SEGREGATION OE EARM EROM FOREST LAND 641 



soil types and their mapping. The survey inevitably becomes an in- 

 quiry into the agricultural conditions and possibilities of the region or, 

 in other words, tends to become a study in rural geography."^" 



That this is the case becomes most evident in considering the circum- 

 stances on the National Forests, where, without doubt, the greatest area 

 of land ever classified in one lot as between agriculture and forest has 

 been recently covered.^^ In this case altitude and topography were 

 most often the governing factors, and soil was usually a rather minor 

 consideration. With soil, climate, and slope favorable, it often happens 

 that transportation, market and available contiguous areas are the 

 critical items, and even the social environment may be a factor as im- 

 portant as soil or climate.^^ 



Three sets of factors are involved in the segregation of agricultural 

 and forest lands: (i) technical, as soil, water, temperature, and slope; 

 (2) economic, as transportation, market, area of unit necessary to sup- 

 port a family, cost of preparing lands for the plow; (3) social and 

 political, as number of contiguous farm units as affecting the ability of 

 a settlement to support roads and schools, community life, etc. ; safety, 

 from forest fires, floods, and diseases, such as malaria. 



Failure properly to evaluate all these factors will be apt to result in 

 "pauper industry, and of these pauper industries pauper farming is the 

 worst." As Dr. Alead has put it,^° "Science should have gone in, hand 

 in hand with settlement. Because nothing was done, these heroic but 

 uninformed souls were bedeviled by the winds, cold, drought, and 

 insect pests. They wasted their efforts, lost their hopes and ambitions, 

 and a tragic per cent left, impoverished and embittered. Nearly all of 

 this suft"ering and loss could have been avoided, under a carefully 

 thought-out plan of development." 



These facts are more and more generally recognized as field-survey 

 work proceeds and as the economic phases of agriculture receive greater 

 attention. The modern conception of the soil survey includes a chapter 

 upon "Agricultural History and Development," and among the utilities 

 of the survey is listed : "Affording a basis of facts for promoting sound 

 commercial, social, and governmental development."" 



Under such a practice the forester will not be denied his hearing and 



^' Sauei, 19th Report Michigan Ac?.den:v of Science, p. 79. 

 ^'Buck. loc. cit. 



'^ MacKaye, U. S. Department of Labor, Monthly Rezneii', Bureau of Labor 

 Statistics, January, 1918, p. 48: also, Jourxal of Forestrv, February, 1918, p. 210. 

 *" "Lane Letter," in the Official Bulletin, June 12, 1918, Washington, D. C. 

 " Lyon, Fippen, and Buckman, "Soils." 1915, p. 735- 



