SECTION I 



DESIRABLE MAJOR LAND USE ADJUSTMENTS AND THEIR 



REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION' 



Introduction 



Rural distress must of course in some measure be 

 attributed to external economic factors which influence 

 price. The so-called farni problem insofar as it is a 

 problem common to agriculture generalh^, is correctly 

 associated with such price mfluencing factors as shrink- 

 age in demand through loss of exjiort markets and do- 

 mestic depression or with a credit structure poorly 

 suited to agriculture. It is apparent, however, that 

 the jioverty and destitution prevailing Iti certain sec- 

 tions of the countrj' as well as the capital losses suffered 

 through the use of land irrespective of national pros- 

 perity or depression, must be assigned to factors of 

 another sort, which lie within the process of land utili- 

 zation itself. 



Such factors may consist of institutions which directly 

 or indirectly influence the use of land, or they may con- 

 sist of the improper adjustment of the use of specific 

 bodies or areas of land to the character of that land, 

 in very many cases, however, the immediate malad- 

 justment in use is controlled or influenced by an insti- 

 tutional factor. Thus, the uneconomically small farm 

 vmits found in parts of the semiarid West are in a 

 measure attributable to the homestead laws, which 

 limited the amount of land an individual could pre- 

 empt. Again, use of land in such a way as to facilitate 

 erosion is aided by tenancy, because tenant operators 

 have had less urge to conserve the soil resources than 

 owner operators. In devising measures for attaining 

 economically and socially desirable uses of our iatid, 

 both the institutional factors and the area! maladjust- 

 ments must be understood and dealt with. 



The institutional adjustments necessary to facilitate 

 the best use of lands of the United States have been 

 discussed elsewhere. Considered here arc the malad- 

 justments in land use itself, leading to human destitu- 

 tion, losses in capital and dissipation of the land re- 

 source. These are markedly regional in their distri- 

 bution, whether or not they are traceable to insti- 

 tutional conditions. No single problem of land-use 

 adjustment is common to all parts of the United States. 

 In the region where they occur, some problems are 

 general in their distribution, while others are local. 



' Prepared by C. P. Brtrnes and W. W. Wilcox of the Land Policy Seclion of 

 the .\in-icultural .VdjiLslment .Administration and G. T. Renner of (He National 

 Resource.': Board. 



Even where local, their aggregate effect may be con- 

 siderable. 



Geographic Investigation 



of Desirable Land-Use Adjustments 



The proper consideration of land-use adjustments 

 needed to effect the most desirable use of land, neces- 

 sarily involves understanding the areal extent and 

 character of the different types of land-use problems. 



The National Resources Board appointed an in- 

 vestigator in each State, who, under the title of land- 

 planning consultant, was attached to the State Plan- 

 ning Board, and who was assigned, under the direction 

 of the Land Policy Section of the Agricultural Adjust- 

 ment Administration to study and report on the distri- 

 bution of land-use problems and desirable adjustments. 

 In most instances these investigators were stationed at 

 the State agricultural colleges, in order to work more 

 closely with staff members of those institutions, and to 

 have more immediately at hand the information which 

 had been acciunulated on land utilization. After ex- 

 amination of the best available evidence, and after 

 consultation with well-informed individmils within 

 their States, particularly in the agricultural colleges, 

 agricultural experiment stations, and extension serv- 

 ices, they undertook to delimit all areas or districts in 

 which some readjustment or reorganization of the major 

 uses of land seemed desirable, to characterize the 

 problems in each, and to indicate the nature of the 

 desirable adjustment. 



In order to secure uniformity throughout tlic coun- 

 try, the land-planning consultants were asked to 

 report maladjustments according to a definite classi- 

 fication which was supplied them. While this treat- 

 ment did not permit as wide a latitude in designating 

 the dirt'erent types of adjustment as was desirable 

 from certain points of view, it was wholly necessary 

 if a systematic and comj)aral)lc delimitation of areas 

 throughout the country were to be secured. 



In designating land-use adjustment areas, the minor 

 civil division was taken as the unit of consideration, 

 not because the necessity for improved land-use bore 

 any important relationship to these divisions, but 

 because it was necessary to compel each consultant to 

 consider individual areas at least as small as minor 

 civil divisions, if a broad generalized treatment were 



