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I. CHARACTERISTICS AND PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL REGIONS

If the objectives of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act are to be realized, attention must be given to area and regional differences. The conditions under which grants are made, either for diversion of crops or adoption of soil-building practices, must fit the general type or types of farming prevailing in each region.

The commonly accepted agricultural regions are indicated on the accompanying map (fig. 1) and the distribution of agricultural land, crops, and livestock es among the several regions in table 1. Within

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FIGURE 1.-Major type-of-farming regions in the United States. (Prepared in the Program Planning Division, Agricultural Adjustment Administration.)

each of these regions the systems of farming and the agricultural problems are usually similar.

The CORN BELT in the Midwest, the COTTON BELT in the South, the WHEAT and SMALL GRAINS REGIONS in the Great Plains and the Pacific Northwest, the GENERAL FARMING and TOBACCO REGIONS in the central and eastern sections, the RANGE LIVESTOCK REGION in the West, and the DAIRY REGION in the North Central and Northeast are concentrated and clearly defined. But the FRUIT, TRUCK, and SPECIAL CROPS, and the SELF-SUFFICING, FLATWOODS, and CUT-OVER REGIONS are made up of widely scattered small or medium-sized areas which tend to have similar problems, but which do not form a contiguous geographic region.

TABLE 1.-Regional summary of agricultural statistics for the United States, 1930

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CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC FACTORS DETERMINE REGIONS

This geographic distribution of agricultural production and of types of farming in the United States results from broad physical differences in climate, surface conditions, and soil, and from general economic differences in transportation, markets, and urban development. Soil, climate, and topography determine the absolute limits of crop production and influence the combination in which the various crops are grown. But prices received and costs and methods of production are influenced by a wide range of economic factors.

Wheat production, for example, is especially important on the Great Plains and in the semiarid section of the Pacific Northwest, because wheat does reasonably well under the soil and climatic conditions which exist in these areas and because wheat is a concentrated product which can be transported long distances at a relatively low cost. Corn is produced on the rich soils of the Midwest where rainfall and temperature conditions are especially favorable to corn, while cotton and tobacco production is located by favorable physical factors and by the relatively large supply of cheap labor available in the South. Growing range livestock is the only economical method of utilizing the native forage on much of the semiarid West. The dairy region is located in the Northeast because the cool climate is more favorable to hay and pasture than to grain crops, and because the great urban centers of population are nearby so that transportation and marketing costs are minimized. Fruit and vegetable production is located either very close

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to urban markets or in certain small areas where climatic conditions are favorable enough to offset the distance from markets and the increased transportation costs involved. Self-sufficing farming is usually found in rough or cut-over areas where only a small percentage of the land is tillable, where yields are low, and where means of communication are relatively limited.

Systems of farming usually change gradually between one area or region and another, so that the several regions tend to overlap. Furthermore, the Corn Belt obtains feeder cattle and some sheep from the range region, while it ships feed grains to the East, West, and South. Butterfat prices in the Corn Belt affect fluid-milk prices in the Northeast; lard produced from midwestern hogs is sold in direct competition with vegetable-oil shortenings manufactured from southern cottonseed; and vegetables produced in such widely separated areas as the Northeast, the Gulf Coast, and the Southwest supplement and compete with each other and thus provide American consumers with fresh vegetables the year round.

PROGRAMS RECOGNIZE REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

The Agricultural Adjustment Administration has endeavored to recognize the differences between the several regions, and the variations within each region, both in formulation and in administration of the agricultural conservation program. In its general planning activities, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration works with both farmers and agricultural specialists in every State and county throughout the country. The suggestions of both groups are summarized and studied on a type-of-farming and regional basis similar to that outlined in figure 1. In addition, the national administrative organization has been shifted from the old commodity set-up established under the Agricultural Adjustment Act to a regional basis under the Soi! Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act.

While the borders of type-of-farming regions do not coincide with those of administrative regions established by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the North Central Division is responsible for the program in the Corn Belt, the closely related western half of the general farming region, and the western or Lake States portion of the dairy region. The Southern Division is responsible for the Cotton Belt; the East Central Division for the tobacco areas and the eastern half of the general farming region; the Northeast Division for the northeast dairy region; and the Western Division for the fruit, truck, and special crop areas along the Pacific Coast, and the greater portion of the western wheat regions and the range livestock region as well as for considerable cotton-growing areas in the southwestern States.1

1 Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin are included in the NORTH CENTRAL REGION; Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas in the SOUTHERN REGION; Delaware Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia in the EAST CENTRAL REGION; Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont in the NORTHEAST REGION; and Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming in the WESTERN REGION, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are included in the INSULAR REGION.

