14 



Land Planning Report 



variation in natural conditions affecting physical 



productivity. 



Location and Amount of Land to be Retired 



The results of the methods used in locating specifi- 

 cally the areas of poor farming (described in sec. I) are 

 only approxunate, and will, therefore, have to be re- 

 fined by closer scriitiny^. In general, however, most 

 of the areas have been satisfactorily located within 

 which the retirement of land from farming is desirable 

 and advisable. Such areas are found in every State 

 and if combined would form a total greater than the 

 extent of New York, New Jersey, and tlie New England 

 States. The population on the farms involved totals 

 well over 2,000,000. 



In general, the so-called submarginal farm lands of 

 the United States he in four different sorts of situations: 

 (a) Ai'id and semiarid areas of the West; (6) rugged 

 hilly areas of the South and East; (c) forest and cut- 

 over areas in the South, North, and Pacific Northwest; 

 and ((/) scattered through the better agricultural re- 

 gions in all parts of the country. 



If has been prelmiinarily estimated that more than 

 450,000 farms, containmg over 75,000,000 acres, should 

 be retired. This includes some land in strictly agri- 

 cultural areas, together with probably half of all grade 

 four land now in farms. It would include all of such 

 grade four land were it not for two circumstances. 

 Fii'st, some grade four land can i)rofitably remain in 

 cultivation because of compensating economic factors 

 which are the results of favorable geograpliic location. 

 Second, a good many farmers on grade four land can 

 profitably' remain on farms incapable of providing 

 thenr with a living because of the possibility of part- 

 time emploj'ment off the farm. National and State 

 forests, recreational areas, game numagement areas, 

 mines, and rural manufacturing are examples of em- 

 ployment of part-time farmers on poor land. 



Summarized, the recommendations for retirement of 

 farms and farm acreage may be stated as follows: 



Classification 



Acreage to 

 be retired 



Western dry lauds 



Ozark, Appalachian, and New England 



Better fiiriniug regions 



Forest and cut-over regions 



Total for all regions 



75, (HXI, 000 



From this classification it is apparent that nearly 

 half of all land proposed for retirement lies in the 

 western dry areas, principally the Great Plains. 

 There the land has been put under extensive cultiva- 

 tion in large units of ownership and operation. For 

 this reason relatively few farms are involved in the 

 proposed readjustments. 



In marked contrast to tliis are the southern and 

 eastern highland areas. Here are involved a great 

 niiml)er of farms and a large total population, hut a 

 smaller total acreage. 



At first glance, the farm-retirement figures for the 

 better agricultural regions, extensive though they be 

 in total area, seem unnecessarily large. If these 

 figures are resolved into two components, however, 

 considerable light is shed upon the problem: 



Most of the farms to be retu-ed ob\'iously lie in the 

 South, whereas other agricidtural regions contain 

 relatively few. Similarly, in the case of "problem" 

 farms in the etistern and southern highlands, of a total 

 of 176,000 farms, fully 125,000 he in the Ozark-South- 

 ern Apjialachian region. 



The ajjpalling extent of the human aspects of the 

 problem in the southeastern United States may be 

 noted when it is seen that within the section which is 

 usually known as the .South there are more than 63 

 percent of the hirms recommemled for retirement, 

 whereas there is only 29 percent of the acreage so 

 designated. 



General Character of Social and 

 Economic Conditions 



The use of lands for agriculture which are unsuited 

 for agricultural purposes is almost always productive 

 of certain social ills. Some of the more pronounced of 

 these are (a) small incomes and consequent low plane 

 of living, (b) low level of community life and morale, 

 (c) financial difficulties of local government units, (d) 

 waste of individual and social effort, and (e) the exploi- 

 tation of people who are ignorant of the facts and 

 conditions in these areas. 



Land Values. — The farms to be retired are located 

 in iireas where land values are in general very low. 

 (See accompanying map of the value per acre of farm 

 land and buildings.) There are two situations where 

 this does not hold true: Certain areiis are shown on 

 the land-value map as having a high average value of 

 farm land anil buildings, particularly in the West, 

 where the high value is due to irrigated land or other 

 land of high value, associated with much lower-priced 

 farm land or nonfarm land. In such areas there are 

 many poor farms which should be eliminated from agri- 

 cultural production. There are also large areas of 

 low-valued land used onty for gi'azing with few farms 

 dependent ii|)on tirable agriculture, and consequently 

 there are few farms to be ehminated in those areas. 



