SECTION I II 

 THE PROGRAM FOR RETIREMENT OF POOR FARM LAND 



The conditions whicli hiive been described as exist- 

 ing in tlie areas from which it is proposed to retire a 

 substantial proportion of the farms are not the result of 

 the present depression. The depression has aggravated 

 the difficulties in many instances, and in some of them 

 the burden of relief is imusually heavy. The life of 

 the people, however, is on a very low plane even in 

 prosperous times. The adjustments in the past have 

 been accomplished through the individual action of 

 people living in these areas of poor farm land. These 

 people, who have had no opportunity to secure sup- 

 plemental income, coidd better their situation only by 

 abandoning their farms and seeking new land or op- 

 portunity for other employment elsewhere. This 

 process of abandonment, which has been going on in 

 many areas for a hundred years, in itself adds to the 

 difficulties of an area, and is a wasteful form of adjust- 

 ment — wasteful of both human and natural resources. 

 The people struggle along for years against adverse 

 conditions before they finally abandon the land. It 

 often happens that the older people remain, and eke out 

 a bare existence to the end of their days. The land 

 fares no better than the people since no one can afford 

 to utilize it in the best way to conserve the soil. When 

 the land is finally abandoned, it is often allowed to 

 remain idle; the owners being in no financial position 

 to put it to any constructive use. Such land holdings 

 are, as a rule, too small to permit of their economical 

 use for forestry or grazing — the only uses to which 

 much of the land to be retired from arable farming 

 is suited. 



The remedy for and alleviation of conditions de- 

 scribed above and throughout this section of the report 

 are being sought through the collective action of the 

 people. This raises the question of planning and of a 

 program. Shall such collective action be entirely by 

 the Federal Government, or by the various States, or 

 by local communities, or if a mixture of all three, what 

 shall be the scope of each? Wiat shall be done, and 

 how shall it be done? It is one thing to diagnose social 

 and economic ailments; it is another thing to prescribe 

 the remedy. Certain recommendations followed the 

 examination of the facts as presented by the various 

 agencies in the fall of 1934, and these have been set 



forth in the National Resources Board report of 

 December 1934. Significant among such recommenda- 

 tions is that "a permanent land-planning section * * * 

 be established", and "that a land-purchase pro- 

 gram * * * be undertaken over a term of years, 

 involving continued retirement of submarginal lands at 

 the rate of about 5,000,000 acres per year for a period 

 now estimated at 15 years." 



Certain steps have been taken to cope with the sub- 

 marginal land ]3roblem, and a brief discussion of the 

 activities follows: 



The Current Land Program 



The realization that Government action was neces- 

 sary to improve the condition of the people living in 

 poor farming areas and to replace the haphazard process 

 of abandonment by a rational process of retirement, 

 brought into e.xistence a demonstrational program in 

 the fall of 1933. The Public Works Administration 

 allocated the sum of $25,000,000 to the Surplus Rehef 

 Corporation for the land-retirement ]5rogram, the 

 administration of which was placed in the hands of a 

 submarginal land committee. Tlie advocates of the 

 land-retirement program visualized the new program 

 as the beginning of a long-time plan to readjust our 

 land-use pattern to yield the highest social and eco- 

 nomic benefits and to aid in the rehabilitation of 

 hundreds of thousands of rural families who are victims 

 of maladjustments. It was determined therefore to 

 purchase land in areas where distress was most serious, 

 aiding the families to locate in areas where there are 

 better opportunities, and devote the land thus acquired 

 to its highest social and economic use. 



The selection and planning of the areas to be pur- 

 chased were carried on by the Land Policy Section, 

 Division of Program Planning, Agricultural Adjust- 

 ment Administration. Resettlement activities were 

 under the supervision of the Division of Rural Rehabili- 

 tation and Stranded Populations of the Federal Emer- 

 gency Relief Administration. 



With the establishment of the Resettlement Adminis- 

 tration - the retirement of poor farm land became a 

 part of a broader program under the Relief Ap])ropria- 

 tion Act of 1935 which involved resettlement, rehabili- 



' By C. I. Hendrickson, Division of Land Economics, Bureau of AgricuJtural 

 Economics, and Paul W. Gates, Land Policy Section, Agricultural .Adjustment 

 Administration. 



48 



'■ The Resettlement .Administration was established by Executive Order No. 702S 

 on -\pr. 30, 1935 pursuant to the authority vested in the President under the Emer- 

 gency Relief .Appropriation -Act of 1935. 



