land in this region, and to institute constructive
management on the forest hind, so as to use most efl'ec-
tively a productive and desirable forest region.

General B'.conomic and Social Asi)ects. — In the past,
farm incomes have generally been eked out by part-
time work in the naval stores or logging industries.
In many localities this source of income is dwindling
rapidly or has disappeared completely, and with it has
gone the local market for farm products.

A large proportion of the flatwood farms are very
small and of the self-sufficing type. On those farms
definitely atljudged submarginal, an average of not
more than 15 acres is devoted to crops, and the average
value of farm property is approximately^ ,$300. Cash
incomes, already small, are becoming even smaller as
the forest industries dwindle. Li\ang standards are
here comparable to the most isolated sections of
Appalachia.

CJeneral health conditions are deplorable. Not only
are these a result of poor living conditions and a
restricted, unbalanced diet, but also of high humidity,
poor drainage, and the prevalence of malaria.

The decline of the lumbering industry, the decrease
in cash incomes of many farmers, and the general tax
delinquency have greatly reduced tax receipts. It has,
consequently, become almost impossible to maintain
social institutions and public services in these southern
cut-over areas. Added to tliis, the situation is greatly
aggravated by dispersed settlement. Roads are poor,
therefore, and schools are operated for only short terms
by poorly trained and underpaid teachers.

The Prospect. — Agriculture is in the main small-scale
"patch farming", operating under poor methods and
achieving an income too low to maintain even a low-
average living standard. Health conditions are poor.
A large jjrojjortion of the land needs drainage, but the
cost of this would be prohibitive. The region lacks a
staple crop. For miscellaneous fruits and winter vege-
tables there is no prospective demand in sight. Rural
settlement is so scatteretl that pid)lic services cannot be
supplied much longer by outside agencies. A large
percentage of the farmers themselves are on public
relief. The region is admirably sidted to the production
ol pine timber, and yet the visible supply of softwoods
in the United States is rapidly shrinking. This forest
country bordering the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is a
sparsely settled region , in which large-scale exploitation
of the timber resources has, except in the northeastern
part, taken place relatively recently. The forest is
composed in large measure of fast-growing species of
high utility, and the cost of marketing its products in
the timber-consuming centers is moderate. It is, there-
fore, desiiable as a region of forest-land utilization.

Pacific Forest and Cut-Over Region

Included in tliis region are the Pacific Coast Ranges
from San Francisco Bay northward to the Olympic
Mountains, the Sierra Nevadas of California, and the
Cascade Mountains of California, Oregon, and Wash-
ington. Farther inland are the Blue Mountains of
Oregon, the Okanogan Highlands of Washington, and
the Bitterroots, Coeur d'Alenes, and Clearwater Moun-
tains of Idaho. Included with these are a great number
of foothill areas, valleys, and partially enclosed low-
lands. In general these are lands of abundant winter
rain or snowfall, and originally supported a very heavy
cover of coniferous forest.

Of the great forest regions of the Ignited States the
forested Pacific Northwest has been most recently
exploited. The expropriation of cut-over lands for
agricidtural settlement has probably been retarded by
the very great cost of clearing lantl of the large and
thickly set stumps characteristic of cut-over land in
this region. Nevertheless, some agricultural settlement
does exist.

Settlement and Population. — Rural settlement in this
region consists of extremely scattered farms in the
higher mountain valleys, medium to sparse settlement
in the rugged foothills, and fairly dense concentration
in the lower valleys. Hxcept in the last-named situa-
tion, few if <iny of these farms are socially desirable or
economically profitable. It is believed desirable to
eliminate such scattered settlement and concentrate
agriculture in more compact communities on better
lands in more accessible locations.

In California many of the inhabitants came in with
the advent of mining, and were for a time prosperous
because of local nuirkets which existed m the mming
camps. In Washington and Idaho, agriculture was
more often an auxiliary adjustment to logging. In
addition, this moimtaui- and hill-country habitat
early began to attract trappers, hunters, prospectors,
and those who preferred subsistence agriculture to the
competition of commercialized livijig. The western
foothills of the Cascades, for example, contain many
migrants from the Ozarks, the Cumberlands, and
other inferior agricultural areas, who chose this region
because it was somewhat similar to their native en-
vironment, and enaliled them to perpetuate the
philosophy of life and habits of living to which they
had become adjusted.

Moinitain "Scratch Farms." — Soils in the mountain
area are usually poor and have, where cleared, entailed
great labor expenditure. Most of the farmhouses are
frame shacks and, less often, log cabins, devoid of
plumbing, running water, or electricity. The moun-
tain "scratch" farms consist of from 2 to 10 acres of

Maladjustments in Land Use

31

cleared land (for gardens, hardy fniif trees, and crops
of hay, oats, and other grains). ]>ivestock includes a
cow or two, a few hogs and chickens, and a work animal
or so. Such farms are usually incapable of supplying
family living even where eked out by hunting, fishing,
and woodcutting. Conseciuently, auxiliary employ-
ment in logging camps or mines or seasonal employ-
ment in iu>arby cities has been imi)erative. The clos-
ing of mines and the cessation of logging in many areas
has left these populations stranded. Between 1910
and 1980, from 5 to l.'j j)ercent of such farms were
abandoned. Since then public-relief demands have
been high. Except for through highways, roads are
poor and blocked with snow during winter. Schools
and churches are few and poor in (piality. Isolation
in most of these areas promotes pi-n\incialism and
retards all progress.

Many of these mountain farms were occu|)ieil after
the Forest Homestead Act of 1906 threw open for use
many scattered tracts within the boundaries of na-
tional forests. Few if any of the settlements which
have resulted have provided the operators with an
adequate living or enabled them to pay for necessary
public services. Moreover, their existence within the
national forests probably increases the danger of timber
fires, and for this if for no other reason they might well
be eliminated.

Fnnthill "Stump Ranches." — The typical farm of the
foothills is somewhat larger and more productive, but
rarely prosperous. Such units include perhaps an
average of 40 acres of crop land and arable pasture,
together with varying amounts of stump pasture. The
gross income per farmer is low, usually only a few
hundred dollars. The soil usually is poor and returns
so disparagingly small that even subsistence farming
cannot be regarded as permanent. The institutional
pattern is poor, and cost for maintenance of roads and
schools is very high.

Some of these farms are located on desirable land, but
their acreage of cleared land is too low to jiermit ade-
quate income. Tlie expense and labor of clearing
additional acres is usually beyond tlic farmer's re-
sources, except through the gratuitous expenditure of
labor over many years. Some public aid in financing
additional land clearing would, therefore, seem to be
imperative.

Farms in "Shoestrinfi" Vallei/s. — Several fairly large
valleys lead back Lnto the mountains of this region.
Usually these contain deep, fertile, residual, and
alluvial soil, and include a fair amount of generally
level land. Mountainous slopes, entirely unsuited for
agriculture, rise sharply from the valley floor. Many
such valleys are quite productive. They are often
many miles in length, but so narrow that the square
farm tracts overiaj) into the adjacent miniiitain slopes.

As a result, they form long "shoestrmgs" of settlement
reaching far into the national-forest areas.

AVliere these valleys lie along a transmontane route
they are accessible to markets and to the benefits of
tourist trade. On the other hand, where they end in
cul-de-sacs or blind-valley heads, as do the upper
Cowlitz River in Washington, the McKenzie in Oregon,
and the Mokehunne in California, their very attenua-
tion renders them remote from all possible nuirkets.
Only a few families can live in a valley of this kind and
remain self-supporting. In many instances, 10 or 15
miles of country road and one or more schools must be
provided for the benefit of but a few families. Fre-
quently these cost the taxpayers more than the total
value of production in the valley. In one case it was
found that the cost of providing a regular grade-school
education had reached a total of $250 per pu])il in con-
trast to the average of $80 for the county as a whole.
The roads up such a valley must be graveled at con-
siderable expense if they are to be passable dtiring the
whiter and s|)ring. It is clear, therefore, that the juain-
tenance of such communities is definitely imeconomical.

The Western Great Plains

The area commonly referred to as the (ireat Plains
extends from approximately the 9rtli meridian west-
ward to the Rocky Mountains. Over wide expanses
the surface is surprisingly flat, but it is locally marked
by considerable land relief. In central Montana the
general plauis character is broken by hilly and even
submoimtainous districts. Clunate varies from sub-
humid and semiarid to almost arid in places. The
region is in general treeless, and supports a natural
vegetation of short grass.

Eajsteni Versus Western Great Plains. — The eastern
one-third of the Great Plains falls into the "blackerth"
or dark-colored chernozem zone. This tyj)e of soil is
unusually fertile. Ordmarily, rainfall deficiency is but
slight, and grain farming on an extensive scale has been
profitable.

The western two-thirds of the (ireat Plains i)rcscnts a
quite different aspect. In jjlace of black chernozem
soil, this section is characterized in its eastern pai't by
chestnut-colored soils. Toward the west, this gives
way to brown soils and locally even to gray soils.
Most of these soils are also quite fertile, l)ut the rainfall
is both deficient and uncertain.

As a result of general rainfall deficiency, great rain la II
variability, lower soil fertility, and locally rough
topography, the western part of the Great Plains is
quite generally a region of "problem agriculture."

Settlement. — Agricultural occu])ancv of the Great
Plains began in central Kansas during the seventies
and in Nebraska and Oklahoma in the eighties. In
the Dakotas most of the laud has been i)ut under crops

32

Land Planning Report

since 1900. Montana, north and east of the Yellow-
stone River, was homesteaded between 1908 and 1914.
South of that river only small patches of homesteading
occiuTcd. After 1910 large areas in Wyoming, Colo-
rado, New Mexico, and western Texas received agri-
cultural settlement.

Thus, by 1920 the Great Plains had been transformed
within 50 years from an open-range pastoral area to a
region of extensive dry-farming. Events have subse-
quently shown that this has been a development of
dubious value. Over much of the western Great
Plains, agricultural settlement aside from stock ranches
should never have been undertaken. Indeed, this
region today constitutes one of the most critical areas of
uneconomic farming in the country.

Crucial i^srrfors. — Several factors have contributed
to the distress in this area.

1. Systems of farming employed have not been ad-
justed to the character of the region. In some instances
they represent transfer of methods from humid lands
farther east. In others, they represent imperfect
adjustments in drj'-farming.

2. The homestead unit permitted by law has usually
been too small. Farms in the eastern part of the
Great Plams zone average 325 acres, which is in most
instances sufficiently large. Farther west, in the semi-
arid zone, farm holdings average 683 acres. These are
probably only two-tliirds as large as they should be.
Still farther west, in the more arid zone, hokUngs
average 1,225 acres, which are in most instances far
too small.

3. Violent fluctuations in the amoiuit and seasonal
distribution of rainfall occur. This has resulted from
time to time in wholesale crop failure, and occasionally
in widespread suffering.

4. Pastures and range land have been seriously over-
grazed. This has so reduced the vegetative cover that
both water and wind erosion have become acute. To
this must be added during dry years the violent wind
erosion from abandoned ilry-farm areas, fallow fields,
and even from croplands.

5. The western Great Plains, like all other of the
world's shortgrass lands, are subject to additional
hazards which contribute to agricultural insecurity.
Hail, grasshoppers, wheat rust, chinch bugs, army
worms, Hessian flies, and many other such factors
assail the dry farmer.

The Rainfall Factor. — Accurate rainfall records for
the western Great Plains have been kept in a few
localities for nearly 50 years. An examination of such
records suggests that this is the really critical factor
in the agriculture of the region. In Grant County, in
southwestern Kansas, the average annual rainfall over
a period of approximately 50 years is about IC inches.
This suggests a rainfall normally suificient for diy-

f arming adjustments, but it actually includes such ex-
tremes as 26 inches in 1891, 8 inches in 1896, or 10
inches in 1926. Great droughts in this section occurred
in the lS70's, the 1890's, the second decade of the
twentieth century, and in the early 1930's.

As pointed out by S. S. Visher in his Geography of
South Dakota, local droughts happen every year, and
general droughts recur at frequent intervals. For
example in South Dakota widespread droughts oc-
curred in 1864, 1874, 1886-87, 1889-97, 1910-12, 1926,
and 1931-34. A study of the records for many local-
ities over this region suggests that there is no apparent
periodicity in the ups and downs of the rainfall. If
there be anything approaching a regular cycle in the
recurrent droughts of this section, however, its dis-
covery would enable man to be forewarned and to a
certain extent forearmed. So far, rainfall records do
not cover a period long enough to permit accurate
statistical conclusions to be drawn.

Tliis region has produced good crops in certain years
and will do so again in the future, but is is subject at all
times to great risk. Emergencies wliich will entireh'
deplete the resources and reserves of a large proportion
of the population are boinid to recur again and again
in the future.

