THE FARM LAND 81 



trict, are set up with the idea that each district will be able to 

 handle the problems of the use of the land most efficiently. 

 Thus, there is added to our political units of government the 

 land-use units of government. 



ZONING. 



Several states, particularly Michigan, Wisconsin, and Cali 

 fornia, have worked out another solution for the problem of the 

 controlling of land use. This is called zoning. According to the 

 best known of the zoning laws, that of Wisconsin, the people 

 of a county can decide on a land-use program, pass it by a 

 majority vote, and set up a governing agency to carry it out. 

 (See p. 260.) The great difference between zoning and the Soil 

 Conservation District Law is that the zoning law tries pri 

 marily to control unoccupied land in the area. The Soil Con 

 servation District Law, on the other hand, regulates the use of 

 occupied as well as unoccupied land. In other words, the zoning 

 law does not directly affect the land-use methods of the farmers 

 who are already settled in the district. The Soil Conservation 

 District Law, however, may set up a series of rules to govern 

 the methods of all the land users in the district. 



LAND-USE PROGRAMS ARE FITTED TOGETHER 



As the government land-use agencies multiplied, the problem 

 of administration became more and more difficult. Within the 

 Department of Agriculture itself it was hard to keep the 

 various land-use programs of the many bureaus from conflict 

 ing. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration might have 

 been paying a man to fertilize fields that the Farm Security 

 Administration was trying to retire as sub-marginal land. The 

 Soil Conservation Service could be increasing crops on land 

 while the Agricultural Adjustment Administration was at 

 tempting to reduce those particular crops to relieve a glut on 

 the market. 



