246 AGRICULTURAL INDICATORS. 



ful country life is possible. But intensive cultivation is the open secret of 

 scientific farming, and it demands the closest possible harmony between the 

 plant machine, the raw materials which it uses, and the conditions under which 

 it works. This makes possible the successful specialization of a region in the 

 crop best adapted to the soil or climate more or less peculiar to it. The task 

 of a use survey in this connection is to determine the special advantage of soil 

 or climate, and to suggest the particular kind of plant machine and the 

 method of production adapted to it. The same careful method of survey, 

 which makes possible the best use of the different agricultural lands of the 

 State, is likewise of great value on the individual farm, whenever differences 

 of soil or exposure exist. The general nature of the soil and climate of a farm 

 must determine its special crop, and in a degree the secondary crops as well. 

 But the complete success of the farm will rest upon a thorough knowledge of 

 its differences of soil and climate, as well as upon a knowledge of the best 

 varieties to grow or the best way to improve them. " 



Methods. — While it is undesirable to discuss in detail the actual methods of 

 classification and use surveys, it must be pointed out that they depend in the 

 first instance upon accuracy and thoroughness. This is exemplified in the 

 work of the Botanical Survey of Minnesota ("Plant Succession," 436), in 

 which the natural and cultural vegetation was mapped for every "forty" of 

 the townships concerned, and quadrats, instruments, and photographs were 

 employed throughout. Similar though less detailed methods have been used 

 in the grazing reconnaissance of all the national forests (Jardine, 1911) and 

 in the classification of grazing homesteads under the Ferris Act (Shantz and 

 Aldous, 1917). The essential features of these are touched upon in the dis- 

 cussion of the methods of range survey in Chapter VI. 



A logical and desirable outcome of a classification survey is a valuation of 

 the various parcels of land, with respect to both leasing and purchase. It has 

 been a natural assumption that the nation could well afford to dispose of the 

 public domain at merely nominal prices, and such a policy was warranted 

 in the Middle West. In the arid regions, however, values vary so greatly 

 that it constitutes a serious mistake. This is readily seen when it is recognized 

 that the best grazing lands will support more than 100 cattle to the section, 

 while the poorest will support scarcely one. This is particularly true in the 

 case of leasing, where proper valuation based upon actual carrying capacity 

 will determine whether lands are to constitute a public asset or to be the usu- 

 fruct of politicians. While the nation or State can afford to be generous to 

 bona fide settlers, it can treat them all alike in fact only by fitting prices to the 

 production value of the land and by making the operations of the speculator 

 difficult if not impossible. Moreover, it should insure the success of each 

 settler by means of use or management surveys which will give him a detailed 

 and adequate knowledge of his particular farm and of the crops and methods 

 to be used upon it. Since such surveys are of the greatest importance in 

 connection with the combined grazing and dry farming which it seems must 

 become typical of the West, their further discussion is deferred to the next 

 chapter. 