Land Abandonment. — The great drought of the seven-
ties in Kansas almost completely routed agricultural
settlement. A series of wet years had tempted settlers
from the Com Belt to extend their crops and farming
methods far out onto the Great Plains. With the
advent of drought years the agricultural occupance
melted away. During the following decade a second
wave of settlement advanced into Kansas, only to be
defeated by the drought years of the nineties. During
this period Kansas is said to have lost nearly half a
million of its inhabitants, many of them being literally
starved out. Nebraska and the Dakotas suft'ered
somewhat similarly. During the ensuing period of
resettlement in Kansas, dry-farming methods M'cre
carefully worked out, and crops selected to fit environ-
mental conditions were introduced. As a consequence,
geographic stability has been achieved in eastern and
central Kansas.

Again in 1913 drought produced a vast unrest in
Kansas and Oklahoma, and some land abandonment
took place in the western parts of those States. Far-
ther north in Montana after 1915 almost complete
abandonment of dry farming has occurred over exten-
sive areas.

Since 1930 large areas in eastern Colorado have lost
10 percent or more of their population. The western
parts of the Dakotas have also experienced some land
abandonment since 1930, and large areas would prob- J
ably have been evacuated had it not been for public
relief, seed loans, crop benefits, feed loans, and other

Maladjustments in Land Use

33

forms of aid. The great drought of 1931-34 did not
so seriouslj' affect the southern Great Plains, except
perhaps in parts of New Mexico as it did the northern
portion lying in Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.
At the time of this report there was a more general
recognition of problem areas in the northern than in
the southern Great Plains, due perhaps to the rela-
tively greater severity of the dry period in the northern
Plains States during the years 1931-34, accentuating
conditions of distress and raising questions of agricul-
tural adaptability. A few years of above-the-average
rainfall in the northern, or of pronounced drought in
the southern Great Plains, would no doubt result in a
somewhat different designation of problem areas than
the present one.^

General Economic Conditions. — In addition to the
general precariousness of farming in the western Great
Plains there are locally many areas where soils are
infertile or nonretentive of moisture; steeply rolling or
rough topography adds its quota of poor land; occa-
sional belts of sand hills, steep escarpments, or areas
especially subject to wind erosion locally give slender
returns to agriculture. For example, in some of the
northern portions of the Great Plains, more than 50
percent of the land is imsuited to crop production. In
many localities, therefore, land values are low. Over
nmch of eastern Colorado, 1929 land values averaged
only $10 per acre. At present much of it is valued at
$3 to $.5 per acre. In 1934 between 25 and 35 percent
of this land, formerly cropped, lay idle. Moreover,
.50 percent of all land which was ])lanted was not har-
vested, owing to crop failure. Nor is this an imusual
occurrence, for a large acreage of wheat is left imhar-
vested even in good or fair years. In southwestern
Kansas, near the Colorado boundary, this abandoned
acreage has averaged 40 percent dining the last 20 years.
Over large areas of the western Great Plains wheat

1 Since the preparation of this report, the Southern Great Plains has been more
severely affected by drought, esi^ecially in the region which has been called the
"Dust Bowl."

yields average 8 to 111 liusiiels and in some areas as low
as 6 or 7 bushels.

Under such conditions farm incomes are frequently
quite low. In western South Dakota at least 20 per-
cent of the farms reported gross incomes of less than
$1,000 in 1929. In the "problem areas" of eastern
Colorado 30 to 40 percent had gross incomes of less than
$1,000. In Montana, North Dakota, and New Mexico
large numbers of farms earned less than $(500 yearly.
Today these figures are much lower than in 1929.

In many localities from one-half to two-tlurds of
the farms are owned by absentee landlords. Well
over half of the farms were mortgaged even in 1929.
Today the proportion is doubtless much greater. Tax
delinquency is quite general. In southwestern Kansas
a 5-year weighted average for a large group of counties
shows a dehnquency of 17 percent. Parts of South
Dakota showed on November 1933 a 20 to 30 percent
delinquency in all taxes levied between 1928 and 1932.
In one area in New Mexico tax delinquency has reached
92 percent. Large acreages in the Great Plams have
accordingly reverted to the counties.

One of the great handicaps to manj' parts of the west-
ern Great Plains is the distance to market and railway.
Extensive areas of farm land lie from 20 to 50 miles
from railways and many farms he at least 15 miles
from rail service.

Emergency Crop and Feed Loans} — In many years
crop failure is so complete that seed for the following
year is not available locally. In 1918-19 the President
allotted approximately $5,000,000 from the war
emergency fund for seed loans in the Great Plains
States, in 1921-22 Congress appropriated $3,500,000
for the same purpose. Beginning with 1921 , emergency
seed or feed loan appropriations have been made
available hi 10 different years. The earlier appro-
priations were available only to Imiited areas which

3 This discussion on emergency crop and feed loans was contributed by Norman
J. Wall. Division cf Agricultural Finance, Bureau of Agricultural Economics.

Table II. — Emergeticn crop ami

feed loans, 1921-3.', »

Loan year

Loans made

Total collections through
Aug. 31, 1934

Balance outstanding Aug.
31, 1934

N'umber

Amount

Amount

Percent of
loans made

Number -\mount

121. 368
438,952
507,632
633,585

$15, 198, 603. 44
55,786,975.85
64. 2(M, 503. 06
57,376,039.87

$11,275,956.26
36.900,881.73
39.481,854.94
44.951,608.68

74.2
66.1
61.5
78.3

30,577
225,725
258,865
238,667

$3,922,647.18

1931

18.886,094.12

1932

24.722.648.12

1933

12,424.431.19

Total 1921-33

1,701,537
394,541

192.566,122.22
> 33. 296. 284. 00

132. 610, 301. 61
■1,519,479.76

68.9
■4.6

753.834
383.351

59,955,820.61

1934

31.776.804.24

Grand total

2,096,078

225,862,406.22

134.129,781.37

59.4

1. 137, 185

91,732,624.85

I Datfl from Farm Credit Administration.

» Only $0,783,000 of the 1934 loans had matured as of Aug. 31. 1934.

34

Larifl Planning Report

had been affected by an unusual climatic disturbance,
such as drought, storm, or hail. The appropriation
for 1931, occasioned by the widespread drought of
1930, was the first one to cover a very extensive area.
In 1 932 there was a departure from the previous poUcy
of hmiting loans to designated areas which had been
affected by unusual climatic distm-bances and loans
were authorized in any part of the United States where
farmers were unable to obtain loans for crop production.

Table II summarizes the loan operations which, until
the organization of the Farm Credit Administration,
were administered by the Secretary of Agricvdture.

Over very large areas in the northern Great Plains, a
substantial majority of the farmers have received seed
loans. In portions of the Dakotas, seed loans have
been recjuired in more than half the years of the last
decade. The cost to the Federal Government in
extending this type of emergency credit has been very
liigh because in the majority of instances these seed
loans have not and are not likely to be repaid. For
example, in 1 community selected at random in New
Mexico 34 seed loans were made in 1932. Of these,
only three were ever repaid, and then from other
sources than farm profits. Of all the loans nuide during

1921 to 1933, inclusive, only 69 percent of the principal
had been collected by August 31, 1934. While subse-
f(uent collections will probably raise this ratio slightly,
it is evident that appreciable losses will be incurred.
The cost of making and collecting these lonns has been
substantially greater than the amount of interest
received. According to the first annual report of the
Farm Credit Administration, the administrative costs
for loans nuule in 1931 and prior years, exceeded interest
collected by $5()0,2S6 on December 31, 1933. Total
administrative expenses for the 1932 loans exceed
interest income by $2,462,822 and for 1933 loans, by
$1,141,857.

These seed and crop production loans have been
available in 7 different years in the States of Montana
North Dakota, and Florida. Such loans have been
available for 6 years in South Carolina, North Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, New Mexico, Idaho, and
Washington. The frequency of the Federal emergency
loans, on a county basis, is indicated in figure 4. The
largest amount loaned in any one State during the
1921-34 period was $20,637,237 in North Dakota. The
next largest amounts went to Georgia, Arkansas, South
CaroliuM, ;ind North Carolina, in the order named.

U S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

Figure 4.— From 1921 to 1934 Federal seed loan funds were availahle in lu ditTerent years. The.se funds have been available most frequently in the spring-wheat-growing States

and in the Southeastern cotton-growing States.

AlaladjustmenU in Land Vse

35

The maximum niimbpr of loans was made in W.>i?>
when the total of fi33,/)Sri rpjirospnteil aliouf ono loan
for every 10 farms in the rountrv. In individual
States this ratio ran as hi<2;li as 22 percent for North
Dakota and for individual counties the ratio was sub-
stantially higher. The ratio of total number of crop
production loans to total number of farms in each
county in 1933 is shown in iisrure 5; and tbe ratio of
feed loans to total nundier of farmers on August 31,
1934, is show II in figure fi. The higli-ratio counties
are chiefly concentrated in the spring-wheat pioducing
States of the (ireat Plains and in the Southeastern
cotton States. While unusual climatic conditions have
been largely responsible for much of the financial dis-
tress, the continued reliance on Federal emergency
financing seems to indicate that reorganization of
farming jirograms and possibly withdrawal of marginal
lands will be recpiired to attain a sounder economic
organization in fliese areas.

The basis ui)on which these loans liave been made,
liiuited as the l<ians are j)rimarily to financing the pur-
chase of seed and feed, has prevented many farmers
from making necessary changes in their farming pro-
gram. In many cases, it is probable tliat if loans were

designed to enable the farmer to reorganize his farming
operations tliey niiglit lead to a better utilization of his
land and a higher standard of living, as well as to
greater economic security.

This examination of the seed-loan situation suggests
that the Federal (iovernment lias been called upon to
supply extensive eiuergency financing in many of tbe
areas which should j)robably be classified as unsuitable
for farming purposes.

(ieneral Social ('(iii</ifi(ins. The western fireat Plains
is a region of large farms and hence of sj)arse settle-
ment. The average density of poi)ulation in western
South Dakota, for example, is between one and three
])er square mile; in North Dakota it is perhaps twice
tliat number. In Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming
the population is nearly everywhere less than two per
s(|uare mile. This sparseness of settlement has en-
forced a high degree of isolation and has reduced the
opportunity for (be development of community life.
Moreover, it has meant that large numbers of people
are denied access to physicians, hospitals, or even
churches.

It is a geogra])hical truism that wherever population
is small in relation to area the institutional pattern is

U S DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTURE

BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

KiGi'iiE 5. In 19:):) the larBOst nunihcr of einerBi'iny c:rii|i liiiin.^ were niiule in Uic .Southca-sli'm Sliile-s mid in Nnrlh Dakota ami .Montana, .\dverse oconoinic condition.s,
together with drought conditions in some areas, accounted (or the larpe demand for this type of credit.

36

Land Planning Report

apt to be poor. Even though this be true in tliis
region, the cost of poUtical and social institutions is
still too high, sometimes exceeding total county tax
receipts. One must conclude that in part tWs is due
to county xmits being far too small, but in part, how-
ever, it is due to an institutional program not ad-
justed to basic land productivity. Public buildings are
costly in proportion to the total taxable wealth, the
standard of sciiool expenses high, and roads (owing
to the haphazard location of farmsteads) are numer-
ous. Consolidation of county units and zoning of
rural residence to achieve lower road and school costs
might achieve some economy, but the quaUty of public
service would still be low unless these areas are to
receive assistance through States and Federal funds.

In portions of the western Great Plains as many as
60 percent of all farm families depend upon cash
grain crops for the major portion of their income. In a
region subject to complete crop failure tliis is a feitile
cause for wholesale distress. Even in good or average
years low incomes are almost universal in many dis-
tricts. A gross income of less than $1,000 or even
$1,500 means real poverty even in normal times,

because operating expenses are high and net income
is very low, and the farm often contributes almost
nothing to family living. Inunigrant farmers are
usually more successful than those of native American
stock, partly because they will accept a lower standard
of living, but more so because they make their farm
^•ield more toward family subsistence rather than con-
centrating their efforts on the production of the princi-
pal cash crop.

Where net incomes are as small as those of many
Great Plains farmers, expenditures are limited to the
purch.ase of the necessities of life. Practically notliing
remains in all too manj- instances for home conven-
iences, amusement and recreation, or for self-improve-
ment. Fairly representative of the areas of "problem"
agriculture over the Great Plains are conditions in
southwestern Kansas. Here the houses are frequently
either meager frame shacks or "dugouts" with very
few outbuildings. Well improved homes are scarce.
The usual farmliouse has bare floors, often the plaster
has partially fallen from the walls, furnishings are
scarce and poor in quality, and modern conveniences
are rarely seen. Wells must often be supplemented by

us DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTURE

BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

FinuRE 6.— The severe drought in the Xorthwest States in 1934 required extensive advances from the Federal Government to enable farmers to purchase feed, .\dditional funds

were made available through the winter of 1934-35.

