THE FARM LANDSCAPE 285 



sponsorship and cooperation. We are now helping 1 pilot projects 

 to get underway and expect that others will be authorized this year. 

 The challenge and dimension of maintaining and improving nat- 

 ural beauty in rural America is very great. I trust this conference 

 will result in clarification of the needs and in a determination on 

 the part of all of us to move more rapidly toward meeting them. 



Dr. SEARS. We underestimate the difficulty of our assignment, 

 because it involves intangibles in two respects beauty itself being 

 one of the intangibles. And when it comes to getting things done, it 

 is not the techniques that are important, but the attitude of people, 

 the values they cherish. It is very interesting in my travels and field- 

 work to see, wherever the landscape is in order, it is simply because 

 people want it that way and wouldn't have it otherwise. We are 

 dealing, then, with a very difficult recommendation. 



As to the question of what is attractive, it is very hard to reach 

 any conclusion, except this: I would suspect in most minds health 

 is more attractive than a pathological condition. Ecologists can 

 assay the relative health of a landscape, in terms of physical, chemi- 

 cal, and the biological processes. These involve balance, variety and 

 resilience. 



Now, where do we see this? In my judgment, I think that it is 

 best exemplified not on a large mass production factory in the field, 

 but rather where one has well-run, family-size farms. Taking into 

 account the other social values, they also show this variety; they show 

 this balance and the other attributes which seem to me to charac- 

 terize the healthy landscape. 



Now, I question the extent to which this sort of thing is being 

 encouraged. Twenty-five years ago I had a talk with a very trou- 

 bled man who was in charge of the extension work in a great State. 

 He said, "I am in a tough spot. All these years I have been work- 

 ing to encourage the family farm. Now it seems the whole emphasis 

 is changing and I am out to encourage these very large-scale, highly 

 mechanized, and heavily capitalized operations." 



And history in the past 25 years has shown what choice he has 

 had to make. 



I would like to suggest, at the very least, we would do a great deal 

 to promote the attractiveness and the health of the rural landscape if 

 we would not give undue advantages competitive advantages in 

 the way of taxes and subsidies to these very large, highly mechanized 

 mass production operations. 



