46 



Land Planning Report 



farming is definitely uneconomic. Sucli areas are of 

 at least two lands: (1) Extensive tracts of deep sandy 

 soils which are not only nonretentive of moisture dur- 

 ing the summer but are too infertile to justify the 

 application of commercial fertilizer; (2) districts 

 characterized by dispersed farm settlement. Ordi- 

 narily this last results from patchy distribution of 

 good soils through a generally sandy area. In certain 

 instances, however, it results from the separation of 

 arable spots by stretches of swamp. In either case 

 communication is made difficult and all vestiges of 

 community Ufe are destroyed. 



On areas of these kinds there are approxunately 

 6,800 farms containing 661,200 acres, of which 298,700 

 acres are now in crops. The total value of such lands, 

 together with the buildings on them, is probably less 

 than $4,600,000. 



By every social and economic measure these locaHties 

 are submarginal. Illiteracy is high, health and dietary 

 habits are poor, and houses are almost unbelievably 

 flmisy and dilapidated. The cost of maintaining an 

 institutional pattern for such districts constitutes a 

 serious drain upon the nearby better areas and prob- 

 ably exceeds the total value of commercial production 

 from the submarginal farms involved. 



The elimination of farmmg from the areas of in- 

 fertile soils would not only permit their more pro- 

 ductive use under forestry but would also offer 

 opportunities to their inhabitants to achieve a higher 

 standard of living elsewhere. The retirement of farms 

 from districts of scattered settlement would, through 

 the mere concentration of population in other areas, 

 provide at lower costs better schools, churches, roads, 

 medical attention, and other amenities of individual 

 and group living. 



Western Gulf Coastal Plain 



This region is known locallj- as the "Piney Woods" 

 farming area. Its surface is generally roUing, but in 

 numerous places it contains areas of rough hilly terrain 

 and of rather level prairies. Most of the region was 

 original]}- covered with a forest of pine interspersed 

 with gum trees. Toward the southwest, in Texas, tliis 

 gives way to a hght woodland of black and post oak, 

 with strings of elm and cottonwood along the streams. 

 All of the virgin timber has been cut, and a large pro- 

 portion of the land has been under cultivation for a 

 number of years. 



Land not in cultivation supports a second-growth 

 forest, which in turn is now being cut. For a time the 

 land was fairly productive and many farmers derived 

 part-time employment from the forest. But cultivated 



land is eroding badly, and income from the forest has 

 disappeared. 



Since 1910 farm abandonment has occurred rather 

 generally, having been particularly marked between 

 1910 and 1920. Today, abandoned farmsteads are a 

 common sight throughout northeastern Texas and the 

 adjacent portions of Arkansas and Loiusiana. The 

 result of this abandonment has been to increase the size 

 of some tarms, but the land -operations unit is still far too 

 small. Some authorities in Texas believe that from 25 

 to 50 percent of the total population in this region 

 should ultimately be withdrawn in order to provide 

 larger farms for the remainder. However, the question 

 immediately arises as to whether a farm family can 

 cultivate more than the present acreage of cotton. 

 Perhaps the answer lies in a thoroughgoing change in 

 farm economy in this region. 



There is undoubtedly a too-intensive cropping in 

 cotton and corn, with attendant erosion and soil deple- 

 tion. If this be allowed to continue there will even- 

 tually be created a submarginal-land problem compara- 

 ble to that of the hiUy cotton and tobacco region east 

 of the Mississippi. 



In four or five small areas in Texas and one in Loui- 

 siana farming is distinctly uneconomic and should be 

 replaced by forest land use. In some instances these 

 submarginal areas result from poorly drained clay soils, 

 in others from deep, sterile sand or gravelly soils, in still 

 others from topography too rough to cultivate. 



For the entire western Gulf Coastal Plain gross farm 

 incomes are generally quite low. Probably 20 percent 

 of all farms retiu-n less than $250 annually; 30 to 50 

 percent, less than $600 annually; and 80 to 85 percent, 

 less than $1,000. 



Tax dehnquency was high as long ago as 1921. By 

 1933 between 30 and 40 percent of all farms were dehn- 

 quent. Farmhouses are usually dilapidated, devoid of 

 paint, urgently in need of repairs, and poorly and 

 meagerly furnished. Telephone lines are commonly in 

 a bad state of repair, and roads impassable during a 

 part of the year. Subvention in the form of State aid 

 for school maintenance is generally quite high. It 

 appears, therefore, that much of this region lies at or 

 near the margin of profitable agricultural use. 



Palouse Wheat Region 



The Palouse wheat region, as here defined, embraces 

 the better-watered and agriculturally more productive 

 part of the northwestern plateau wheat area, and is the 

 smallest of the land-use problem regions of the United 

 States. Comprising the black and dark-brown soils 

 of the eastern part of the Columbia River Basin, it 



