Land Planning Report 



to be avoided. In many instances, however, local 

 information made it possible to follow the natural 

 boundaries of actual land-use areas. 



On the basis of the information submitted by the 

 land-planning consultants, a map was prepared show- 

 ing the areas in which farm problems appear to war- 

 rant encouragement of a change from crop farming to 

 stock ranching or to forestry or to some other con- 

 servational use for all the land in some farms or on 

 all of the farms in some localities (see fig. 1).^ 



The land-use readjustments reported as being de- 

 sirable did not include changes toward more efficient 

 management of individual properties in the interest 

 of greater profit, this bemg considered a matter for in- 

 dividual solution. The measures proposed were con- 

 fined to land-use adjustments needed to overcome 

 maladjustment leading to collective or community 

 misfortune not readily corrected by individual action. 

 Land conservation may, of course, be efl'ected by 

 individual action, but the likelihood of individual 

 initiative achieving it in the absence of some fairly 

 direct and tangible incentive is probably remote. 

 Furthermore, failure to effect it will ultmiately result 

 in widespread community misfortune. Its achieve- 

 ment is therefore quite clearly a matter calling for 

 public action, through the provision of specific incen- 

 tives, tlirough legal control of land use, or through the 

 removal of impediments by means of institutional 

 changes. Hence, the bringing about of land-use adjust- 

 ments in the interest of land conservation is regarded 

 as a matter requiring public action, rather than one 

 to be effected by the initiative of individual owners. 



Land-planning consultants were asked to report 

 land-use problem areas according to the kind of adjust- 

 ment that appeared to be desirable. Many of the 

 adjustments recommended must be regarded as ulti- 

 mately, rather than immediately desirable, because of 

 the economic dislocations which would arise as a result 

 of their rapid execution. However, there are some 

 situations calling for action of an emergency nature. 

 In some areas of serious soil erosion, for example, 

 immediate measures to retard the rate of soil loss are 

 necessary. 



Adjustments in major land use reported as desirable, 

 including adjustments in both type and size of operat- 

 ing unit, fall into six major categories, each of which is 

 listed and discussed below. 



1. Replacement of Crop Fanning by Less Intensive 

 Types of Use. — The presence of crop farming ' on 



^ Because of the controversial character cf many of the questions of land-use adjust- 

 ment, and because of the danger of injustices that might arise from errors in the pre- 

 liminary designation of problem areas, publication of maps showing the detailed 

 location of problem areas is not desirable at this time. 



3 A crop farm is defined as one which has, west of tlie 100th meridian, at least 

 one-tenth as much crop land as pasture, and east of the 100th meridian, at least one- 

 fifth as much crop land as pasture. A stock ranch, as reported by the census is 

 therefore not a crop farm, although it may properly be called a farm. 



land poorly suited to it has given rise to a train of 

 undesirable social and economic circumstances de- 

 scribed at some length elsewhere in this volume. The 

 problems created are widely referred to as those of 

 submarginal farm land. 



Estimates made in connection with this study indi- 

 cate that there are i)robably not less than 450,000 

 farms, covering about 75,000,000 acres, and contiiining 

 20,000,000 acres of crop land and 35,000,000 acres of 

 pasture, too poor for people to support themselves by 

 crop farming. 



Areas where the replacement of crop farming on 

 land poorly suited to it, by less intensive uses, such as 

 stock ranching, forestry, and/or recreation is called for, 

 are widespread, but are found mainly in a few im- 

 portant regions. The presence of crop farming on land 

 poorly adapted to it is attributable to several factors 

 which vary greatly in importance among the regions of 

 occurrence. The more important among these factors 

 are: 



(1) Shifts in comparative advantage through the 

 settlement of new nnd more productive areas, and 

 through the develojjment of mechanized production, 

 which favors certain areas at the expense of others in 

 lowering production costs. This factor is particularly 

 miportant in the long-settled hilly and stony parts of 

 many Eastern States. 



(2) Shifts in comparative advantage through the 

 difierential deterioration of lands by erosion. This 

 factor is especially notewoithy in parts of the Cotton 

 Belt, particularly in some of the old plantation areas. 



(3) Inadec[uate understanding of the character and 

 productive capacity of the land in advance of settle- 

 ment, and consequently, settlement without proper 

 discrunination belAveen lands of different ciuality. 

 This factor has been notably imjjortant in the Great 

 Plains, and in the cut-over forest regions of the northern 

 Lake States, the South, and the Far West. 



(4) The stimulus of exceptional prices for certain 

 products as a result of wartime demand, causing expan- 

 sion of crop production onto lands which, without 

 exceptional prices, cannot sustain economic farming. 

 This factor has been most significant in some of the 

 semiarid dry-fanning areas of the Great Plains and the 

 Columbia Basin. 



(5) The availability of low-priced land as a means 

 of providing subsistence to those without the means, 

 resourcefulness, or inclination to live elsewhere. The 

 availability of poor land to poor people has been 

 a powerful influence toward the cultivation of land 

 w"hich is submarginal and undesirable for commer- 

 cial farming. Its affect is most pronounced in the 

 southern Appalachian, Ozark, and Ouachita highlands, 

 where opportunities for employment of hibor in indus- 

 try have been small, where communication facilities 



