fall grazing and usually bring their sheep or cattle into valleys and maintain them on hay during the winter, or shift them to the low altitude desert ranges reserved for winter feed. In western Texas and over the greater part of New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California the winters are sufficiently warm so that almost all of the range can be used at any time during the year and cattle and sheep are grazed on the range the year round with only a small amount of supplemental

feed.

Small farming areas are found throughout the region. As a rule these areas are located in irrigated valleys which produce considerable quantities of hay and some specialized cash crops, including truck, cotton, sugar beets, and fruit. Dry-land wheat farming is also interspersed with ranching along the eastern or Great Plains edge of the region. Because of low and uncertain rainfall, together with the unfavorable prices in recent years, many of these dry-farming areas have considerable acreages of abandoned or submarginal land which are gradually going back, or which should be reconverted, to grazing land.

LAND ESPECIALLY SUBJECT TO EROSION

The greater portion of this region is arid or semiarid, and rainfall comes in the form of hard, driving showers or rains, so the land is especially subject to erosion whenever and wherever the natural vegetative cover is unduly depleted. Almost all of the interested ranchers as well as scientists in the several Government agencies working in this region agree that much of the range is overgrazed and that conservation measures are needed. Man-induced erosion (as well as natural geologic erosion) is found over almost all of the region except in a few of the worst desert areas, some of the mountain ranges in national forest reservations, and a few private ranges which have been held for winter range or which have been carefully grazed over a considerable period.

The Forest Service has recently estimated that the forage resources of the ranges in this region have been depleted by about 50 percent since grazing was originally introduced, and that the region as a whole. is still overstocked despite the fact that both sheep and cattle numbers were considerably reduced as a result of the liquidation during the drought of 1934. Continued bad management and overstocking result in gradual disappearance of the better forage plants and the replacement of these more palatable and nutritious plants by such. unpalatable species as annual grasses and weeds, sand sagebrush, greasewood, shadscale, rabbitbrush, or such worthless plants as thistles and the poisonous Klamath weed. Even where such plants do not come in, the density of the better forage plants is severely reduced and carrying capacities correspondingly cut.

OVERGRAZING ENCOURAGED BY FREE-RANGE SYSTEM

Several factors are responsible for this situation. When first occupied, almost all western ranges were free ranges with the forage going to the men who first stocked the areas, or after they were stocked, who first put their sheep and cattle onto the grass when it started in the spring. As a result, too early grazing, concentration around watering places, and general overstocking soon developed. And these early conditions were not materially improved over the greater portion

of the range area by the mixed pattern of land ownership 3 which gradually developed. Wide fluctuations in precipitation and vegetative growth and in the prices of cattle and sheep have encouraged increases in livestock numbers during periods of good weather or high prices, and have resulted in overstocking, low prices, and liquidation whenever a drought period occurred.

Ranchers and others interested in the western range areas are aware, however, of the need for better grazing methods in the interest of range conservation. Grazing on the range areas in the national forest reservations has been regulated for a considerable period, and these ranges are in much better shape than are most of the others in the range region. Under the Taylor Grazing Act passed in 1933, the greater portion of the public domain has been organized into grazing districts and development of a more reasonable pattern of range use on the Federal lands covered by this act, has been commenced.

The county planning committees in the Western Region recommended a decrease in wheat acreage of 14 percent from the level shown by the 1930 census report. This decrease was offset in part by recommended increases in intertilled crops to supplement the feed supply, so that the net recommendation for soil-depleting crops was a decrease of 6 percent below the acreage prevailing in 1929. The committees recommended that acreage of soil-conserving crops, chiefly alfalfa and other tame hay, be increased 31 percent. Such a recommendation would not only be in line with a soil-conservation program, but also would help to meet more adequately the need for reserve winter feed supplies.