Maladjustments in Land Use

37

cisterns, inachineiy is unsheltered from the elejuents,
and kitclien gardens are conspicuous by their absence.

At present, fainihes occupying sucli quarters are
nearly all on ])ublic relief. In sojue of the "[)roblem"
areas between liO and 7n percent of the total rural pop-
lation was on i)ul)lic relief in 1934. Even as early as
1930 some locaUties showed 20 to 50 percent of their
rural inhabitants on relief. In some of the nioie criti-
cal districts large nund^ers of itiral fauiilies are jier-
manently stranded with no solution in sight save that
of their pernmnent retirement from farming in this
region.

In the accompanying table the western or "problem"
portion of North Dakota is compared for certain
items with the eastern or "nonproblem" portion of
the State.

North Dakota — Contrast between the eastern and western portions

Uem

Rainfall average

Wheat yield per acre

Land value per acre.

Farm dwelling value

Farm incomes under $1,000 gross

Mortgaged - -

Seed loans: number of years be-
tween 1921-32.
Families on public relief:

.\pril 1930 --

October 1933

East

16 to 24 inches _

13 bushels

$40 --

Many over $2,000-..

Under 15 percent

5 to 25 percent

1 or 2 years out of 12

0 to 15 percent

3 to 5 percent

West

12 to 16 inches.
9 bushels.

$15 to $18.

Mostly less than $1,000.

15 to 30 percent.

50 percent and over.

4 or 5 years out of 12.

20 to 50 percent or over.
8 to 11 percent.

California Valleys and Foothills

Extent and Characteristics.— This region extends in a
north-south direction through California, froni Shasta
County, near the Oregon line, southward to the Mexican
border, and comprises perhaps half the State. The
larger portion of the area consists of the Great Central
Valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers,
together with the Coast Ranges on the west and the
foothills of the Sierra Nevada on the east which form
an almost complete rim of hill country. The remainder
consists of the so-called "Valley of Southern Cali-
fornia," a triangle of lowland lying between the ocean
and the Coast Ranges which latter here swing inland
for a distance of 50 to 60 miles. In all save its northern
end the region is arid to subhumid in climate.

The earliest geographic adjustments to environment
were pastoral. Later these were superseded by ex-
tensive agriculture and placer mining. These in turn
have given way, over much of the area, to adjustments
in irrigation agriculture, although earlier forms of
land utilization persist in a number of locahties. Today
many parts of the region are characterized by forms
of land utilization which are distinctly uneconomic,
and it has been conservatively estimated tliat nearly
10,000 farms, including more tiiaii 3, 000, 000 acres,
should !)(> retired fnuii agricultural priidiicti<ui.

These constitute three distinct types of problems
as follows:

1. Submarginal farming areas on th(> lowlands.

2. Depleted grazing areas in the northern foot-

hills.

3. vScattered farm lands in the southern foot-

hills.

Red Hani pan Lands of the Sacramento ValJeij. — Along
the eastern side of the Sacramento Valley there are
large areas of hardpan lands scattered among better
agricultural lands. The soils are rich and friable, but
are underlain at a depth of perhaps 30 inches by a
very dense subsoil layer, impenneable to roots and
ground water. Many attempts have been made to
settle this area and to raise a wide variety of crops. On
the whole, these attempts have proved unsuccessful.
Wiere the subsoil has been dynamited tree crops have
been fairly successful, but this has proved to be too
expensive in most instances. Repeatedly this land
has been subdivided and put on the market, with dis-
astrous results. Today a considerable farm popula-
tion is in serious financial distress. Water is almost
universally scarce, houses have fallen into disrepair, tax
delinquency is high, and abandonment has occurred
quite generally. The resulting dispersed settlement
which remams is plagued by an excessive per capita cost
for rural education, roads, and governmental service.

Farther south, on portions of the alluvial fans of the
Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced Rivers, and on the
gray hardpan along the east side of the San Joaqum
River, conditions are equally unfavorable. Additional
handicaps are present in the form of excessive alkali
and a complete lack of irrigation water.

Clay Lands of the Santa Clara Valley. — In the south-
ern portion of the Santa Clara Valley, there are exten-
sive tracts of dense clay soil, upon which attempts to
grow fruits and vegetables are being made. Such local-
ities are too diy for dependable nonirrigated farming,
but when they are irrigated, the orchards and vine-
yards are seriously damaged by alkali and poor drain-
age. There is needed here a careful land classification
and a withdrawal from cultivation of those lands not
suited for agriculture.

Poor Lands of Sovthern California. -In Riverside
County there is a large area of medium to poor soil,
which has been subdivided into small farms and mar-
keted by assiduous salesmanship. The rainfall is defi-
cient, irrigation water is scarce or lacking, and extremely
active erosion has attended improper cultivation and
overgrazing. There has resulted a great amount of tax
delmquency and farm abandonment. The area at pres-
ent is a social burden and no solution save retirement
of arable farming suggests itself.

Grazing Lands vj the Xorthern Fuothiltis.- Around the
edge of the Great Valley the land rises from the valley

38

Lavd Planning Report

floor through a foothill zone to the forested highlands
above. On the lower portions of the foothill zone
grass is the characteristic cover, while hi the upper
reaches chaparral and timber predominate.

Practically the entire foothill zone has passed into
private ownerslup and has experienced some degree of
agricidtiiral settlement. The lower portions are de-
voted to ranch pastoralism and are in process of ruina-
tion through overgrazing and erosion. The upper foot-
hills are ]>artly given over to grazing, and in part occu-
pied by scattered general farms. The farm popula-
tion was once greater than at present, but land aban-
donment has gone on apace and today the remaining
population is both sparse and haphazardly distributed.
Fires intermittently sweep across these areas, probably
originating in many instances from attempts to con-
vert chaparral into grazing land. The result has been
destruction of property, denudation of hillsides, and
appalling erosion.

Isolation, resulting from dispersed settlement, has
caused a lapse m community life. Declining popida-
tion has caused school attendance to dwindle. Many
farms are unable to support a family withoiit supple-
mentary sources of income, a circumstance which has
evoked widespread fuiancial difRculties. Over large
areas total coimty income from taxes and other sources
is less than the cost of schools, roads, and public relief
for those families in distress.

Most of the upper foothill zone should he retired
from private ownership, reforested, and devoted to such
use as will conserve the water supply of the Oreat
Central Valley. Portions of the lower foothills should
also be withdrawn from arable farming. The remain-
der should remain in grazing use and be left in private
hands, provided a system of intelligent range manage-
ment can be evolved.

Toward the southern end of the Great Central X'allcy
conditions are progressively worse, and ranches are in
a precarious condition. Here the rainfall averages no
more than 5 or 6 inches per year in some localities.
Probably most of this land should revert to public
range. The upper chaparral zone has no potential
value for forest, but it does possess a critical importance
in waterflow regulation.

In the southern Coast Ranges west of the San
Joaquin section of the Great Valley the situation
reaches its worst aspect. Tax delinquency has occurred
on a large scale, and farm abandonment has been al-
most wholesale. Erosion and the burning over of
scrub land have given the whole countryside the ap-
pearance of a man-made desert.

Farmlands of the Sovthern. Foothills. — Farm settlement
is scattered thinly over the niunerous foothills and low
mountain areas lying between the Great Central
\'alley and the Mexican border. Farms are usually

restricted to the small valleys between the ridges, and
are, therefore, isolated from one another. Only a
small amount of land is in cultivation, the intervening
areas being used for grazuig. Most of the farms are
too small to support a family, erosion is proceeding at
an alarming rate, and water supplies are precarious.
Some farm abandonment has occurred and the stand-
ard of living for those who remain is often very low.
Owing to dispersed settlement, the cost of govern-
mental services is high.

Much of the southern foothills land has no value for
forest production and but little for grazing. It is,
however, badly needed as a watershed area for the
lowlands. Its recreational value also is very high, far
higher than its value for any conceivable form of
agricultural use. This is due primarily to the fact
that these rugged areas are not only attractive but
easily accessible to more than 3,000,000 people, or
52 percent of the population of California. The
value for recreation naust necessarily increase in the
future.

The Columbia Basin

The ngriculturally undesirable part of this area lies
wholly witliin the 10-inch rainfall line, and in many
localities the annual average precipitation is as low
as 5 or 6 inches. Soils are, for the most part, the light
gray or brown soils typical of arid regions, and carry
a natural vegetation of sagebrush. In the somewhat
better watered localities of the south and east these
give way to the chestnut-colored soils of the steppe
under a flora of scanty bunch grass.

Settlement. — Practically all of this region was home-
steaded, and all land level enough to cultivate was
cleared of its sagebrush and put under the plow. Dry
farming on a very extensive scale offered the only
method of land iise over most of the area. In con-
trast to this, the valleys about the margin of the
Cohnubia Basin were irrigated and marie to produce
orchard fruits and alfalfa.

Abandonment. — Emigration from this region has
been going on for 30 years. After a very few years of
occupance many settlers gave up and the abandonment
rate in all save the irrigated districts was very heavy.
This has continued until today. Over large areas
land abandonment is almost complete, and only a very
sparse settlement remains. In localities possessing
slightly better soil and more rainfall land relinquish-
ment has proceeded at a less rapid rate, but it has
accelerated with the recent period of short crops and
low prices.

Economic Conditions. — Farm holdings are very
large, and, owing to the abandonment of intervening
areas, the wheat ranches are interspersed among range
lands. Wheat yields are almost universally below 10

Maladjustments in Land Use

39

bushels per acre; more often they average 0 to S
bushels per acre. Water supply is inadecpiate in
many localities, roads are mere trails through tlie
sagebrush, and the average value of farm improvements
is low. Wind erosion and the blowing out of crops is
a serious menace and is becoming mcrcasingly worse
each year. Ta.\ delincjuency is very high in comparison
with the !)etter wlieat lands of the Palouse area to the
east.

Social Conditions. —This is an area of cash grain
production with jjractically no opportunity for a farm
to furnish any substantial part of the familj- li\ing.
Consequently, with low wheat yields, most of the gross
income is absorbed in o])erating costs; particuiai'ly is
this true in years of poor wheat prices. Living stand-
ards are very poor and the net family income exceed-
ingly small. Houses are in some areas faii'Iy good, but
practically all modern conveniences are lacking. In
many areas, however, houses consist of flimsy frame
shacks which merely ott'er piotection against wind, sun,
and infrequent i-ain. Outbuilihiigs are few, barns often
being notliing but huts with poles supporting a straw
roof. Machinery is commonly unprotected from the
elements. The almost comj)h'te land abandonment
has left tiie residual farms badly isolated. Grange
halls, country churches, and schools now stand idle
over large areas.

The Case of Jefferson County, Oreg. — During the last
25 years rainfall in this county has averaged 8 inches,
and for one-fourth of these j'ears it has fallen l)elow
6% inches. In August 1934 72 percent of all wheat
lands were ta.\ delinquent, of which more than one-
fourth had been delinquent for (j or more yeaj's. Fifty-
one percent of all farms v:ere under mortgage to the
Federal Land Bank prior to 1924, since which ilate no
new loans have Ijeen made. More than one-tliiid of
these loans have now been foreclosed and most of the
remainder are delinquent and subject to foreclosure.

Jefferson County farmers received $125,000 ($400
per farm on the average) under wheat allotment con-
tracts. Even with these benefit payments almost half
of all farm families were on dkect public relief in July
1934. Were it not for these measui'es farm abandon-
ment would have been very high. From 1920 to 1925
the number of farms in Jefferson County decreased
19 percent; from 1925 to 1930 the decrease was 28
percent; and from 1930 to 1935 the rate will undoubt-
edly approximate 30 percent. Judged in the light of
these facts, practically all wheat lands in the Columbia
Basin should revert to public range.

Arid Grazing and Irrigation Region

This region includes most of the arid lands of the
United States. It is, roughly, a triangle whose base
extends fiom tlie lowei' Kio (iian<le westward along

the soutliein international boundary to the Imperial
\'alley, and whose apex lies far to the north in Idaho
and Oregon. Within this great triangle of ariditj",
adjustments in arable farming fall into three categories:

1. Irrigation farming on the lowlands.

2. Dry farming on the lowlands, j)iedmont

slopes, and lower plateaus.

3. Subhumid fainiing in the timl)eie(l mountains

and higher plateaus.

Each of these types includes definite maladjustments
which locally are so serious as to render farming clearly
uneconomic.

