26 



Land Planning Rejjort 



nomic structure. Frequently the debts incurred exceed 

 the price received from the cotton crops. When this 

 does not cover the store credit extended, the remainder 

 is carried over on the tenant's bill to the following year. 

 When finally the debt becomes unbearable, a tenant 

 family may move to anotlier community and make a 

 fresh start. Sometimes landlords will overlook the 

 debt in question, lest a change of tenants prove to be 

 for the worse. Wien a merchant, in turn, accumulates 

 too many bad debts he goes into baakruptcy, tlu'ow- 

 ing the burden on the wholesale houses. The net 

 result is general business insecurity in addition to 

 poverty and debtor dependency. The liigh cost of 

 merchant and landlord credit makes it very difficult 

 for tenants to escape from that status and become farm 

 owners. The tendency' has been, on the contrary, for 

 tenancy to increase and ownership to be concentrated 

 in fewer hands. 



General Social Conditions. — Under an economic set- 

 up of this kinti, a sound and integrated community is 

 difficult if not impossible to maintain. Not only is 

 the population layered into definite caste levels by 

 land tenure and race, but, in addition, tenant families 

 move so frequently that usually they feel neither inter- 

 est nor responsibilitj' in communit}^ problems. Social 

 organizations are few and churches are often weak and 

 poorly supported. As to the people, themselves, it is 

 difficult to generalize. Some observers maintain that 

 the human stock in many of the poorer sections is, or 

 has become, inferior in a biological sense. If so the 

 problem of land-use adjustment is greatly compHcated. 

 What seems more probable is that a combination of 

 circumstances has operated almost completely to dis- 

 courage individual initiative and constructive enterprise 



The Problem.— There is no question but that a large 

 proportion of the total socio-economic fabric in this 

 region is urgently in need of remedial treatment. 

 Large areas of land are being progressively diminished 

 in agricultural value, a process wliich has already 

 residted in tremendous soil ruination, and wliich is 

 pointing to wholesale tragedy in the region. Eco- 

 nomic and social stabihty and well-being are being 

 undermined, and locally the inhabitants are showing 

 symptoms of deterioration. These people are without 

 eithei- knowledge or resources to better then- con- 

 ditions. Even the States concerned are imable to 

 cope with the problem adequately without Federal 

 assistance. 



On the poor, and particularly the more eroded lands 

 in this region, it will unquestionably be advisable to 

 discontinue arable farming, in part at least, and to 

 devote the land released from crops to forest produc- 

 tion. On the superior farm lands of the region, wliich 

 embrace mainly the smooth parts, and notably the 

 larger bodies of smooth lauds with sandy sui-face soils, 



which are more desirable for cotton and tobacco and 

 for many of the vegetables, it is desirable for agi'icul- 

 ture to continue. It will be urgently necessary, how- 

 ever, to use even these smoother lands under cropping 

 methods that reduce erosion in order to prevent further 

 reduction of the already much diminished acreage of 

 good land in the region. 



Great Lakes Cut-Over Region 



Adjacent to Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and the 

 northern end of Lake Michigan is an area of approxi- 

 mately 100,000 square miles which is wholly unlike 

 the neighboring parts of the country. 



Originally this was a region of old worn-down moun- 

 tains, of ridges covered with deep residual soils, valleys 

 filled with fertile alluvium, and large river systems 

 furnishing adequate drainage to the land. But for 

 many millenia this area was subjected to glaciation 

 on a scale now taking place in Greenland and Ant- 

 arctica. Today the general appearance of the region 

 is that of a plam, above which rise a low, ice-scoured 

 ridge of hard rock, smaller ridges of sand, and irregular 

 hills of gravel. Former valley systems have been 

 obliterated by glacial moraine, and present-day drainage 

 is rudimentary. The northern parts of Wisconsin, 

 Michigan, and Minnesota contain thousands of lakes; 

 and tens of thousands of ponds, bogs, and muskegs 

 dot the surface. The soils, since they are the product 

 of haphazard glacial deposition, are extremely varie- 

 gated. Some areas are closeh' strewn with granite 

 boulders, extensive areas are muck or peat, and others 

 are deep sterile sand. Central Wisconsin, for example, 

 contains one sand area covering nearly 5,000 square 

 miles. 



Forests. — Wlien first discovered, tliis region was 

 covered with a magnificent stand of coniferous forest. 

 Wlute pine was the principal commercial tree, but jack 

 paie, Norway pine, and even spruce and fir were 

 associated with it. In the southern portion, beech, 

 birch, and maple occur with the conifers. 



The Great Lakes forest was cut during the period 

 between 1870 and 1900, and settlement began during 

 the seventies. The hardwood forests farther south 

 had been cleared somewhat earUer and the land had 

 been successfully occupied by farmers. Consequently, 

 it was generally believed that forests on these more 

 northerly lands would also be replaced by agricultural 

 land use. 



As a rule, the large lumber companies made a clean 

 cut of the timber, leavuig only slashings and stumps 

 behind. No plan for reforestation was ever conceived, 

 and hence the area was allowed to burn over time and 

 again. Not only has this destroyed the seedlings of 

 desirable species but it has so completely burned off 

 the foi'est litter and topsoil that conditions in many 