II. DEVELOPING AN AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION

PROGRAM

The conservation program is a farmers' program and to succeed must be planned and administered by farmers or their representatives. On this general principle all of the programs under the Agricultural Adjustment Administration have been built, both under the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act.

In developing the 1936 agricultural conservation program the objectives of the act and the type of program which could be developed under it were discussed with farmers at open meetings held as soon as possible after the act was signed. Recommendations and suggestions of farmers and farm organization leaders who attended these meetings provided the basis for the program. Actual administration of the agricultural conservation program for 1936 in each community and county was carried on, of course, by farmers selected by their neighbors as community and county committeemen.

In planning the 1937 program a series of community and county meetings was held throughout the United States. At these meetings farmers discussed the program for 1936 and the changes which they thought should be made for 1937. The suggestions growing out of these discussions were summarized by counties and by States and transmitted to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. These suggestions, in turn, served as the basis for the 1937 program after they had been coordinated and gone over with State committeemen and representative farmers consulted during the fall of 1936.

FARMERS AND COLLEGE SPECIALISTS CONSULTED

The work of college research and extension specialists also contributes to the agricultural conservation program. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration, cooperating with other agencies in the Department, has encouraged the consideration of these changes in cropping systems and farming practices needed in the interest of agricultural conservation. The regional adjustment project and the county planning project have been the means of obtaining this consideration.

The Agricultural Adjustment Administration, in cooperation with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, asked the State colleges of the several States to estimate the changes in acreages of the several crops grown in each type-of-farming area needed in the interest of agricultural conservation and good farm management. This Nationwide study, the regional adjustment project, was carried out in the summer and fall of 1934.

THE COUNTY PLANNING PROJECT

In the county planning project, begun in the fall of 1935, committees of representative farmers in over 2,400 counties worked with the State extension services in analyzing the agriculture in their counties and in working out recommendations for changes in the acreages of crops

grown in each county needed in the interest of agricultural conservation. Specifically, these committees were asked: 2

(1) What acreage and production of the various farm products would be expected, assuming normal weather and prospective prices, but with production and marketing control programs discontinued?

(2) What acreage and production of the various farm products would be expected, assuming normal weather, prospective prices, and farming systems so adjusted as to maintain soil fertility and control erosion?

The answers to these questions, and the estimates submitted by State college specialists, have been summarized and are presented in table 2 which also compares indicated or recommended acreages with those reported for 1928-32 and 1936.

TABLE 2.-Summary of changes proposed in regional adjustment and county planning projects as compared with 1928-32 average, 1936, and acreages expected without a program

[All figures in millions]

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1 Harvested acreage basis; seeded acreages would average about 3 to 5 percent above this level. 2 Acreages county planning committees indicated would be expected if no agricultural control or conservation program were in effect.

3 Assuming average yield per cow equal to that in 1923-32. Preliminary, subject to revision.

In answering the question about the acreage of the crops which could be expected if no agricultural program were in effect, county planning committees indicated that increases in the acreage back to or above the level for the period 1928-32 would be expected, assuming that usual farming practices were continued. From the standpoint of soil conservation, however, both the county committees and the State college specialists thought that some very important shifts in the acreages of crops were needed, although they suggested only a slight change in the total acreage of cropland itself.

In general, both groups recommended a significant downward adjustment in the acreage of soil-depleting crops as compared with 1928-32 levels. A downward adjustment of 10 to 15 percent in the acreage of corn, 5 to 10 percent in oats and barley, 5 to 15 percent in wheat, 5 to 20 percent in cotton was recommended, and the county

2 A third question was asked, but for the most part work was concentrated on the first 2 questions, while the third question was deferred until the second year of the project. This question read: "What production of the various farm products should be expected after all land not adapted to agriculture has been shifted to other uses, and after sufficient time has elapsed to permit such changes in farm management practices as are necessary to maintain soil fertility and control erosion, and to permit those shifts between agricultural enterprises which seem clearly desirable and susceptible of practical accomplishment?"

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