Irrigation Maladjustmerit. — A considerable number
of small urigation projects were develojjed duiing a
period of heavier rainfall, as for example at Piute,
Utah, in the Sevier Valley. On the average, there is
not sufficient water for ii-rigation over a long period of
time, and during the present drj' period crop failure is
severe and suffering is intense. This is necessarily the
case, because wliile Lirigation is not immediately de-
pendent upon rainfall, the watersheds from which u-ri-
gation waters are derived are subject to the same
fluctuations in precipitation as are the neighlioring arid
or semiaj'id lowlands. Consequentl}', the amount of
water available for iri-igation has often proved insuffi-
cient on a number of reclamation projects.

Other areas have become hopelessly waterlogged or
alkalized after being iri-igated, and for topographic
reasons it is impossible to drain them. In the Honey
Lake area of California, for example, the topsoil is very
fertile, but its subsoil is so fuU of salts as to compel
abandonment after a few years of u-rigation. Through-
out the region many areas have been included in irri-
gation projects without regard to the physical character
of the soil. Some are fine sand, in which the crops
may be blown out by the wind during dry or windy
years. In others, outcrops of rock render cultivation
difficult; in still others, the subsoil is so ])orous that
water cannot be retained, or the soil is so infeitile that
crop yields are small.

In certain areas the resjjonse to these conditions has
been partial abandonment, but more often it has meant
poverty, failure to improve propert)^, and inabiUty to
maintain even a moderate standard of living. In
numerous irrigation districts 30 to 50 percent of the
population has been forced onto the public relief rolls.
Arizona reports some such localities where the inhabi-
tants are SO to 100 percent on rehef, with a eoiise(iuenl
loss of most of the comforts of hving.

A few irrigation projects were conceived upon very
poor economic plans. In the San Juan and Animas
\'alleys of New Mexico farms avei'age about 75 acres
in area and contain about 35 acres of crop land, on
which beans, ulieat, alfalfa, and other miscellaneous
crops are produced. ( )wing to pool- yield, lack of mar-

40

L(U}d Plannivg Feport

ket, alkali, and seepage, much land abandonment has
occurred. The total improvements on these farms
average less than $1,000, so that even in good years
the standard of living is startlingly low.

MaUuIjiii^finent in Dry Farming. — Dry farms and
stock ranches are sparsely disseminated through the
semiarid belt along the eastern foot of the Cascades in
Oregon. The homes consist of rude shacks or cabins
devoid of all common comforts and wholly isolated.
Instead of being directly abandoned, tliesc farms usu-
ally change hands several times before finally becoming
unoccupied, thereby causing the financial ruin of sev-
eral families. Recently, hopeful back-to-the-landers
have reoccupied many of these farms and a new cycle
of loss has been initiated.

All through southern Idaho are patches of dry wheat
land, which were settled between 1915 and 1920. The
subsequent declme in wheat prices coupled with a
diminution in rainfall has led to a high rate of farm
abandonment. Those farms in the poorer areas which
remain are distinctly submarginal. In Washington
County, for example, crop yields have reached a very
low level. Many farms have passed into the hands
of mortgage companies.

In Utah the situation is even worse. Here, also,
many dry-farming areas were settled during a period
of heavier rainfall, and are now largely abandoned.
Many areas, however, are on the edge of the adequate
moisture belt even in good years. In many places the
land is worth no more than $3 to $5 per acre. The
water supply in some localities is so limited that drink-
ing water must be hauled long distances. In some
places the rural inhabitants have been literally starved
out and a large part of the land has been sold for taxes.
For those that remain, incomes approach the vanishing
point, and weeds from the abandoned acres overrun
the crops. Tax delinquency runs to 40 or 50 percent,
and in some localities it approaches 100 percent. A
high percentage of farm families is on public relief.

Farther south, in New Mexico, entire conununities
of submarginal farms may be noted. In one area re-
ported from Catron and Valencia Counties the back-
ground is one of poor soil, alkali, and rough topography.
In some places wells must be drilled 100 to 400 feet to
jji-ocure drinking water. The expense of drilling has
limited the number of wells to a ratio of one to each
six families and many of these wells yield only brackish
water. Farm homes are frecjuently one- or two-room
shacks with dkt floors. Over a himdred families are
too poor to own a cow ; many are too far from a school-
house to allow their children to attend school. In the
Sandoval Basin, fully 50 percent of the rural popula-
tion is on public relief. Sinailar conditions exist in
those portions of Arizona, Nevada, and California
which lie in this region.

Maladjusted Subhumid Farming. — Subhumid agricul-
ture in tliis region is confined to the higher mesas and
plateaus and to the better watered submountainous
uplands. One such area near Ravensdale (Lassen
County), Calif., lies at an elevation of 5,000 feet.
Killing frosts ma.v occur during any summer month, a
circumstance wliicli, coupled with lack of access to
markets, renders it almost impossible to make a living
from 160 acres of land. Similarly, in the higlicj- farm-
ing areas of Utah, the frost-free growing season is short,
and crop yield is precarious. Poor roads, poor rural
schools, and isolation due to abandonment of interven-
ing areas are all conducive to a lack of community life
and a lowered social tone. Most such areas shoidd
unquestionabh^ be converted to national forest.

Arizona shows farms, and communities of farms,
through the pine belt, most of wliich are within the
limits of the national forest. A few localities can
support self-sufficing farms, but most of them are
distinctly submarginal.

New Mexico, likewise, contains many subhumid farm
lands within the national forests or in partially timbered
areas adjacent to them. In some localities settlement
is so scattered as to cause a complete break-down in
community and social life, but in a few areas it is so
dense that all available patches of land are cultivated
with an attendant serious overgrazing of the adjacent
national forest. In the areas of scattered settlement
roads are extremely poor and usually impassable
during the winter months. The schools are usually
substandard, incomes very small, and living conditions
very low even in good years. The acreage of these
farms is restricted and yields of gardens, root crops,
forage, and small grains are meager. The total
improvements per farm average from $350 to $600, and
the access to market is usually very unsatisfactory. In
many instances these farms lie from 10 to 50 miles from
a market town; more rarely they lie 90 to 120 miles
distant. The water table stands far below the surface
and well drilling is but little developed. Most farms,
therefore, must haul domestic water from sources
several miles distant. Under such conditions the rate
of farm abandonment has been high, some farms having
been taken up and relinquished five or six times during
the last few years. Taxes are about 33 percent delin-
quent and charity help and relief work are quite gen-
eral among Anglo-American and Spanish-American and
Mexican farm families alike.

Northeastern Agricultural Region

The principal part of this region extends from the
lovvei Connecticut Valley to the Potomac River.
Southeastward from this, the Shenandoah Valley
extends into VLi'ginia. Toward the north, several
detached districts form related outliers. This region

Maladjysfmeiif.'i hi Land L\se

41

is not a unit agriculturally, hut includes such diverse
units as the Aroostook potato district, the Connecticut
Valley, the Champlain Lowlaiul, the trucldng section
of the northern Coastal Plain, and the general farming
areas of southeastern Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah
Valley.

Settlement and Population. — This was the first region
in the United States to receive extensive settleni(>nt.
Conse(|uently its soils have long been ]c(|niied tv
support agriciildinil pi(i(jucti<in. ()\i>r lai'gc portions
of the region the soils weie not fertile at the outset, and
great amounts of fertilizer have been required to make
them productive. In addition, the rapid evolution of
manufactural and commercial adjustments nearby
have long all'orded a counter attraction to labor. In
the adjacent Northeastern Highlands, farm abandon-
ment has been going on for a hundred years. In con-
trast to this, the northeastern agricultural region shows
a slightly increasing farm population, and a very greatly
increased farm production.

Relation to City Population. —Within or adjacent to
this region is a long line of large cities, reaching from
Portland, Maine, to Washmgton, D. C. The total
population of these cities exceeds 13 million or one-tenth
of the total population of the United States. As
pointed out by Dr. O. E. Baker in his Agricultural
Regions of North America, probably no region on earth
possesses such an enormous and immediate city market
for its products. Consecpiently, it has here been
profitable to fertilize relatively infertile lands and to
expand the production of crop specialties. vSimul-
taneously, farm abandonment has been reduced to a
minimum, and agiicultural expansion locally has l)een
encouraged.

Areas of "Problem" Agriculture. — Natural fertility
and superior farm management have produced a num-
ber of liiglily exemplary farming areas in this region,
such as the Shenandoah Valley and portions of south-
eastern Pennsylvania. There are many other areas
of moderate fertility and even some with relatively
infertile soil where the location and favorable climate
outweigh soil deficiencies and make jjossible a profitable
agriculture. Much land in the vicinity of New York,
Philadelphia, and Boston which would ordinarily be
submarginal for agriculture has a high value for subur-
l)an residence and part-time farming. This is true of
much land adjacent to tlie smaller population centers
id so.

In contrast to these generally satisfactory conditions
there are probably more than l,4()(),0()n acres of farm
land which are distinctly subnuirgiiial. Accordingly,
:i, .")()() farms, valued at $7,000,000, have been recom-
mended for elimination. Most of these lie on extremely
sterile sandy soil, or on poorly drained land, in a few

instances, on land the use of which is urgently needed
for public recreational use.

The largest areas of "problem" farming in this region
lies in the southeastern and south central portions of
New Jersej". For the most part this district is covered
with sterile sandy soil, but, here and there, sandy
loams are present. In addition, there are unnum-
bered small bogs. Originsdly the land supjjorted a
forest of pitch pine, mixed with black oaks and many
small shrubs. For this reason, the area has long been
known as the New Jersey "pine barrens."

Agricultural settlement in the pine barrens began
during the Colonial period, but proceeded slowlJ^ As
urban markets developed, the encroachment of agri-
cultural settlement upon the margins of the area was
accelerated. The acreage of improved land increased
each decade between 1S60 and 1910. Since the latter
date a decline has occurred.

At the outset, the same sort of people settled on the
pine barrens as chose the better lands of New Jersej-.
But through emigration of the more energetic indi-
viduals, there has been a selective depreciation of the
stock which has remained. Added to this, as the com-
mercialization of agriculture proceeded, the less effi-
cient human types have been "elbowed" out of the
])rogressive areas, from whence they have drifted onto
the submarginal sand areas.

Early land clearing for agricultural occupance tended
to follow certain major thoroughfares without regard
to soil quality. Many areas, therefore, were aban-
doned and the land has reverted to oak scrub and
coppice. Between 1883 and 1898 logging operations
were prosecuted along the railways, and the forest
area was much diminished. Since then fire has taken
a serious toll of the remaining timber.

In southeastern New Jersey, there is today an are.)
of probably 1,200 square miles wherein there is little
or no farm settlement, but ui)on which public manage-
ment of forest is needed. Immediately surrounding
this central area there is a marginal zone embracing
perhaps 1 ,000 scjuare miles which contains a more or less
scattered farm settlement. In 1908 Dr. K. II. Whit-
beck described the denizens of the jjinc hnrrens as
seemingly untouched b}' modern urban ci\ ili/.ation and
ahnost as primiti\(' as the jnountaincers of the self-
sufficing areas of the Southern Appalachian hill
country. A large juajority of the inhabitants dwelt in
cabins ilevoiil of ])ainf . Clothing was |)oor, and adults
commonly went i);ir('fii<p| during much of tiic year.
Family lixing \\;is derived by cultivating a few infeitile
acres, gathering cranberries in the bogs, anti picking
wild huckleberiies. It was further eked out by raising
a few hogs and chickens, and by collecting firewood
from the scrub timber.

42

Land Planning Report

Conditions have changed since 1908, but Uving
standards are not much improved. In 1929 probably
40 to 50 percent of all farms showed a gross income of
less than $600. Cash returns are realized from the
sale of berries and cordwood. The growth of Atlantic
City and other resorts along tne coast has provided a
market for vegetables and poultry, and many of the
men find part-time employment off the farm. But the
total results are far from satisfactorj'. Much of the
land is not and cannot be occupied profitably. Under
present methods of use, potential forest is rapidly being
depleted by fire and by culling. An additional objec-
tion to the unrestricted use of this area arises from the
fact that the land is used over and over by realty com-
panies as "sucker bait" in inducing city families from
New York and Philadelpliia to acquire farm homes.

Although possessed of a great deal of land of low
agricultural productivity, along with much that is
agriculturally desirable, the northeastern agricultural
region is one of the less critical regions as regards the
magnitude of its land prol)lems. In a long-settled
area of this sort, land use has had time to become
fairly well adjusted to land character and is reasonably
stable. Parts of the region are urban and industrial
rather than agricultural. Land use problems of im-
portance are therefore restricted mainly to the southern
part, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
Delaware.

