THE FARM LAND 77 



ture may supervise the farming operations. The purpose of 

 this is to help the farmer develop a balanced system of land use. 

 Furthermore, the supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture 

 should insure the protection of the soil fertility. 



The second part of the act carries on the work of rural re' 

 habilitation of the Farm Security Administration. Money for 

 this purpose must be allotted by the President from relief 

 funds, as the need for it arises. This act permits the government 

 to make loans to farmers in need. The loans must be repaid in 

 five years and the rate of interest is again 3 per cent. If the 

 farmer is unable to repay the loan in five years, he may renew 

 it for another five years. 



The third part of the act authorized appropriations of 

 $10,000,000 in 1938 and $20,000,000 for the next two years 

 for a broad program to buy sub'marginal land and develop 

 better methods of using it. This land is being taken out of poor 

 farms and converted into livestock ranges, pasture, forests, wild' 

 life preserves, and recreation areas. The purpose of this pro' 

 gram is to remove from cultivation land that is not good enough 

 to farm, but which will contribute to the community if properly 

 used. 



The Department of Agriculture has itself admitted that this 

 program is only large enough to start a trend in the right direc' 

 tion. It is not a solution. In the case of sub-marginal lands, the 

 land classification surveys indicate that there are some 86,000,' 

 000 acres of land being used for farming that do not yield 

 enough crops to support the families who work it. The $50,' 

 000,000 authorized by the Bankhead-Jones Act could buy 

 but a small portion of this. As for the problem of tenancy, 

 between 1880 and 1935 there were on the average 33,465 more 

 tenants every year. If all of these new tenants were lent $4,000 

 to start farms of their own a comparatively small amount of 

 money for that purpose it would take $133,860,000 a year 

 just to take care of the annual increase of tenants. 



