Readings On 



Soil Conservation 

 and Farmland 



Assessing Erosion on U.S. Cropland: Land 

 Management and Ptiysical Features, by 



Nelson L. Bills and Ralph E. Heimlich. AER- 

 513. July 1984. 24 pp. $1.50. Order SN: 001- 

 019-00341-3 from GPO. 



Erosion from rainfall causes nearly 100 million 

 acres of U.S. cropland to erode by more than 5 

 tons per acre per year. One-third of this land is 

 so highly erosive that annual soil loss can be 

 reduced to tolerable levels only under the most 

 restrictive land management practices. More 

 than one-third of U.S. cropland is inherently 

 nonerosive under all management regimes, 

 about half requires conservation management 

 to keep soil loss within tolerable limits, and the 

 remaining 8 percent is so erosive that 

 acceptable soil loss rates cannot be achieved 

 under intensive cultivation. 



Do USDA Farm Program Participants 

 Contribute to Soil Erosion? by Katherine H. 

 Reichelderfer. AER-532. April 1985. 84 pp. 

 $3.00. Order SN: 001-019-00383-9 from GPO. 



Finds that only about one-third of U.S. 

 cropland with excessive soil erosion rates is 

 operated by farmers who might be influenced to 

 reduce erosion if changes were made in 

 USDA's commodity and soil conservation 

 programs. Present commodity programs may 

 conflict with conservation programs by 

 encouraging cultivation of erosive crops. 

 Efforts to increase the consistency of USDA 

 commodity and conservation programs would 

 contribute little to overcoming the Nation's 

 total erosion problem. 



Cropland Rental and Soil Conservation in the 

 United States, by Nelson L. Bills. AER-529. 

 March 1985. 20 pp. $1.50. Order SN: 001 - 

 019-00387-1 from GPO. 



Data from USDA's Resource Economics 

 Survey challenge the common but not well- 

 substantiated view that farmers are less 

 concerned with erosion en land they rent than 

 on land they own. At the national level, 

 farmers' conservation elToi ts on rented 

 cropland compare favorably with those on 

 owner-operated cropland. 



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Agriculture's Links With 

 U.S. and World Economies, 



by Alden C. Manchester. 

 AIB-496. September 1985. 60 

 pp. $1.50. OrderSN:001- 

 019-00409-6 from GPO. 



Describes the linkages 

 between farming and the 

 supplying industries and those 

 manufacturing and 

 distributing farm products. 

 Within the last 30 years, the 

 food and fiber system has 

 found itself increasingly 

 reliant on nonfarm industries 

 and increasingly affected by 

 general economic 

 developments, not only 

 within the Nation but from 

 overseas as well. 



Improving U.S. Farmland, 



by Douglas Lewis and 

 Thomas A. McDonald. 

 AIB-482. November 1984. 

 12 pp. $1.00. Order SN: 

 001-019-00362-6 from GPO. 

 A clear, concise account of 

 recent farmland improve- 

 ments. Farmers invested 

 more than $6.5 billion in 

 improving their land in a 

 recent 3-year period. Those 

 investments, while often 

 made on existing cropland, 

 expanded total U.S. cropland 

 by 9.1 million acres. 



Major Uses of Land in the 

 United States: 1982, by H. 



Thomas Frey and Roger W. 

 Hexem. AER-535. June 

 1985. 36 pp. $1.25. Order 

 SN: 001-019-00398-7 from 

 GPO. 



Discusses the major uses of 

 the Nation's 2,265 million 

 acres of land in 1982: 

 cropland, 469 million acres; 

 grassland pasture and range, 

 597 million acres; forest land 

 (exclusive of areas in 

 special-purpose uses), 655- 

 million acres; special uses, 

 270 million acres; and 

 miscellaneous other land, 

 274 million acres. Changes 

 in cropland and pasture 

 acreages were barely 

 perceptible during 1978-82; 

 forest land (except special 

 use areas) and miscellaneous 

 other land decreased sharply 

 as large acreages in these 

 categories were reclassified as 

 parks, wilderness, and 

 related uses. 



