20 



Land Planning Report 



intensive forest management is practiced in some local- 

 ities and although the recreational use of forest is con- 

 siderable, great areas of forest land are contributing 

 very little to the support of local communities. 



Coal mines and oil fields (after 1859) also offered 

 employment in parts of New York and Pennsylvania, 

 as did marble, granite, and slate quarries in certain 

 New England towns. These various local industries 

 have served not only as sources of part-time wages, 

 but what is more important, they also have provided 

 local markets for farm products. Unfortunately, many 

 of these supplements to farm incomes have either 

 vanished or are greatly reduced. To a limited extent, 

 they have been replaced by income derived from 

 tourists, but this is true only in certain favored 

 locahties. 



Small Cro-p Acreage on Farms. — The average "sub- 

 marginal" farm in tliis region appears to be fairly 

 large if measured in terms of total acreage. If, how- 

 ever, it be judged by amount of crop acreage or by 

 volume of business transacted it is very small. Even 

 in fairly propserous years the total production from 

 such farms will not average over $500 annually. By 

 total production is here meant not only products sold 

 off the farm, but those consumed by the farm family 

 as well. Commonly about two-thirds of the products 

 of these farms go to family living, whereas only one- 

 third or less enter commercial channels. 



General Social Conditions. — Social conditions in the 

 submarginal parts of the Northeastern Highlands, 

 while superior to those in many other "problem areas" 

 in the United States, appear in a very poor light when 

 compared with conditions in regions of stable agri- 

 cultural adjustment. 



Moreover, if many of the highland or hill towns of 

 New England or the Middle Atlantic States were forced 

 to maintain their own commimity mstitutions and 

 facilities from local tax funds, public services might 

 be no better than those in some of the self-sufficing 

 districts in the Southern Highlands. As it is, sub- 

 marginal farm conamunities in most instances are 

 only small patches scattered through the region. They 

 frequently, therefore, share the same local government 

 with well-to-do agricultural localities. These latter are 

 compelled to maintain, in large part, public services 

 for the poor communities with which they are politically 

 united. To a certain extent, subventions from the 

 States care for the needs of the submarginal districts. 

 In some areas in the Northeastern Highlands, 90 per- 

 cent or more of the cost of operating rural schools is 

 met by State aid funds. Likewise, a large proportion 

 of road construction and maintenance costs are de- 

 frayed from the treasuries of the several States. Not 

 only are these areas agriculturally submarginal, there- 

 fore, but they are really no more than mendicant 



communities which constitute a permanent drain 

 upon adjacent more prosperous regions. 



Savings Through Farm Retirement — The elimination 

 of "problem" farms from this region will obviously 

 reduce expenses for schools and roads. In one locality 

 comprising six rural towns, the average school ex- 

 penditure per pupil exceeds $100 annually; in another, 

 the expenditure was $71. Such costs compare un- 

 favorably with an average of $58.4.3 for the State as 

 a whole. 



"Problem" farm retirement would also permit the 

 closing of many miles of roads, leaving only those 

 needed for the forest or recreational use to which the 

 land may be put. The savings accomplished by the 

 elimination of roads and schools would very soon 

 equal the total cost of acquiring the submarginal 

 farms in some of the areas in question. Moreover, in 

 all such areas the savings within a few years would 

 amoimt to a substantial portion of the cost of farm 

 retu'ement. 



Wliile fiscal savings constitute an important item, 

 they are by no means the only or even the most im- 

 portant consideration. The principal reason for Fed- 

 eral or State acquisition of these lands is to provide 

 for those who are now attempting to eke out a living 

 on poor land, a chance to relocate where better oppor- 

 tunities exist. Such a program would also prevent 

 these low-grade lands from being resettled by others 

 who are ignorant of the lack of opportunities offered 

 in these areas. On many hill farms the process of 

 occupation and abandonment has been repeated over 

 and over by those unacquainted with actual conditions 

 on these uneconomic lands. 



Southern Highlands and Their Margins 



This region has been referred to as a forgotten 

 frontier, and its mhabitants have been called pock- 

 eted Americans, our contemporary ancestors, survivals 

 of Elizabethan England, and twentieth century pio- 

 neers. All of these characterizations are inaccurate, 

 but they do express certain elements of truth in regard 

 to the social geography of the region. 



More than one-fourth of all farms in the United 

 States which have been proposed for retirement lie in 

 the Southern Highlands. Farm retirement here is not 

 a matter of economic recover^' nor of the regaming of 

 prosperity; the people have never been prosperous. 

 The highlands were first settled by frontiersmen at a 

 time when rugged, wooded country represented the 

 most desirable land. Later, the population was aug- 

 mented by white farmers crowded out of the Cotton 

 Belt by slave labor and plantation management. Be- 

 tween 1800 and 1860 the people of this region existed 

 under a lower standard of living than that of most 

 Negro slaves on plantations. Since the Civil War, life 



