58 PHOTOS] 'N THESIS 



Department of Agriculture.*'' We cannot here enter upon a discussion 

 of the intricate problem of land requirements in relation to increasing 

 population. Suffice it to state that from the surveys which have been 

 made it appears exceedingly doubtful v^hether any considerable land areas 

 in the United States could be spared from agricultural needs for the 

 production of fuel. From the report of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, 1923, we learn that 94 per cent of all the land available for crops, 

 pasture and forest are now employed for these purposes, although of these, 

 large areas are and always will be of low productiveness and other areas 

 are under-used. Table 7 is taken from the above-mentioned report. 



TABLE 7 



Crop and Pasture Land that Would Be Required for 150,000,000 People As- 

 suming No Change in per Capita Consumption and Production 

 PER Acre, Also No Exports of Agricultural Products 

 AND No Change in per Capita Imports. 



Use of Land Area (Acres) 



Crop land 43L000,000 



Woodland pasture 237,000,000 



Other humid pasture 336,000,000* 



Semi-arid pasture 587,000,000 



Total 1,59L000,000 



—J 



* As a result of assuming the acreage of semi-arid pasture and woodland 

 pasture to remain constant, the area of other humid pasture is increased in greater 

 proportion than the increase in population. 



The report continues: "It has already been noted that if the present 

 policy continued the area of land in forests, beginning with approximately 

 402,000,000 acres of standing timber, will rapidly diminish until the 

 point of approximate exhaustion is reached. On the other hand, if we 

 wish to provide enough forest land to grow our timber, a much larger 

 quantity of land will be required ; at the present rate of growth and of 

 waste and consumption per capita the enormous area of 1,465,000,000 

 acres would be needed for a population of 150,000,000 people. The impos- 

 sibility of such an outlook is emphasized by combining this area with the 

 1,591,000,000 acres of crop and pasture land wliich, as shown above, 

 would be required under similar assumptions. The total resulting require- 

 ment would be 2,819,000,000 acres after allowing for duplications, or 

 about 48 per cent more than the present land area of the continental 

 United States. 



"The result suggests that if we are to maintain our present degree of 

 self-sufficiency, for a population of 150,000,000 we must increase the 

 average production per acre of our crop, pasture, and forest land, effect 



"Gray, L. C, Baker, O. E.. Marschncr, F. J., Weitz. B. O., ChapHne, W. R., 

 Shepard, W., Zon, R., U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook for 1923, 415-506. 

 Baker, O. E., and Strong, H. M., U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook for 

 1918, 433-441. East, E. M., "Mankind at the Crossroads," N. Y., 1924. 



