relatively dry. These factors favor the use of large-scale machinery, which means low costs of production. These same level, dry lands, however, are subject to wind erosion and on them the two chief conservation problems are to control wind erosion and to maintain sufficient organic material in the soil.

Improvement in machinery, especially the development of the combine and tractor, a relatively good market demand, and several years of above-normal rainfall in the decade ending about 1930, resulted in a rather rapid westward expansion of wheat-growing in the Great Plains, and a considerable acreage of marginal and submarginal land was brought into cultivation. There is also a considerable average of low-yielding wheat land in the Pacific Northwest. Consequently, farmers in the wheat regions face not only the problem of soil conservation but also the need for making considerable shifts in the use of some of the drier lands and for reorganizing their farming units into more efficient sizes on such land.

There are three distinct subregions in the hard winter-wheat region in the Southwest. That in southeastern Colorado and southwestern Kansas, in the Panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, and in northeastern New Mexico, is a combination wheat and grazing region. Cultivated land in this subregion, commonly known as the Dust Bowl, is especially liable to wind erosion. Wheat is the chief crop, but cattle grazing is also important and a considerable acreage of grain sorghum is grown for feed. Farming is done on a large scale with modern mechanical equipment. But rainfall is low and uncertain and the acreage of cultivated land has been overextended, so that residents have been especially hard hit by several years of consecutive drought.

In this area conserving soil and preventing erosion on land which should remain in cultivation, are important. Considerable acreages. should be permanently shifted from arable farming into permanent grass and many farm units need to be enlarged in order to be operated economically.

The second general subregion in the hard winter-wheat region lies in the center of the region itself. It has heavier soils and a somewhat higher rainfall than the region just discussed. Considerable corn is grown in the northern portion and grain sorghums are especially important in the southwestern section. Although conservation is a continual problem in this subregion, the land is not subject to wind erosion in the same degree as is the western subregion, and most of the land apparently can be retained in cultivation.

The third subregion occupies the eastern end of the general region and is characterized by a humid type of climate, smaller farms, and diversified farming. Wheat is the principal cash crop, but is supplemented by feed grains and livestock. The problems in this area are similar to those of other areas in the humid Midwest.

The hard spring-wheat region similarly may be divided into three subregions the wheat and range-livestock territory centering in western North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana; the specialized wheat and small-grain subregion which occupies northern North Dakota and extends south into north-central South Dakota; and the wheat and general-farming territory centering in southeastern North Dakota and the adjacent territory in South Dakota and western Minnesota.

There is considerable difference in the intensiveness of farming as among the three subregions. About one-fourth the farm land in the first subregion is normally in harvested crops, while over half of the land in the second subregion, and almost two-thirds of the land in the third subregion is normally harvested. Small grains are grown on about two-thirds of the harvested cropland in the first two subregions and about one-third in the third subregion. Wheat yields tend to increase from the west to the east as rainfall increases from the semiarid level in central Montana to the subhumid level in the Red River Valley of South Dakota and Minnesota.

Oats is the most important feed crop and flax is, next to wheat, the most important cash crop throughout the region. The conservation problem in the western subregion especially is complicated by the fact that cultivated acreages have been overexpanded. Shifts in the major land use and changes in the size of farm are needed, as well as strict attention to conservation.

The soft wheat region centering in the Columbia Basin of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho is one of the oldest and best-known dryland farming regions in the United States. This region is divided into an eastern portion known as the Palouse, which has both a higher rainfall and a more uneven topography than the western portion known as the Big Bend. Approximately one-fifth of the land in farms is cultivated in the Big Bend area and approximately onethird in the Palouse, with small grains accounting for approximately 80 percent of the harvested cropland in both. The prevailing prac tice is to alternate wheat with summer fallow, although rainfall is high enough in the Palouse to allow some variation. Wind erosion is relatively severe in the Big Bend portion of the region, and a considerable amount of sheet erosion with occasional gullying is found in the Palouse section.

