USING ARID LANDS BEYOND CAPABILITIES 227 
The classes fall into two general groups—those suitable for 
cultivation and those unsuitable for cultivation. Each class is 
distinguishable from the others by the relation of definite physical 
features to the intensity of use (cultivation, woodland, pasture, 
range, and wild life) and the intensity of soil management required 
for safe and sustained use. Classes I, II, and III are suitable for 
general agricultural production of the region. Class IV should be 
restricted to limited cultivation, and Classes V, VI, VII, and 
VIII are suited for grazing, woodland, wild life, and recreational 
purposes, in descending order of intensity of use. 
Land Abandonment 
Presentation of the remainder of this subject can best be done 
by reference to research and experience in part of the southwestern 
United States. Here are some classical examples of wide-scale land 
misuse. In this general area one tragic consequence of land misuse 
is land abandonment or nonuse. This denotes land use failure. 
Land abandonment, of course, may be due to physical land failure, 
or to financial or economic distress. In either case the basic prob- 
lem is land use failure. 
Although the two conditions do not divide sharply, it was found 
in a recent survey and study of land abandonment and rehabilita- 
tion in a section of this area that about 60% of land abandonment 
was due to financial distress and about 40% to severe erosion. 
The lands that were severely eroded were, in much of the area, 
lands that were being used beyond their capability. Frequently, 
the farmer continued to crop shallow, sloping lands in an effort to 
obtain the occasional rewarding crop; but the usual results were 
low production for a period and finally abandonment. 
The principle of capability use is usually not violated on range 
lands, and complete abandonment seldom takes place there. How- 
ever, if grazing is heavy enough to prohibit maintenance of a 
satisfactory condition of range plants for long periods, the result 
is low return from livestock and the acceleration of soil erosion. In 
the end it may mean permanent soil losses that so reduce produc- 
tivity that the land might as well be abandoned. 