Central Agricultural Region

The Central Agricultural Region is perhaps the
largest areal unit dealt with m this report. It extends
from western New York, Ohio, and the Kentucky
bluegrass district westward to and including much of
the Great Plains. From north to south it comprises
all of the land between the Great Lakes cut-over region
and the Appalachian-Ozark Highlands.

In general, tlijs is a region of excellent agricultural
adjustment. Its heart is the American Corn Belt, but
its margins mclude large portions of several adjacent
agricultural provinces. The outstanding trait of tliis
region is its general lack of submarginal agricultiu-e.
Here and there over the region are areas, each 10,000
square miles or more in area, wherein no major prob-
lems in agricultural adjustment are in evidence. Over
other areas, even more extensive, the only existing
problems are those of erosion control or a change in
size of the farm unit.

This region is responsible for much of the volume of
the agricultural production of the United States, and it
contains most of the larger bodies of productive agri-
cultural land. On the whole agriculture has been
marked by the provision of relatively good family
living and the support of fairly stable public services
and institutions.

"Islands" uJPrublem Agriculture. — Scattered through
this extensive region, however, are irregular patches
and long strips of land in which agricultural conditions
are far from satisfactory. In some instances they are
as definitely submarginal and maladjusted as those of
the Ozark-Appalachian liill country. These "islands"
of poverty and imeconomic farming are rendered all
the more conspicuous because they are set amidst
a background of generally satisfactory social and
economic conditions.

Such areas frequently are snudl, covering, perhaps, 5
to 20 square miles. Others include whole townships,
groups of townships, and indeed large portions of
counties. These submarginal "islands" in midwest-
ern agriculture have resulted locally from diverse
causes.

In the bluegrass basins of Kentucky and Tennessee
such submarginal areas lie on patches of highly erosive
shale soil or glade (rocky) land. In Ohio they lie on
sand ridges or on poorly diained areas. In southern
Wisconsin they are confined to valleys containing sand
trains; in Michigan they consist of sterile sand plain
or rough, stony terminal moraine. The imposingly
steep bluffs of the Missouri River constitute a long,
narrow strip of hill coimtry in western Iowa, wherein
soils are erosive, droughty, and difficult to cultivate.

Perhaps the most extensive occurrence of problem
agriculture in the midlands is in western Illinois,
northern Missouri, and southern and eastern Iowa.
This section consists of maturely dissected hill country
adjacent to the Mississippi and its principal tributaries.
Such areas exhibit a relief of from 50 to 200 feet; they
are usually quite rugged. This hill land was originally
forested and covered with gray-brown soil, in contiast
to the more fertile and lasting black soils of the
adjacent prairie land.

Extent of Froblein Agriculture. — Compared with the
total number of farms in the central agricidtural region,
the number of problem farms appears very small.
They probably do not exceed 12,000 in the 18 States
or parts of States involved. This would include
1,402,000 acres of farm land, of which 570,000 acres are
crop land. The total value of land and buildings on
these farms is approximately $25,000,000, or $2,000 per
farm.

The Case of Southeastern Iowa. — Prior to 1830
southern Iowa received considerable colonization from
Missouri and the southern Appalachian States. In-
variably these early unmigrants in Iowa chose the hill
lands along the rivers as loci for settlement. Here
shelter, a water supply, wild game, and fish were imme-
diately at hand. There was wood for houses, fences,
fuel, and outbuildings. Mast for hogs was plentiful,
and the soil, when cleared, was easily tilled, and adapted
for corn and vegetable production. Consequentlj', the

Maladjustments in Land Use

43

river hill lands were fairly well settled before agricul-
tural adjustment began on the i)rairies.

From 1830 to 1880 settlement of the prairie areas
took place, and gradually a liighly commercialized
sj'stem of agriculture and rural living was evolved. Bj'
1910 the river hill lauds began to evince a handicap in
comparison with the prairies. Life in the former local-
ities failed to become commercialized at a rate com-
mensurate with that on the level uplands. In part this
retardation of the hilly areas can be charged to poorer
transportation and inferior access; in larger part it has
occurred because hill land will not readily support com-
mercialized production. Simultaneously, the house-
hold arts and domestic industries have declined almost
as rapidly on hill farms as on prairie farms. Conse-
quently, the former has come to contribute less to family
living without yielding a proportionately increased cash
income.

General Economic and Social Conditions. — Improper
crop rotation, poor farm practices, severe erosion result-
ing from the farming of steep hillsides, and mcreased
soil acidity have resulted in generally lowered produc-
tivity of the land. At the same time the general deple-
tion of local timber resources has caused au.xiliary pro-
duction to dwindle. Farm incomes in the river hill
areas are generally low, averaging 50 percent or more
below the State average. Such incomes, compara-
tively low as they are for Iowa, may seem high as
compared with those of the self-sufficing agricultural
areas in the Appalachians. However, with the gener-
ally liigher standard of living with which these people
are familiar, the incomes are often not as effective as
are much lower incomes in the hill country of the
Appalachians or Ozarks, for example. Not only is farm
income small but the value of the farm dwelling is low
on most problem farms, averaging probably between
$500 and $1,000, but less than $500 in many instances.

From 1920 to 1930 rural population in the problem
areas of southern Iowa decreased by 25 percent. In
])art this resulted in desirable farm consolidation and
in part in outright abandonment. During the current
ik^pression many of the vacant farmsteads have been
reoccupied by migrants from the towns and cities.
This class of people, usually without resources and
frequently without farm experience, have merely added
to the already critical public rehef burden. The num-
ber of families on pubhc rehef has varied from place
to place in accordance with local policies, and occa-
sionally in relation to rehef demands. During the
first half of 1934 the proportion of families on relief
in the problem districts in Iowa has averaged 60
percent higher than in the State as a whole.

Tax dehnquency in southern Iowa is high, and in
general runs higher than in other portions of the

144090— 3C 4

State. As early as 1928 the area showed a 20-percent
delinquency. By 1931 it had risen to 41 percent. By
1933 this had been reduced approximately to 33 percent
because large amounts of farm land had passed into the
hands of business concerns which have been able to
pay the taxes. Tliis agglomeration of corporate hold-
ings has proceeded until in many localities today
one-fifth to one-fourth of all farm land is corporately
owned.

Erosion Control. — The high average of agricultural
productivity of some of the States lying largely in this
region has given rise to the recognition of problems
in the use of poor land, wliich might appear relatively
unimportant in States characterized by lower levels of
agricultural productivity. In Illinois, for example, the
conversion of some farm land, reported at relatively
high values, to forest is advocated. In Iowa the
acquisition of small scattered tracts of woodland
and eroded land to be administered as public forests, is
proposed. Inasmuch as the greater part of this region
is characterized by relatively high income per farm
family, it appears that the urgency of land use adjust-
ment must be mamlj- concerned with sod conservation.

Erosion control is believed to involve a measure of
replacement of intertilled crops, notably corn, by close-
growing crops or pasture, by keeping erosive land in
grass, legumes, or pasture for a longer part of the
rotation, or by keeping the most erosive slopes per-
manently in soil-protecting uses. In certain areas
many of the farms need somewhat larger acreage to
provide adequate incomes after making this adjust-
ment. In some of the other areas in the region larger
acreages per farm would not be necessary.

Gulf Coast Prairies

This region extends from soutliwestern Louisiana
westward along the Texas coast as far as Baffin Bay.
In general, tnis is a low, level, plains region, trenched
by shallow stream valleys. Its black soils are in the
main fertile and suited for agricultural use.

In the east rice is the principal crop. In the center
this gives way to cotton, and this in turn is superseded
by stock raising toward the west. In the neighborhood
of Galveston there is an area of dairying and mixed
farming.

Over much of the region there is widespread necil of
drainage, but practically no areas of subraarginal
farming. Along the Texas coast and on the long,
narrow, barrier islands oflshore the soils are verj' sandy
and wholly unsuited for agriculture. At the same
time, such areas have an impelling value for pubhc
recreation and game refuge uses. Accordingly, the
few farms of the islands shoukl be eliminated to make
way for more profitable use of the laud.

44

Land Planning Report

Mississippi Delta Region

The Mississippi River, from southern Illinois to the
GuJf of Mexico, flows for 500 miles o^ier a low, flat,
flooil plain. South of this it continues across the delta
plain wliich it has built outward for 150 miles into the
Gulf. The Delta proper, together with the flood plain,
forms a regional unit some 650 miles long and from 40
to 125 miles wide, with perhaps an average width of
75 miles.

This region may be described as 50,000 square miles
of allu\dum, across which the river meanders in a be-
wildering series of loops ami turns. The average fall
of the Mississippi is from 6 to 12 inches per mile through
this region, a circumstance wliich results in a very
sluggish rate of flow. The river is confined between
levees of its own building (reinforced by man-made em-
bankments) and it has aggraded its channel many feet
above the level of the plain. During flood periods,
crevassing of the levees occvn-s and large areas of the
back country are flooded.

General Appearance.' — The Mississippi Delta region
is monotonously level in appearance, covered with
rather fertile clays and fine silts, and was originally
numtled with a forest of hardwoods. Here and there
the land is so poorly drained that prairie or canebrake
replaces forest. Occasional ridges rise above the flood
plain and exhibit sandj', sandy silt, or gravelly soils.

A tremendous amount of money and effort has al-
ready been expended upon flood control and drainage
in this region, but no general reclamation has been
affected. Neither has any provision been made to
utilize the silt burden of the Mississippi floodwaters
annually to refertilize the region.

Population and Land Use. — A small proportion of
land in this deltaic region has been cleaned and made
to yield abundant crops of cotton, corn, and sugarcane.
The United States, however, has scarcely begun to
utilize its alluvial lands. The Mississippi Delta today
contains probably 4 million inhabitants. In contrast
to this, on the Hoang-ho Delta of Cliina, an area of
identical size supports between 20 and 30 million
people on soU no better and under clhnatic conditions
less productive than those of the Mississippi Delta.
The geographic adjustments which obtaui on the
alluvial lands of North China will probably never be
ai)proximated m the United States, but it is clearly
evident that, if utiUzed carefully, the Mississippi Delta
lands are capable of supportmg a considerable propor-
tion of the American people.

At present, conditions in this region are unique. A
large percentage of the land is still in forest or swamp,
because of its susceptibility to overflow, and agricul-
tural settlement is confined to the natural levees and
other better-drained parts. These are intensively

cultivated by a relatively dense population and present
a striking contrast to the back swamp areas.

In the poorly drained areas there is much poten-
tially productive land but to render it cultivable would
require large drainage and. flood protection works.
Along with these areas of productive land, there is a
considerable amount of less fertile soil. In planning
many of the existing drainage units the land was not
carefully classified, with the result that some farms he
on good son, wlule others are on poor soil. Low in-
comes on these latter have occasioned tax deliquency,
and this in turn has almost compelled delinquency on
the better lands. The reason for this lies in the fact
that drainage district taxes and assessments are pooled
and applied to the entire mdebtedness of the district
instead of being used to reduce the indebtedness of
individual farms. Hence, an individual farmer is
faced with the choice of carrying the indebtedness of
his delmquent neighbors or of defaulting on his own
obligations.

A very large share of the ijnproved land is in cotton
(70 percent in the Yazoo Basm). There is an almost
complete lack of yeoman farms, 85 percent of the farm
land being in plantations and 86 percent being worked
by Negro tenants. Alosquitoes, nuilaria, floods, and
high land values have combined to keep small white
farmers out of the Delta, and hence the popiflation is
predominately Negro. Per-acre crop yields are well
above the averages for the four States involved, and
average incomes for landowners are fairly satisfactory.
Incomes for tenants, however, are far from satisfactory,
illiteracy is very high, and health standards very un-
satisfactory.

Areas Subject to Flood. — A large amount of poten-
tially productive land is luuitilized because of the lack
of reclamation measures. Numerous areas already
under cidtivation, however, present very grave prob-
lems. For example, within a narrow strip extending
along the river from Memphis to Vicksburg, a large
amount of the land is farmed. Over the entire strip
in question crops are uncertain, owing to the hkelihood
of their being washed away by floodwaters mside the
levee or saturated by seep waters outside it.

A wide strip along the eastern edge of the Yazoo
Basin is frequently overflowed. Hence farming is
here both dangerous and undependable. A large
portion of this is needed for retaining reservoirs in
order to eft'ect flood control. It might be made to
serve additional service as public forest and game
preserve.

Similarly, a considerable area at the southern end
of the Yazoo is largely uneconomic for agriculture.
More than 80 percent of the farmers in tliis district
are Negroes, and 40 percent of the farms are operated

Maladjustments in Land Use

45

by tenants. Approximately 73 percent of the total
land area is in nonproductive use at j)resent, so that
oidy the better soils are now being cultivated. In
spite of this, the expenditure of Civil Works Adminis-
tration funds averaged $10 per capita during 1933-34.
Most of this area should ultimately be used for hard-
wood forest and flood-control purposes.