Since 1930, and especially since 1933, droughts have been common over the Great Plains and wheat production in the United States in the 4 years, 1933 through 1936, ranged between 500,000,000 and 625,000,000 bushels as compared with a 5-year average production of 860,000,000 bushels for the period 1928-32. These four consecutive short crops increased 1936 wheat prices and encouraged farmers to seed exceptionally large acreages of wheat for harvest in 1936 and 1937. As a result, the acreage of wheat seeded for harvest in 1937 apparently will be the highest on record. This adds to the complicated problem in the wheat regions where strict attention to conservation and a considerable degree of economic reorganization is needed.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF COUNTY PLANNING COMMITTEES

The county planning committees recommended a 6-percent or 4,000,000-acre reduction in wheat in the interest of soil conservation. In the hard-winter-wheat region the recommendation was for a 9-percent reduction, while a 12-percent reduction was proposed for the hard spring wheat region, and a 26-percent reduction for the Pacific Northwest. The price, supply, and prospective demand situation, no doubt, influenced to a certain extent the recommendations made in the various subregions. For the soft-winter-wheat areas in the Midwest and East the county committees recommended a 15-percent increase, mainly to fit their proposed rotations, while

in the South a 10-percent increase over the 1929 acreage was proposed in order to more nearly meet local needs.

VII. THE DAIRY REGIONS

Although some dairying is carried on in every section of the United States, commercial dairying is concentrated principally in the Lake States and the Northeast.

Production of milk for consumption as fluid milk is especially important in Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. In this region the steady increase in the urban population around Philadelphia, New York, and Boston has created an effective demand for a steadily increasing volume of fluid milk and sweet cream. On the other hand, the limited production of feed in the region has restricted the increase in the number of cows kept for milk and has tended to stabilize production, so that the steady increase in the demand for fluid milk and sweet cream has resulted in a steady decrease in the production of butterfat for butter and of condensed and evaporated milk.

In this region the typical farming system centers around the dairy enterprise and pasturing is especially important. Cash-crop production is only locally important and erosion is not so serious as in the other regions, since 55 to 90 percent of the cultivated cropland is already in hay and pasture. For this reason no marked downward adjustment in the acreage of soil-depleting crops seems to be needed. Cropping systems and practices which will control erosion where it is locally serious, and pasture improvement to keep costs of production at a reasonably low level, are desirable in this region.

Butterfat production is centered in the Lake States dairy region and the western Corn Belt. Cheese production is especially important in Wisconsin. While dairy cow numbers have been constant or only slowly increasing in the East, the number of cows kept for milk in the Lake States and the Midwest has trended steadily upward from 1920 to the present, although numbers showed some decrease from 1925 into 1927 and from 1934 into 1937. Although dairying is the dominant enterprise in the Lake States region, general farming often is followed. Where butterfat is sold the skimmed milk, supplemented with a small amount of concentrated feed, can be used for hog production, veal calves can be raised, and some potatoes and other crops can be grown along with feed crops since cheap feed often can be purchased from the nearby Corn Belt. As in the Northeast, erosion is only locally serious; and since 40 to 55 percent of the cultivated cropland is already in hay and pasture, attention should be directed chiefly toward soil-conserving practices and pasture improvement.

VIII. THE TOBACCO REGIONS

Tobacco is as exacting as cotton from the standpoint of climate and is much more exacting with respect to soil. Tobacco is divided into a number of types and market classes-Burley, flue-cured, dark aircured, fire-cured, southern Maryland, and the several cigar typeseach of which is best grown on a different soil, and each of which has different uses and different market demand.

Burley tobacco usually accounts for about 25 percent of the total tobacco production of the United States. Burley production is con

centrated in north-central Kentucky, although considerable quantities are also grown in other sections of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and southern Ohio. Approximately 95 percent of the Burley crop is consumed domestically and consumption is trending upward. The increased use of Burley as cigarette tobacco, however, has been offset in part in the last decade by the decrease in its use as chewing tobacco, while the demand for Burley as a pipe tobacco has remained about unchanged.

Several of the dark air-cured and fire-cured types are grown in the same region as Burley or along the western edge of Burley areas in west-central and southwestern Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee. These types are also grown in central Virginia. Fire-cured tobacco now represents around 10 to 12 percent of the total tobacco production in the United States, and about 75 percent of this production is exported. This type is used chiefly for snuff and chewing tobaccos, and demand has been trending downward, with current exports only about 50 percent of the previous level. Production of dark air-cured tobacco accounts for only about 5 percent of the total tobacco crop and about 75 percent of this production is consumed domestically. Like the fire-cured types, dark air-cured tobacco is used for chewing tobacco and demand has been trending downward. A large portion. of the crop was formerly exported, but the export demand has been declining steadily.

