Maladjustments in Land Use 



39 



bushels per acre; more often they average to S 

 bushels per acre. Water supply is inadecpiate in 

 many localities, roads are mere trails through tlie 

 sagebrush, and the average value of farm improvements 

 is low. Wind erosion and the blowing out of crops is 

 a serious menace and is becoming mcrcasingly worse 

 each year. Ta.\ delincjuency is very high in comparison 

 with the !)etter wlieat lands of the Palouse area to the 

 east. 



Social Conditions. —This is an area of cash grain 

 production with jjractically no opportunity for a farm 

 to furnish any substantial part of the familj- li\ing. 

 Consequently, with low wheat yields, most of the gross 

 income is absorbed in o])erating costs; particuiai'ly is 

 this true in years of poor wheat prices. Living stand- 

 ards are very poor and the net family income exceed- 

 ingly small. Houses are in some areas faii'Iy good, but 

 practically all modern conveniences are lacking. In 

 many areas, however, houses consist of flimsy frame 

 shacks which merely ott'er piotection against wind, sun, 

 and infrequent i-ain. Outbuilihiigs are few, barns often 

 being notliing but huts with poles supporting a straw 

 roof. Machinery is commonly unprotected from the 

 elements. The almost comj)h'te land abandonment 

 has left tiie residual farms badly isolated. Grange 

 halls, country churches, and schools now stand idle 

 over large areas. 



The Case of Jefferson County, Oreg. — During the last 

 25 years rainfall in this county has averaged 8 inches, 

 and for one-fourth of these j'ears it has fallen l)elow 

 6% inches. In August 1934 72 percent of all wheat 

 lands were ta.\ delinquent, of which more than one- 

 fourth had been delinquent for (j or more yeaj's. Fifty- 

 one percent of all farms v:ere under mortgage to the 

 Federal Land Bank prior to 1924, since which ilate no 

 new loans have Ijeen made. More than one-tliiid of 

 these loans have now been foreclosed and most of the 

 remainder are delinquent and subject to foreclosure. 



Jefferson County farmers received $125,000 ($400 

 per farm on the average) under wheat allotment con- 

 tracts. Even with these benefit payments almost half 

 of all farm families were on dkect public relief in July 

 1934. Were it not for these measui'es farm abandon- 

 ment would have been very high. From 1920 to 1925 

 the number of farms in Jefferson County decreased 

 19 percent; from 1925 to 1930 the decrease was 28 

 percent; and from 1930 to 1935 the rate will undoubt- 

 edly approximate 30 percent. Judged in the light of 

 these facts, practically all wheat lands in the Columbia 

 Basin should revert to public range. 



Arid Grazing and Irrigation Region 



This region includes most of the arid lands of the 

 United States. It is, roughly, a triangle whose base 

 extends fiom tlie lowei' Kio (iian<le westward along 



the soutliein international boundary to the Imperial 

 \'alley, and whose apex lies far to the north in Idaho 

 and Oregon. Within this great triangle of ariditj", 

 adjustments in arable farming fall into three categories: 



1. Irrigation farming on the lowlands. 



2. Dry farming on the lowlands, j)iedmont 



slopes, and lower plateaus. 



3. Subhumid fainiing in the timl)eie(l mountains 



and higher plateaus. 



Each of these types includes definite maladjustments 

 which locally are so serious as to render farming clearly 

 uneconomic. 



Irrigation Maladjustmerit. — A considerable number 

 of small urigation projects were develojjed duiing a 

 period of heavier rainfall, as for example at Piute, 

 Utah, in the Sevier Valley. On the average, there is 

 not sufficient water for ii-rigation over a long period of 

 time, and during the present drj' period crop failure is 

 severe and suffering is intense. This is necessarily the 

 case, because wliile Lirigation is not immediately de- 

 pendent upon rainfall, the watersheds from which u-ri- 

 gation waters are derived are subject to the same 

 fluctuations in precipitation as are the neighlioring arid 

 or semiaj'id lowlands. Consequentl}', the amount of 

 water available for iri-igation has often proved insuffi- 

 cient on a number of reclamation projects. 



Other areas have become hopelessly waterlogged or 

 alkalized after being iri-igated, and for topographic 

 reasons it is impossible to drain them. In the Honey 

 Lake area of California, for example, the topsoil is very 

 fertile, but its subsoil is so fuU of salts as to compel 

 abandonment after a few years of u-rigation. Through- 

 out the region many areas have been included in irri- 

 gation projects without regard to the physical character 

 of the soil. Some are fine sand, in which the crops 

 may be blown out by the wind during dry or windy 

 years. In others, outcrops of rock render cultivation 

 difficult; in still others, the subsoil is so ])orous that 

 water cannot be retained, or the soil is so infeitile that 

 crop yields are small. 



In certain areas the resjjonse to these conditions has 

 been partial abandonment, but more often it has meant 

 poverty, failure to improve propert)^, and inabiUty to 

 maintain even a moderate standard of living. In 

 numerous irrigation districts 30 to 50 percent of the 

 population has been forced onto the public relief rolls. 

 Arizona reports some such localities where the inhabi- 

 tants are SO to 100 percent on rehef, with a eoiise(iuenl 

 loss of most of the comforts of hving. 



A few irrigation projects were conceived upon very 

 poor economic plans. In the San Juan and Animas 

 \'alleys of New Mexico farms avei'age about 75 acres 

 in area and contain about 35 acres of crop land, on 

 which beans, ulieat, alfalfa, and other miscellaneous 

 crops are produced. ( )wing to pool- yield, lack of mar- 