The Outer Delta. — This section includes the margins
of Lake Ponchartrain, the outer "bird's-claw" of the
Delta and a wide strip along the entire southern coast
of Louisiaiui. In general, this area consists of salt
marsh and supports a dense cover. Here and there
through the marshlands run liigher and hence better
drained ridges of older alluvium. On or adjacent to
these ridges are farms, roads, and schools. The inter-
\ening marsh-grass areas, on the contrary, are unpop-
ulated or nearly so. Scattered through them however,
are luindreds of families, many of whom are squatters,
who live under conditions of almost unbelievable pov-
erty and isolation.

Such a family will customarily depend upon fish and
shellfish for food, although some of them do clear tiny
patches for gardens on the smaller ridges. Some in-
come is derived from trapping fur-bearing animals,
Init the standard of living is usually at the irreducible
minimum. The amount of clothing purchased is un-
believably small and the diet is very restricted. Fre-
cjuently there are no roads reaching tiie homes of these
people and large numbers of them are without any
school service.

It is estimated that 75 percent of the wild waterfowl
of the United States and Canada winter in this district.
In addition, the marsh-grass cover att'ords excellent
sanctuary for muskrat, opossum, mink, otter, raccoon,
and other fur-bearing animals. Practically all of this
part of the Delta region should, therefore, be with-
drawn from settlement and converted to game preserve.

Southeastern Middle Coastal Plain

Extending from the James River in Virginia to south-
ern Alabama is a region which, for want of a better
name, maj' be designated as the Southeastern Middle
Coastal Plain. From the standpoint of general land
use it is clearly set off from the lower or flatwood
section of the Coastal Plain on the one hand and from
the hilly upper section on the other.

The surface of this region is generally level to un-
liidating, and averages from 100 feet in elevation at the
edge of the flatwoods to perhaps 500 feet at its inner
margin. Several large rivers cross the plain in a
sluggish manner, i)ut many k)calities are very poorly
drained. Certain large interstream areas are perma-
nently swampy or contain jxinds which have no outlet,
in numerous instances tlie river Ijottom areas are in-

undated during spring flood and remain saturated for
months.

Land Use. — Appro.ximately half of the land is still
in forest. Tliis is a low percentage in comparison witli
the adjacent Atlantic and Gulf cut-over region, but it is
surprisingly high for a major agricultural area. It
would seem desirable to encourage forest production
in this region because of several reasons. The rate of
growth is rapid, the species are valuable, large lumber
markets are near at hand, and most communities
rather urgently need an auxiliary source of income.

Most of the nonforested land is devoted to agricul-
ture, and with the aid of much fertilizer the rather light
soils are made to produce abundant crops of cotton.
Cotton, however, is not the only staple crop, for it is
locally eclipsed in several locahties by tobacco, pea-
luits, melons, vegetables, or small fruits. Corn is a
universally miportant crop, and in hog production this
region leads all other portions of the South.

The natural vegetation of the Coastal Plain was
mainly longleaf pine, with an undercover of wire grass.
Along the streams and on the swamp areas this gave
way to cypress and gum forests. A large proportion
of the longleaf pine has been cut over. In part this
has been the result of long-continued lumbering opera-
tions. Indeed, many counties of the Coastal Plain
today support from 10 to 50, or even more, sawmills,
and in several the annual cut of timber exceeds $100,000.
In part, however, it has resulted from general land-
clearing practices in connection with agriculture. The
soils are prevailingly sand or sandy loam, usually with
sandy clay subsoil, and are easily depleted of their
fertility. After several years of more or less con-
tinuous cropping in corn and cotton, therefore, it is
customary to abandon for a time the poorer fields and
to add new crop acres by clearuig woodhuul.

In many portions of the region such methods are
not in vogue, and yields are maintained by crojj rota-
tion, application of conunercial fertilizers, and careful
cultivation. Such practices would be more general
were it not for the high proportion of farm tenancy,
the curse of the crop-mortgage system, and the domi-
nance of cotton in the production program.

Most of the tenant-oi)erated farm units are small
in size and do not as a rule yielil a satisfactory income.
Enlargement of farms, however, does not seem to otter a
ready solution, because the principal staples, cotton and
tobacco, retjuire so much labor that the average tenant
family cannot efficiently operate larger acreages.

Submarg'nial Farmhuj Areas. — In general, this region
is relatively freer from jnajor land-use problems than
most parts of the South. In many respects, therefore,
it is one of the better farming regions of this country.
In spite of this, there are numerous districts wiiere

46

Land Planning Report

farming is definitely uneconomic. Sucli areas are of
at least two lands: (1) Extensive tracts of deep sandy
soils which are not only nonretentive of moisture dur-
ing the summer but are too infertile to justify the
application of commercial fertilizer; (2) districts
characterized by dispersed farm settlement. Ordi-
narily this last results from patchy distribution of
good soils through a generally sandy area. In certain
instances, however, it results from the separation of
arable spots by stretches of swamp. In either case
communication is made difficult and all vestiges of
community Ufe are destroyed.

On areas of these kinds there are approxunately
6,800 farms containing 661,200 acres, of which 298,700
acres are now in crops. The total value of such lands,
together with the buildings on them, is probably less
than $4,600,000.

By every social and economic measure these locaHties
are submarginal. Illiteracy is high, health and dietary
habits are poor, and houses are almost unbelievably
flmisy and dilapidated. The cost of maintaining an
institutional pattern for such districts constitutes a
serious drain upon the nearby better areas and prob-
ably exceeds the total value of commercial production
from the submarginal farms involved.

The elimination of farmmg from the areas of in-
fertile soils would not only permit their more pro-
ductive use under forestry but would also offer
opportunities to their inhabitants to achieve a higher
standard of living elsewhere. The retirement of farms
from districts of scattered settlement would, through
the mere concentration of population in other areas,
provide at lower costs better schools, churches, roads,
medical attention, and other amenities of individual
and group living.

Western Gulf Coastal Plain

This region is known locallj- as the "Piney Woods"
farming area. Its surface is generally roUing, but in
numerous places it contains areas of rough hilly terrain
and of rather level prairies. Most of the region was
original]}- covered with a forest of pine interspersed
with gum trees. Toward the southwest, in Texas, tliis
gives way to a hght woodland of black and post oak,
with strings of elm and cottonwood along the streams.
All of the virgin timber has been cut, and a large pro-
portion of the land has been under cultivation for a
number of years.

Land not in cultivation supports a second-growth
forest, which in turn is now being cut. For a time the
land was fairly productive and many farmers derived
part-time employment from the forest. But cultivated

land is eroding badly, and income from the forest has
disappeared.

Since 1910 farm abandonment has occurred rather
generally, having been particularly marked between
1910 and 1920. Today, abandoned farmsteads are a
common sight throughout northeastern Texas and the
adjacent portions of Arkansas and Loiusiana. The
result of this abandonment has been to increase the size
of some tarms, but the land -operations unit is still far too
small. Some authorities in Texas believe that from 25
to 50 percent of the total population in this region
should ultimately be withdrawn in order to provide
larger farms for the remainder. However, the question
immediately arises as to whether a farm family can
cultivate more than the present acreage of cotton.
Perhaps the answer lies in a thoroughgoing change in
farm economy in this region.

There is undoubtedly a too-intensive cropping in
cotton and corn, with attendant erosion and soil deple-
tion. If this be allowed to continue there will even-
tually be created a submarginal-land problem compara-
ble to that of the hiUy cotton and tobacco region east
of the Mississippi.

In four or five small areas in Texas and one in Loui-
siana farming is distinctly uneconomic and should be
replaced by forest land use. In some instances these
submarginal areas result from poorly drained clay soils,
in others from deep, sterile sand or gravelly soils, in still
others from topography too rough to cultivate.

For the entire western Gulf Coastal Plain gross farm
incomes are generally quite low. Probably 20 percent
of all farms retiu-n less than $250 annually; 30 to 50
percent, less than $600 annually; and 80 to 85 percent,
less than $1,000.

Tax dehnquency was high as long ago as 1921. By
1933 between 30 and 40 percent of all farms were dehn-
quent. Farmhouses are usually dilapidated, devoid of
paint, urgently in need of repairs, and poorly and
meagerly furnished. Telephone lines are commonly in
a bad state of repair, and roads impassable during a
part of the year. Subvention in the form of State aid
for school maintenance is generally quite high. It
appears, therefore, that much of this region lies at or
near the margin of profitable agricultural use.

Palouse Wheat Region

The Palouse wheat region, as here defined, embraces
the better-watered and agriculturally more productive
part of the northwestern plateau wheat area, and is the
smallest of the land-use problem regions of the United
States. Comprising the black and dark-brown soils
of the eastern part of the Columbia River Basin, it

Maladjustments in Land Use

47

was for several decades a bonanza wheat producer.
\Anieat yields here (today) exceed those in other cash-
grain areas.

While for many years, wheat was practically the
only commodity grown, single cropping has during the
last decade tended to give way to a more rational
system of crop rotation, wherein peas and forage crops
alternate with wheat.

Localh- the region is divided into sections known in
common parlance as the "Spokane, Palouse, Clear-
water, and Walla Walla districts." Of these the
Palouse "country" or district is perhaps the most
representative, and its name might serve to character-
ize the whole region.

There is a limited amount of land within the region
wliich is submarginal for agricultural use, but the total
amount is so small as not to warrant discussion. Wind
erosion is active along the western margin, but soil
destruction by sheet washing and gulleying is pro-
ceeding almost wholesale over large portions of the
region. If this be not checked, much good land will be
reduced to submarginal status within a few decades.

Nonproblem Regions
Containing Little Agriculture

Northern Maine. — Approximately 6,000 square miles
of land in northern Maine are unsuited for agriculture.
Indeed, the region contains but little population, but
instead is almost wholly under forest cover. It is
significant that this is one of the few large areas in the
United States where forests have been satisfactorily
maintained under private ownership. This is in
part due to the lack of interspersed agricultural settle-

ment, which make local governmental organization and
the provision of public services unnecessarj'.

Under these conditions, taxation of forest land is
very low and the owners of timberland can afford to
hold title to it and to plan for future managed produc-
tion, meanwliile merely payhig noniinal taxes to provide
for fire protection. Since the lando\vners know that
they will not be called upon to support local govern-
ment, the3' are not tempted to destructively exploit
the forest resources and then abandon the land.
Neither are they tempted to sell their land to agricul-
tural settlers and thus create a region of scattered
"problem" farming, as in most other forest and cut-
over regions. Therefore the area remains in forest and
gives promise of perpetual timber production under
private management.

Southern Rocki/ Mountains. — For the most part this
is a nonagricultural region, although within it there are
extensive areas which are devoted to fanning and
grazing. A large proportion of the more rugged areas
is in national forest.

Central Rocky Mountains. — This region contains the
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and
the Shoshone Indian Reservation. Practically aU
of the remainder is in national forest.

Northern Rocky Mountains. — A very large part of
this region is in national forest, national park, or Indian
reservation. The foothill areas are for the most part
devoted to ranch pastoralism. Considerable agricul-
tural development is to be found in the mountain
valleys, the markets for wliich he in the mining centers.
As a general rule, this agriculture exliibits no major
maladjustments.

SECTION I II
THE PROGRAM FOR RETIREMENT OF POOR FARM LAND

The conditions whicli hiive been described as exist-
ing in tlie areas from which it is proposed to retire a
substantial proportion of the farms are not the result of
the present depression. The depression has aggravated
the difficulties in many instances, and in some of them
the burden of relief is imusually heavy. The life of
the people, however, is on a very low plane even in
prosperous times. The adjustments in the past have
been accomplished through the individual action of
people living in these areas of poor farm land. These
people, who have had no opportunity to secure sup-
plemental income, coidd better their situation only by
abandoning their farms and seeking new land or op-
portunity for other employment elsewhere. This
process of abandonment, which has been going on in
many areas for a hundred years, in itself adds to the
difficulties of an area, and is a wasteful form of adjust-
ment— wasteful of both human and natural resources.
The people struggle along for years against adverse
conditions before they finally abandon the land. It
often happens that the older people remain, and eke out
a bare existence to the end of their days. The land
fares no better than the people since no one can afford
to utilize it in the best way to conserve the soil. When
the land is finally abandoned, it is often allowed to
remain idle; the owners being in no financial position
to put it to any constructive use. Such land holdings
are, as a rule, too small to permit of their economical
use for forestry or grazing — the only uses to which
much of the land to be retired from arable farming
is suited.

