A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1247 



solved before land-use planning based upon classification can be put 

 into effect. There are problems of tax delinquency, tax assessments, 

 fluctuating future prices and costs, individual efficiency, changes in 

 agricultural and forestry methods and practices, transportation, future 

 markets, and many others. 



A large amount of work has been done and is in progress by many 

 public agencies along the lines of physical classification of lands. 

 Topographic, soil, forest, and other surveys covering large portions of 

 the country have been made by Federal and State organizations as 

 well as climatological and ecological studies. In general, a great deal 

 of information exists concerning this phase of classification. Many 

 economic and social studies have also been made, but because of the 

 complexity of this phase of classification much additional information 

 is necessary, and there is the large job of coordination and correlation 

 to make the land-use plans. 



Great impetus was given to land classification and land-use planning 

 as a national undertaldng by a conference on land utilization at Chi- 

 cago in November 1931, called by the Secretary of Agriculture in 

 conjunction with the Association of Land Grant Colleges and Univer- 

 sities. This conference, among other things, provided for the estab- 

 lishment of two national committees charged with the duty of working 

 out the details of a national program of land utilization. It was pro- 

 vided that the membership of the National Land-Use Planning Com- 

 mittee should consist of a designated number of representatives from 

 each of the several departments of the Federal Government that are 

 concerned with land utilization, together with five representatives of 

 the Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities chosen from 

 the various sections of the country. The membership of the National 

 Advisory and Legislative Committee on Land Use w T as specified in 

 terms of a designated number of representatives from each of 12 non- 

 governmental national organizations interested in land utilization and 

 agricultural policies. 



Under the leadership of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics the 

 National Land-Use Planning Committee has been active through 

 technical subcommittees in bringing the necessity for land-use plan- 

 ning to public attention, in defining objectives, in developing methods 

 of procedure, and in general by laying the ground work for broad classi- 

 fication of lands and systematic land-use planning. Owing to this 

 committee's work, land classification is becoming recognized as a large 

 and urgent national enterprise which should be started and pushed to 

 completion as fast and as systematically as conditions permit. 



Classification must be by definite political or other units and its 

 progress is dependent upon Federal, State, and possibly other coopera- 

 tive efforts. Necessarily it will be done in widely scattered, irregular, 

 and often small units with delayed action in some regions because of 

 lack of appropriations and lack of readiness or ability of the cooperat- 

 ing agencies. Furthermore, while physical classification of lands is 

 more or less permanent, this is not true of economic classification in 

 view of the constantly fluctuating basic economic conditions that 

 determine the form of land use. Economic classifications must there- 

 fore be elastic and subject to modification as conditions change, and 

 it should be undertaken only when it is to form the basis for early 

 public action in the formation and execution of land-use programs. 



