68 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



erate with the state land grant colleges in trying to increase 

 crop production. 



As late as 1928 Chambers of Commerce were trying to draw 

 settlers into new lands. It didn't seem to matter to them very 

 much that this land would not grow crops. For generations 

 people had been able to think of the land in terms of sise. It was 

 to their minds simply a matter of more crops, more land; in 

 other words, expansion. 



BALANCED LAND USE 



The basic idea of balance is something quite different. In' 

 stead of more crops, more land, balance aims at more stability. 

 The idea behind a balanced land use is a continuous, profitable 

 use of the land by those who live on it. 



To have balanced land use, these four elements must be so 

 regulated that no one of them gets out of control: (1) produc' 

 tion of agricultural crops, (2) profits, (3) the fertility of 

 the soil, (4) the security of the land users. 



The Agricultural Adjustment Act was designed to control 

 the first two of these elements, production and profits. The 

 Triple A's main job was economic. It was an attempt to balance 

 the economics of agriculture. It hoped to achieve this balance 

 by limiting crop production, and, at the same time, paying 

 the farmers for reduction. Thus, when the cotton planter 

 cut down his cotton acreage by a third, he was paid by the 

 federal government an amount equal approximately to the 

 market value of that one third. The same process was used to 

 reduce the acreage of wheat and corn and the number of hogs 

 grown. This was an emergency law to stave off the disastrous 

 effects of the economic depression. 



Mr. Hoover's Agricultural Marketing Act had attempted 

 much the same thing. The chief difficulty was that the Hoover 

 act attempted to reduce crops by asking the farmers to cut 

 down, while at the same time stimulating overproduction by 