The remedy for and alleviation of conditions de-
scribed above and throughout this section of the report
are being sought through the collective action of the
people. This raises the question of planning and of a
program. Shall such collective action be entirely by
the Federal Government, or by the various States, or
by local communities, or if a mixture of all three, what
shall be the scope of each? Wiat shall be done, and
how shall it be done? It is one thing to diagnose social
and economic ailments; it is another thing to prescribe
the remedy. Certain recommendations followed the
examination of the facts as presented by the various
agencies in the fall of 1934, and these have been set

forth in the National Resources Board report of
December 1934. Significant among such recommenda-
tions is that "a permanent land-planning section * * *
be established", and "that a land-purchase pro-
gram * * * be undertaken over a term of years,
involving continued retirement of submarginal lands at
the rate of about 5,000,000 acres per year for a period
now estimated at 15 years."

Certain steps have been taken to cope with the sub-
marginal land ]3roblem, and a brief discussion of the
activities follows:

The Current Land Program

The realization that Government action was neces-
sary to improve the condition of the people living in
poor farming areas and to replace the haphazard process
of abandonment by a rational process of retirement,
brought into e.xistence a demonstrational program in
the fall of 1933. The Public Works Administration
allocated the sum of $25,000,000 to the Surplus Rehef
Corporation for the land-retirement ]5rogram, the
administration of which was placed in the hands of a
submarginal land committee. Tlie advocates of the
land-retirement program visualized the new program
as the beginning of a long-time plan to readjust our
land-use pattern to yield the highest social and eco-
nomic benefits and to aid in the rehabilitation of
hundreds of thousands of rural families who are victims
of maladjustments. It was determined therefore to
purchase land in areas where distress was most serious,
aiding the families to locate in areas where there are
better opportunities, and devote the land thus acquired
to its highest social and economic use.

The selection and planning of the areas to be pur-
chased were carried on by the Land Policy Section,
Division of Program Planning, Agricultural Adjust-
ment Administration. Resettlement activities were
under the supervision of the Division of Rural Rehabili-
tation and Stranded Populations of the Federal Emer-
gency Relief Administration.

With the establishment of the Resettlement Adminis-
tration - the retirement of poor farm land became a
part of a broader program under the Relief Ap])ropria-
tion Act of 1935 which involved resettlement, rehabili-

' By C. I. Hendrickson, Division of Land Economics, Bureau of AgricuJtural
Economics, and Paul W. Gates, Land Policy Section, Agricultural .Adjustment
Administration.

48

'■ The Resettlement .Administration was established by Executive Order No. 702S
on -\pr. 30, 1935 pursuant to the authority vested in the President under the Emer-
gency Relief .Appropriation -Act of 1935.

Maladjustments in Land Use

tation, and rertain other relief activities. Tho func-
tions and duties of tlie Rural Rpsettlenient Adminis-
tration as prescribed in the Executive order consist of:

(a) To administer approved projects involving resettlement
of destitute or low-income families from rural and urban areas,
including the establishment, maintenance, and operation, in
such connection, of communities in rural and suburban areas.

(b) To initiate and administer a program of approved proj-
ects with respect to soil erosion, stream pollution, .scacoast
erosion, reforestation, forestation, and flood control.

(c) To make loans as authorized under the said Emergency
Relief Appropriation .\ct of 1935 to finance, in whole or in part,
I he purchase of farm lands and necessary equipment by farmers,
farm tenants, croppers, or farm laborers * * ».

To the extent necessary to carry out the provisions of this
Kxecutivc order the Administrator is authorized to acquire,
by purchase or by the power of enu'nent domain, any real prop-
erty or an.v interest therein and improve, develop, grant, sell,
lease (with or without the privilege of purchasing), or otherwise
dispose of any such property or interest therein.

The lands purchased or to be purchased vuider the
present administrative procedure are contemplated
for certain uses, which fall in the main tuider forestry,
recreation, wildlife preservations, Indian lands, graz-
ing, and demonstrational projects. Insofar as possible
the administration of these piu'chased lands is being
referred to those established Government agencies
which are concerned with the particular use for which a
given area is intended. In some instances it is prob-
able that cooperation with the States will be undertaken
for the administration of such lands.

The Long-Time Program

The character of current financing for submarginal
land purchases is not such as to place the present
purchasing activities in the category of an assured

49

long-time land program. As previously noted, there
are 454,000 farms which may be classed svs suhmnrgiiiMl,
and which it is i)roi)osed to retire from arable farming.
There is a total of 75,345,000 acres in these farms;
of this acreage, 20,163,000 acres, or 27 percent, are
crop land; 34,883,000 acres, or 47 percent, are pastin-e
land; and 20,298,000 acres, or 23 [lercent, are other
hind such as woodlands, farmsteads, etc. (See tables
III and IV for a more detailed account of the ciiarncter
of these acreages.) The total value of these far-ms is
estimated to be about .$6S2,0!)0,0()0. This would
give an average value for the 7."), 000, 000 acres of jibout
$9 per acre. There is still left a great amouul of land
foi' which no provision for purchase exists at i)resent
with res[)ect to fimds. However, since the j)urchases
and the options on ImikI up to the present (June 1, 1935)
have been confined for the most ])art to particularly
poor sections, it may be expected that the first moii(\vs
spent will purchase a greater acreage per unit cost than
most of the future expenditures.

Also, since an adequate submarginal-land program
must of necessity be conceived on a long-time basis,
the administration of and administrative machinery
for such a program will reed to be worked out. Certain
aspects of land problems are being handled by agencies
definitely established in contetnplation of long-time
activities, for example, the work in forestry, agricul-
tiH-al economics, national parks and recreation, soil
conservation, reclamation and grazing. The character
of such activities and problems are set forth in other
sections and parts of this report. Certain other aspects
of land problems are being acted upon by governmental
and other agencies, but without the same elements of
assured continuance; and some aspects have received
little or no action at all.

Table III. — Xumber and area of farms, acreage of crop land, pasture, and other land, and valne of real estate on farms proposed to be

retired from arable farming '

Region

Number
of farms

Total

Crop land

Pasture land

Land in

woodland.

farmsteads.

etc.

Estimated

ralue, real

estate as of

1934

1. Northeastern Highlands, -- -

2. Southern Highlands and their margins

3. Southeastern hilly cotton and tobacco - - -

4. Oreat Lakes cut-over _

."j. ,\tlantic and Oulf Coast cut-over

fi. Pacific forest and cut-over

7. Western Oreat Plains

8. California valleys and foothills

9. Columbia Basin - . - -

10. .\rid grazing and irrigated

II and 12. Northeast and Central agricultural

14 and l."). Gulf Coast prairie and Mississippi Delta
in. Middle coastal plain

Total

Xiimber
iO. 300
12.S, 500
122,700
27. 500

30, .wn

13, 300
20. 000
9, .WO

2, son

7. 300
15, 400
Ifi.fiOO

0, 800

454,200

Acres
6, 534, 500
9. 085, 700

10, ,368, 000
3. 437, 500
1,828,100
3, 039, 000

2S, 365, 900
3.203.000
3, 244, 000
2,512,400
1.631,300
1.43I,6(K)
601, 200

75, 345, 200

Acrts

1,6,58,300

1,815,200

2, 957, 000

1.100,000

.548. 400

332. 700

7, 306, 700

6il8, 700

543, 000

72S, SOO

666, 100

.509. SOO

298, 700

1,.54:

20, 163, 400

Acres

1.909. .500

2. 404. ?00

874. 100

550.000

274, 200

1,702,600

20. 739. 400

2, 369, 200

1.604.100

1.472. .500

460,:iOO

493,600

28,900

Acres

■2. 966. 700

4.865.700

6. 536. 900

I, 787, .500

1, 005, .500

1,00.3,700

319,800

135, 100

96. 600

311.100

507,900

428,200

333, 600

34, 883. 500

20,296,300

DMars

108. 476, OCO
90. 857. 000
62, 208, OOO
51,56,3,000
9, 141,000
24,312,000

170. 19.5. Ol»)
64. 060, 0('0
32. 440, 000
10. 0.50. 600
32. 6S6. OCO
21,474,i;0fl
4,62s.(;flO

882.090.000

' Preliminary estimates based on reports from the State land-planning consultants.

50

Land Planning Report

Research, analysis, study, andcoordinationof the vari-
ous aspects of land problems need to be a continuing
process. The problems of and recommendations for
submarginal land are only part of a larger program.
It is important, therefore, that the present treatise on
submarginal lands should not be viewed as an attempt
to answer the problem solely in terms of having the
Federal Government purchase such lands and take
them out of agric\ilture. Families will need to be
moved in the process; they must be moved to locations
where greater opportunities and better living will be
afforded them. Methods of preventing future settle-
ment in areas which are unsuited to agricultural pur-
suits will need to be invoked. Consideration will have
to be given to soil conservation. These and other

problems are implicit in any sort of an adequate sub-
marginal-land program; and on the other hand, pro-
grams which comprehend primarily other social and
economic aspects of the land ciuestion will require the
consideration of submarginal-land problems.

In view of the great importance, size, and character
of our Nation's land problems, the operations and
experiences of the present submarginal-land policy,
integrated with accompan\'ing pohcies and programs,
may be looked upon as a tremendously large demon-
strational program upon which a thoroughgoing, long-
time plan for the readjustment of our land use pattern
to its highest economic and social values may be
projected.

Table IV. — Number of farms, haroested acreage, and acreage in important crops on the farms proposed for retirement

tin thousands]

Region

1. Northeastern Highlands

2. Southern Highlands and margins.

3. Southeastern hilly cotton and tobacco

4. Oreat Lakes cut-over__

5. Atlantic and Gulf Coast cut-over

6. Pacific forest and cut-over

7. Western Great Plains

8. California valleys and foothills

9. Columbia Basin

10. Arid grazing and irrigated

11 and 12. Northeast and Central agricultural —

14 and 15. Gulf Coast prairie and Mississippi Delta..

16. Middle Coastal plain.

United States

Percent of the United States total for each item in 1929.
Percent of the harvested acreage on farms proposed for

retirement

Num-
ber of
farms
to be
retired

Number

5C.3

125.5

122.7

27.5

30.5

13.3

26.0

9.5

2.8

7.3

15.4

16.6

6.8

454.2

7.2

Total
har-
vested
acres

Acres

1.409.5

1.397.7

2. 365. 6

972.4

466.1

273.9

6. 546. 8

524.0

776.2

536.4

603.7

441.0

277.1

16,590.4

4.6

Acreages of the various crops to be retired

Hay

Acres

1, 033. 0

365.0

179. 2

544.2

14.6

163.7

1,365.0

131.4

105.8

268.5

193.0

34.9

26.2

4, 444. 4

6.6

26.8

Wheat

Acre>
21.6
32.6
63.8
31.2

31.0
2, 480. 0

43.0
617.5
195.1

29.4

3, 545. 2
5.7

Corn

Acres

98.0

604.0

876.0

108.3

161.6

3.7

913.0

8.2

1.0

13.1

203.2

135.8

108.3

3, 234. 1

3.4

19.5

Oats

Acres

132.6

94.1

71.2

153.7

2.5

18.0

309.0

13.0

3.6

12.6

77.4

15.4

2.3

965.1

2.6

Barley

Acres
6.0

31.4

5.7
303.0
77.5
10.3
19.0

3.7

456.5
3.5

Rye

Acres

6.5

3.7

2.5

24.4

23.1

63.2
2.1

Cotton

Acres

177.0
938.2

236.0

2.0

171.3

86.6

1,611.1

3.7

9.3

Tobac-

Acres

3.8

4S.4

2.5

6.6

58.5

3.2

Potato

Acres

31.7

16.3

6.1

43.3

1.5

2.1

11.9

1.1

1.5

5.6

5.5

3.3

.3

130.2

4.4

Sweet-
potato

7.5
36.9

11.0

14.1
2.7
72.1
11.1

.4

Buck-
wheat

Acres
37.2

37.2
6.0

Flax

299.01
10.1

I Preliminary estimates based on reports from the State land planning consultants.

SECTION IV
DROUGHT FREOUENCY^

Many devices have been used in presenting climato-
logical data to show the frequency of droughts. The
eflfect of a drought on the growth of vegetation, water
supplies, etc., has many angles, depending, to a con-
siderable extent, upon several modifying phases, such
as the season of the year in which the drought occurs
with reference to plant growth, conditions preceding
tlie period of deficient precipitation, and the prevailing
temperature. Very hnportant modifying factors are
the accumulated deficienc}^, or excess, in precipitation
for the months, or even years, immediately preceding
the droughty period, and the temperature conditions
prevailing during it.