Flue-cured tobacco is grown in the Atlantic coast and Piedmont areas in southern Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and northern Florida and accounts for about 50 percent of the total tobacco production in the United States. Flue-cured tobacco is chiefly a cigarette tobacco and approximately 60 percent of the crop is normally exported. Consumption is trending upward both in this country and abroad. The areas of heaviest production are in northern and eastcentral North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina.

Southern Maryland tobacco accounts for less than 2 percent of the total tobacco production in the United States, and is all produced in a small area ĺying just west of the Chesapeake Bay. In the past most of the southern Maryland crop was exported, but in recent years foreign demand has been declining and domestic consumption has exceeded exports.

The cigar types account for about 12 percent of the total tobacco production in the United States and practically the entire crop is consumed domestically. In addition, considerable quantities of cigar tobacco are imported. The cigar types are grown in the Connecticut Valley in Connecticut and Massachusetts, in small scattered areas in New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio. Demand for most of the cigar types has been either declining or holding about constant.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TOBACCO AREAS

In general, tobacco is grown in areas which have been farmed over a long period and where the topography and soil type combine to present a serious soil-erosion problem.

In the Kentucky-Tennessee area, especially, severe sheet erosion, with a considerable amount of gullying, is common, while much the same condition is found throughout the Virginia and central North Carolina subregion. The erosion problem is not so serious in the

flue-cured areas in eastern North Carolina and South Carolina, however, since they are on light, sandy soils and are relatively level.

Tobacco is a specialized cash crop, which returns a high value per acre. In 1936 a special base, together with a special rate of payment, was established for each of the several types of tobacco. In establishing these bases and in setting up diversion limits, attention was also given to the supply situation, since almost the entire crop of tobacco is eventually used for human consumption, and since it is usually aged 1 to 2 years before being used.

ECONOMIC PROBLEM IS TO STABILIZE SUPPLY

The economic problem involved has to do with maintaining a stable supply of tobacco for storage in order to maintain a stable supply for consumption. The excess stocks which were depressing the market in 1933 have almost disappeared, and from the economic standpoint the most desirable acreage is that which will provide for domestic consumption and prospective exports.

This acreage is considerably lower than that which prevailed before the initiation of the agricultural adjustment programs and lower than the bases established under the 1936 agricultural conservation program.

Diversion of acreage from tobacco, therefore, is to the interest of both agricultural conservation and agricultural adjustment. In addition, farmers in tobacco areas are inclined to depend too much upon tobacco as a single crop for their income, and would benefit from increased acreages of food and feed crops for home use. Both the adjustment and conservation programs for tobacco regions have encouraged farmers to grow the food and feed crops needed to supply farm-family consumption.

IX. RANGE LIVESTOCK REGION PROBLEM

The range livestock region is located in the arid and semiarid West. This region extends from the Flint Hills in Kansas to the Pacific coast, and from the mesquite grass and coastal ranges in southern Texas to the plains in northern Montana. It is a great breeding ground for cattle and sheep. In 1930 about 37 percent of the cows kept for beef production and 44 percent of the sheep and lambs in the United States were in this region.

Grazing is the only profitable agricultural use to which the greater portion of this region can be put, and even grazing must be done on an extensive scale, since the carrying capacity of the greater portion of the range land is only a small fraction of the carrying capacities of the pasture land in the Corn Belt or general farming region. The average carrying capacity per square mile is lowest in the Great Basin area in Utah and Nevada, and highest in the Edwards Plateau in southwestern Texas, the Sandhills in Nebraska, and the Flint Hills in Kansas, the three easternmost areas of the range region.

Grazing lands in the range region can be divided roughly into several types, according to the season during which they are grazed. Summer ranges are in the higher altitudes throughout the Rocky Mountain portion of the region. Ranchers who use these ranges during the summer use foothill or lower altitude ranges for spring and