82 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



In the fall of 1938 the Secretary of Agriculture announced 

 that from that time the land-use agencies would be unified in 

 one program. To the Bureau of Agricultural Economics went 

 the job of working out the plans for the land-use program (see 

 page 278). Under this new arrangement, the plans began in the 

 region in which they were to apply. Local committees could 

 draft a scheme of land-use management which would then go 

 to the county committee for changes and approval, and from 

 there to a state committee which would adjust the local plan to 

 fit in with the plans for the state as a whole. From there the plan 

 would be sent to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics for 

 final revision and adjustment to the plans for the whole nation. 



In addition to this, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics 

 has been given the job of planning for rehabilitation, stability 

 of farm prices, markets and output, security for the farm tenant 

 and owner, farm forests, and wildlife. 



Once the plans are worked out, they are turned over to one 

 of these six agencies to be carried out: the Agricultural Ad 

 justment Administration, the Farm Security Administration, 

 the Soil Conservation Service, the Forest Service, the Biological 

 Survey, the Bureau of Public Roads. It is the job of these 

 divisions of the Department of Agriculture with the help of the 

 Agricultural Extension Service to make the plans of the plan 

 ners into actual facts. 



According to this new set-up, the work of the Agricultural 

 Adjustment Administration is clearly restricted to the eco 

 nomic problems of land use. Its activities fall into five general 

 sections. First, it controls the program of adjusting the acreage 

 of crops planted to the needs of the markets and the needs of 

 the soil. Since its beginning, this has been the main work of 

 the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the reason 

 for the word "adjustment" in its name. The backbone of this 

 program, as it has always been, is the "benefit payment to the 

 farmer who follows the adjustment program." 