These supplemental factors, in addition to the fact
that successive droughts are never directly comparable
with regard to the actual deficiencies in precipitation
or as to magnitude of the area affected, make it difficult

1 By J. B. Kincer, Weather Bureau, I'. S. Department of Agriculture.

indeed to compare one drought with another in the
matter of relative severity. When all these things are
considered, however, there is no doubt that the 1934
drought was the severest in the climatological history
of the United States.

From the standpoint of the effect of droughts on
agriculture and the growth of vegetation in general,
their frequency of occurrence is shown best through
important deficiencies in precipitation, in relation to
the normal, which occin- during the most important
growing months. Figure 7 is based on the frecpiency
of rainfall shortages of significant amounts occurring
during the 4 most important growing months, May to
August, inclusive. It shows the percentage of years
on the average, in which rainfall for these months is
less than two-thirds of normal, based on records for
600 well-distributed stations for a uniform period of
40 years from 1894 to 1933, inclusive.

FinRE 7. -This map, prepare*! by the Weather Bureau in cooperation witti the National Resources Hoard, sliows the frenuency of rainfall shortace during the important grow-
ing months. May to .\ugust, inclusive. It indicates that droughts are relatively infrecjuent east of the .Missi.'isippi Kiver, and as a rule, become increasingly frenuenl west-
ward from the Mississippi Valley. In the Oreat Plains and intermountain regions droughts are esjiecially serious because of the generally light rainfall and lack of moisture
reserves.

51

52

Land Planning Report

The map shows that droughts, as thus defined, are
comparatively infrequent east of the Mississippi River,
and, as a rule, become increasingly frequent westward
from the Mississippi Valley. That is, areas having com-
paratively Ught rainfall are subject to the most fre-
quent variation from normal, especially with regard to
deficient amounts.

The lowest frequencies are shown for the vSouth-
eastern States, the eastern Ohio Valley, the Northeast,
and the Lake region. In these areas considerable sec-
tions show as low as 2 to 5 percent, or during the active
growing season rainfall is less than two-thirds of nor-
mal only once in 20 years or more. In fact, in most
places east of the Mississippi River, droughts of this
character occur less frequently than once in 10 years,
on the average.

In the Great Plains States they are more frequent,
becoming, as a rule, increasingly prevalent with de-
crease in the normal rainfall. Here the percentages
range mostly from 10 to 20. However, there are sev-
eral considerable areas, especially in north-central Ne-
braska and southern South Dakota, southwestern and
extreme eastern Montana, the eastern half of Wyoming,

northern Oklahoma and extreme southern Kansas, and
the Panhandle of Texas, which show comparatively
infrequent droughts. On the other hand, there is a sec-
tion comprising western Texas and southern New Mex-
ico which shows much greater drought frequency, while
smaller areas in different parts of the Plains States have
comparatively large percentages. In the Great Basin
and the far Southwest droughts are more frequent than
in any other areas shown on the chart. Here the per-
centages in most places range up to 25, or higher, show-
ing an average of 1 drought year in 3 or 4. The largest
percentages appear in the far Southwest, especially in
southern Nevada and southwestern Arizona wliere they
run as high as 40 to 50.

It is important to bear in mind the fact that relative
frequency of drought recurrence is much more serious
in areas of low average rainfall than in regions of liigh
average rainfall, for in the latter the accumulated re-
serve of water, both above ground and underground, is
much more ample. ^

■ For extended information and maps on rainfall conditions, ttie reader is referred
to pt. ni, National Resources Board Report of the Water Planning Committee,
December 1934.

RURAL-URBAN

SECTION V

MIGRATION IN RELATION TO
QUALITY •

LAND

The back-to-tlie-land iiiovempnt diirino: the depres-
sion years has had a jnost profound sisrnificance in the
light of both long-time and emergency programs for
land-use planning and population redistribution. A
study recently comjjlcted by the land [)olicy section in
cooperation with the study of ])opulation redistribution
of the Wliarton School of Finance and Commerce -
shows an unmistakable inverse relationsliip between
the volume of rural-urban migration and tlic (|uality of
agricultural land.

The conclusions of this study indicate that the poorer
subsistence farming areas, many of wliich are well-
known problem areas, lost larger proportions of their
population than good land areas during the period of
industrial activity from 1922 to 1920, and gained larger
proportions during the subsequent depression. J'ur-
thermore, the poorer the land, the greater were the
recent increases in population, especially in areas suit-
able for subsistence farming. Tliese increases are the
result of two separate influences; namely, (1) Cessation
of the normal city -ward flow of excess farm population,
and (2) actual migration from the city to the country.
Regardless of the comparative importance of these two
influences, it is apparent that many people, during the
depression, have acted on the assumption that the
country offered them greater economic opportunity
than did the city. It is particularly significant that an
important proportion of these people moved to areas,
not too remote from industrial and urban centers,
where opportunity existed for a subsistence type of
farming. Such areas are characteristically poor for
commercial agriculture, and offer meager prospects for
an adequate li%-ing. It follows logically that, as indus-
trial activity* is resumed, the people least favorably
situated in the rural areas are most likely to migrate to
the cities.

During the present and preceding depressions the
land has provided a partial shock absorber for industrial
unemployment. This study shows conclusively that

' By Kenneth H. Parsons, Land Policy Section. Agricultural Adjustment Ad-
ministration.

' \ summary of ttii? study may he found in the Land Policy Review, VoL 1, Xo. 2.
March lO^.^l. monthly luiblication of the Land Policy Section, Program Planning Di-
vision of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. \ more extended discu.ssion
of this stUiiy may he found in Supplement No. 1, of the Land Policy Review, June
1935, with accompanying maps and charts The complete treatise of this study is
to be published by the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, Study of Popula-
tion Redistribution.

ui the current depression the poorer subsistence fiirni-
ing areas have played the dominant role. A progiiim
designed to rehabilitate these back-to-the-land mi-
grants must recognize that the rural areas to which a
liirge ])iirt of these migrants have retreated are not
areas in which they would desu-e to stay, or should l)e
mduced to stay, witli a return to prosperity. In such
areas rehabilitiition efforts would be most likely to ftiil.
Furthermore, a program designed to prevent occupancy
of such areas must be accompanied by other provisions
for the economic security of the people affected.

The above conclusions are based upon an analysis
of available annual school census data for States con-
ttiining a sizeable group of agricultural counties.'
Though changes in the number of children of school
age (usually from 6 to 20 years) will not correspond
exactly with changes in total population, the discrep-
ancies generally would not be sufficient to invalidate
the inferences drawn. Agricultiu-al counties were
arbitrarily considered to be those in which the rural-
farm population in 1930 represented more than 50 per-
cent of the total population. For each State, data on
agricultural counties so defined were arrayed according
to gross farm income per rural farm inhabitant in 1929,
and divided into quartiles. In most States where the
land and climate are adapted to subsistence farming,
the lowest or poorest quarter of counties, as classified
according to farm income, corresponds very closely to
the areas designated in this report, and in the recent
summary report of the National Resources Board, as
areas in which a substantial part of the land should be
permanently retired from arable farming. In general,
the division of agricultural counties into four groups,
on the basis of income per person in 1929, classified the
counties broadly according to land quality. To the
extent that this is true, the conclusions stated above
are valid, and may further be considered as applicable
to similar areas not included in the scope of this analysis.

With little exception, the lowest-income counties
include well-known problem areas. In the poorest
quarter of counties, representing 21 percent of the
school census of all agricultural counties, in the five

' Information was secured for many more States, but for the pnriwscs of this rei>ort
it seems advi.sahlc to limit the discussion to the followins l-V Iowa, Kansas, Ken-
tucky, Miehigiin, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio. Oklahoma, South
Dakota, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

53

54

Land Planning Report

Middle Western States (Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin,
Michigan, and Obio), school population decreased
about 10 percent from 1922 to 1929, and incrensed
about 7 percent from 1929 to 1933. In the best
quarter of counties school population declined only 4
percent between 1922 and 1929, and increased only 2
percent between 1929 and 1933. Slight decreases in
all groups since 1933 are apparent.

Changes in the school census of agricultural counties
in these five States have been generally similar in direc-
tion, though different in degree. The most extreme
change occurred in the low-income counties of Michi-
gan. In this group, the census fell more from 1922 to
1929 and has risen more since 1929 than that of any
comparable group of counties in the other four States.
This may be attributed to the comparative nearness of
large industrial centers, the wide fluctuations in em-
ployment characteristic of the major industries of the
area, and the availabihty for "squatting" and subsist-
ence farming of cheap land generally undesirable for
commercial agriculture. The school census for this
poorest Michigan group declined 21.1 percent from 1922
to 1929, and increased 16.1 percent from 1929 to 1934.
In marked contrast with the Michigan figiu-es are those
for Iowa for the same period. Unquestionably the
high quality of Iowa land, the stability of prevailing
types of farming, and the relatively greater distances
of most of the State from large industrial centers ex-
plain the greater stabihty of Iowa's rural population.
In this State, the lowest income group of counties
showed only a 6-percent decline in rural population
from 1922 to 1929, and a tendency to level off after
1930.

In Wisconsin and Ohio the rural population of all
four groups from 1922 to 1929 increased at relatively
uniform rates. WhUe the proportionately greater
increase for the poorer Ohio counties since 1929 is quite
obvious, that for the correspondmg counties in Wiscon-
sin is partially concealed by the fact that the reversal
in trend did not take place until 1930. The more
obvious increases in Ohio further support the assump-
tion that nearness to industrial centers influences the
migration of people to relatively poor subsistence farm-
ing areas in times of industrial depression. A further
significant fact in this connection is shown by the pro-
nounced dip, since 1933, in the rural census of all
groups of counties for all States except Iowa. These
dips are in pronounced inverse relationship to the trend
of industrial employment for the same period. In
Missouri the declines were shnilar for all groups from
1920 to 1929, but the two poorest groups have each
seen sharp increases since 1929. In 1934 the rural
census of the second poorest group of agricultural
counties in this State reached the highest level in 14

years, while that of the poorest group closely ap-
proached the peak for the same period. In this State,
the declines in rural population since 1933 are some-
what less pronounced thnn those shown for Michigan
and Ohio.

The poorest groups of agricultural counties in Ken-
tucky and West Virginia show population trends essen-
tially similar to those of the comparable group of coun-
ties in Michigan, except that declines prior to 1929
were decidedly less pronounced. Since 1929, however,
the increases in population in these counties have been
very pronounced. The relative stability prior to the
depression may be accounted for in part by the high
birth rate in these areas. This factor also contributes
somewhat to the great increases since 1929. However,
the birth rate can hardly account for all the recent
increases in the census of these areas. This is especially
true of West Virginia, where the increase since 1929
was 26.7 percent. Apparently large numbers of people
have migrated to these counties, probably from nearby
industrial centers. While the poorest groups of coun-
ties have not shown actual decreases in population
^vith the expansion of business activity since 1933, as
was the case with Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri, they
liave shown a significant deceleration in the rate of
increase.

Farm income does not provide as accurate an index
of land quality in the five Great Plains States as in
the States previously discussed. The differences in
income per rural farm inhabitant, as between the
lower and higher income groups of counties in these
States, reflect other factors as well as variations in
land quality. Differences in the density of popula-
tion, in the prevailing types of farming, and in the
variation of rainfall and other climatic factors from
year to year, perhaps have as great an influence on
Lacome per farm inhabitant as does the relative qualitj^
of the land. In this area, trends in the census are
almost the reverse of those described for the Middle
West and for Kentucky and West Virginia. This
difference may be attributed in part to the greater
distance from industrial centers, but chiefly to the
fact that the land and climate of the Great Plains
States are not generally adapted to subsistence farm-
ing. An exception is seen in Oklahoma, where much
land is not only adapted to subsistence farming, but
has long been used in this way. In this State the
declines in rural population prior to 1929, and the
increases subsequent to 1929, most nearly resemble
those sho\vn for similar areas in Michigan. In
Nebraska, on the other hand, good land areas showed
gains, wliile poor land areas showed losses throughout
the period covered by the study. Kansas, however,
showed a tendency to reverse in all groups after 1929.

Maladjustments in Land Use

oo

The reversal did not, however, alter the general down-
ward trend of jjopulation in the poorer counties,
while that of the better groups continued to gain.

A somewhat different picture is that presented by
the data for North Dakota and South Dakota. Popu-
lations of all groups of counties in South Dakota have
consistently increased during the period from 1920 to
1931. The proportionate increase for the poorest
group of counties has been umnistakably greater than

that for the other groups. Each group of counties in
this State showed a significant drop in school popula-
tion since 1933. The situation in North Dakota has
been substantially the same, except that declines for
all groups began in 1931. The persistent increases
in rural population in these two States, and particularly
in the lower-income counties, are perhaps characteristic
of relatively new country in which the better
aie settled first.

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