162 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



1930. The increases in agricultural land in this decade occurred 

 mainly in the Mississippi delta and in the originally forested counties 

 of Texas. In the other States the increases in counties showing 

 increases totaled less than 500,000 acres per State. The decreases 

 were especially great in Georgia where over 1,500,000 acres went out 

 of agricultural production, a net decrease of over 1,000,000 acres. 

 More than 500,000 acres went out of agricultural production in each 

 of the States of Virginia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi during 

 this decade. 



The crop acreage in this region increased steadily until 1920; since 

 then there has been a slight decrease. The decline has been greatest 

 in Georgia where the acres of crops harvested were 1 ,500,000 less in 

 1929 than in 1919. 



FUTURE REQUIREMENTS FOR AGRICULTURAL LAND 



The area of land needed for agricultural production in the future 

 will depend in large part upon the demand for agricultural products. 

 The factors that will effect alterations in demand are : Changes in the 

 population, changes in per capita consumption in the United States, 

 and changes in exports to foreign countries. The aggregate per capita 

 consumption of food products has not changed much in this country 

 during the past 25 years. There have been shifts in consumption 

 from one food to another, but the aggregate has not varied more than 

 7 percent from the average and usually the annual variation has been 

 within 4 percent. The same has been true of cotton except that in 

 recent years there has been some reduction as a result of the competi- 

 tion of rayon. 



, The most important factor effecting changes in the amount of 

 agricultural production required has been the increase in our popula- 

 tion. Therefore, the probable increase in our future population will 

 be very significant in determining the probable future demand for 

 agricultural products. The number of births has been declining in 

 the United States, and students of population believe it unlikely that 

 the birth rate will rise. They expect that unless immigration restric- 

 tions are removed the population of the United States will be slightly 

 over 130,000,000 by 1940 and about 140,000,000 by 1950. 



The outlook for the export demand is much more uncertain. Agri- 

 cultural exports have gone largely to northwestern Europe. There, 

 too, the birth rate is declining and a stationary population is expected 

 in 20 to 40 years, occurring earliest in Sweden, Germany, and England. 

 In France the population has been about stationary for 70 years. In 

 these countries, as in the United States, the rural birth rate is greater 

 than the urban. The realization of this fact, taken in connection with 

 the nationalistic spirit, may cause these countries to give considera- 

 tion to the means of maintaining as large an agricultural population 

 as possible. They may seek to accomplish this by becoming more 

 self-supporting with respect to foodstuffs. Since the beginning of the 

 century there has been increasing competition for the markets of 

 northwestern Europe. Take England, the leading market for our 

 agricultural products, for example. Thirty years ago 29 percent of 

 its imports came from the United States and 24 per cent from the 

 British possessions, whereas today 15 percent of the imports come from 

 the United States and 40 percent come from the British possessions. 



