CHAPTER 11 



THE FARM LANDSCAPE 



10:30 a.m., Monday, May 24 



The Chairman, Dr. GRAHAM. We have agreed to consider the 

 farm landscape to be the nonurban land of the United States. This 

 is a large segment of the country, perhaps some 90 percent of it. At 

 least by some figures, the urban and related intensive uses of land 

 are less than 3 percent of the total. Therefore, efforts to preserve 

 and improve natural beauty and create a more attractive America 

 must rely heavily on what is done in rural areas. 



Most of the United States is privately owned. There are, of course, 

 large acreages in public ownership of various types Federal, State, 

 county but some three-fourths of our lands are in private hands. 



That point should be kept in mind and it brings us very close to 

 some of the responsibilities that Mrs. Johnson spoke about this 

 morning. 



Much of the ugliness in the rural landscape is not caused by those 

 who live there. Other panels in this conference will deal with some 

 of the worst despoilers of rural America: great concrete slab dams 

 and power houses, water towers, oil tank farms, highways, billboards, 

 overhead wires, auto junkyards, strip mining and pollution of streams 

 by municipal, mine, and industrial wastes. Yet those who own and 

 operate the land can also despoil, as through erosion, indiscriminate 

 cutting and burning of timber, over-intensive grazing, and use of 

 the land beyond its capabilities. Farm buildings and implements 

 are often left to deteriorate. 



On the other hand, when good husbandry is practiced, we usually 



Members of the Panel on The Farm Landscape were Karl Belser, 

 Frank Fraser Darling, Dr. Edward H. Graham (chairman), Marion 

 S. Monk, Jr., Andrew J. W. Scheffey, Paul B. Sears, Robert Wenkam, 

 and Donald A. Williams. Staff Associate was Lloyd Partain. 



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