284 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



they are developed by the federal agencies into concrete plans 

 for the individual farms in the counties, states, and regions. 

 This organization under the Bureau of Agricultural Economics 

 does not include the land-use agencies of government attached to 

 other departments, such as the Interior. However, the agencies 

 of all departments of government do work together through the 

 land planning committee. 



A vast machinery for the control of land use has been created 

 in the past few years. Under the present laws this machinery 

 is made to work by two things: (1) The gift of federal money 

 and aid to those who will comply with the land-use plans. 

 (2) The cooperative effort of the land users themselves, who 

 may apply the machinery of land-use management to their own 

 farms. The success of this machinery will in the long run be 

 measured by the two words stability and security, stability of 

 the land and security of the farmer. 



Thus America begins its greatest experiment in democracy. 

 The basis of this experiment is control of land. It is no longer 

 possible to discuss whether or not we may believe in land con' 

 trol. Land control is here. It didn't come with any political 

 party, or any particular group of men. It came from necessity. 

 It was a case of either stopping the destruction of the land, or 

 letting the growing burden of wasted land destroy us. 



If land-use planning is to achieve the goal we have set for it, 

 it must become a part of our democracy. It can reach this goal 

 only if the people who are responsible for our government, 

 and that is every American citizen, understand the needs of the 

 land and the land-users. Out of such understanding a workable 

 and permanent land-use plan can come. 



But all the plans, and all the democratic institutions made 

 out of such plans are useless if one thing is lacking. That is 

 the knowledge of the place of man on the land. Land is perma 

 nent, individuals are not. The individual may use the land 

 as a source of food, and wealth, and well-being. But he may not 