X. SPECIAL CROP REGIONS

The special crop regions include a group of mixed-farming areas in which dairy, truck, poultry, fruit, sugar beets, sugarcane, rice, field-beans, and potatoes are produced. These areas are located in or near centers of population or in sections where the soil and climate are especially favorable to specialized production.

In almost all the areas under this classification, except the Willamette Valley in Oregon, a very intensive type of cash crop farming is followed. For the most part, the soils are relatively productive with respect to the particular crops grown. Erosion conditions differ among areas and markedly among farms in the same area, depending upon the cropping practices followed. Intensive cropping tends to promote erosion over a considerable portion of these areas. It also causes especially severe depletion of soil fertility, since attention is centered upon high yields and a relatively large per acre volume of production. XI. SELF-SUFFICING, FLATWOODS, AND CUT-OVER REGIONS

"Self-sufficing farming", as defined by the census of 1930, involves areas where at least 50 percent of the farm products are used on the farm which produces them. This type of farming is concentrated in the Southern Appalachians and in the Ozark-Ouachita regions, but is also found to some extent in every section of the United States. It is especially characteristic of the cut-over regions in the Lake States, the

3 At present slightly over one-half of the western range land is privately owned in one form or another. About 40 percent is federally owned or controlled, divided among national forests, grazing districts, and other withdrawals of public land and Indian land, and about 10 percent is State or county land.

mountainous regions in north-central Pennsylvania, and the sandy flatwoods areas bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Coast.

Self-sufficing farming often is associated with the submarginal land problem. Below are discussed some characteristics of the areas where permanent retirement of a substantial part of the arable farm land, or consolidation of small farms, is recommended.

In general, there are three classes of areas which should be considered:

(1) Areas where the land is so poor, so badly eroded, or so depleted that it offers only a bare existence to those who cultivate it and where its permanent retirement from cultivation should be encouraged. Such areas usually are located in mountain regions or in cut-over forest regions where relatively small acreages of land on sloping hillsides or along narrow valleys are cultivated, and where a minimum number of livestock are kept. Such areas should be gradually returned to forest or set aside for recreational uses if they are near large centers of population.

(2) Areas where the land is good enough to return a worth-while yield in years of plentiful rainfall, but where the rainfall is so variable and drought so frequent that field-crop production over any considerable period is very uncertain. Such areas are, for the most part, located along the western edge of the wheat regions and should be allowed to revert to grazing land.

(3) Areas where the soil is sufficiently good to maintain reasonable standards of living if existing small holdings are consolidated and soil erosion is halted. Such areas are found intermixed with the submarginal areas just described, around the edge of the corn- and wheat-producing regions of the Midwest and throughout the range regions of the West, and in the Cotton Belt.

The so-called submarginal land problem is essentially a human as well as a land problem, while good land and submarginal land are often so intermixed that the acreage which should be retired from cultivation in any given area may range from a very small fraction to almost all of the farm land.

The Agricultural Adjustment Administration program aims at helping farmers to conserve their soil and control erosion in such areas, and does not cover the problem of consolidating farms or shifting large blocks of land from farming to grazing.

The conservation program should be coordinated to the greatest possible extent with other programs, so that living standards may be raised and the most desirable uses of land promoted.

The Southern Appalachian and Ozark-Ouachita regions, where selfsufficing farming is concentrated, account for 4 percent of the total farm population in the United States, but in 1929 this 4 percent occupied and worked only 1 percent of the harvested crop land and 1 percent of the livestock and produced only 1 percent of the total value of all agricultural production in that year, with cash sales per capita averaging $64, or only 20 percent of the average for the Nation. General farming is practiced in this region. Much of the arable farm. land should be withdrawn from cultivation and converted to forest; farms should be consolidated in some of the areas where the slopes are not so steep as to prevent erosion control and where pasture acreage can be increased; and erosion control should be encouraged in the areas where the farm land is good enough to be retained in cultivation under the present farm-unit organization.

A general mixture of potato, peanut, vegetable, and small fruit farming, together with some cotton and tobacco culture and the production of naval stores and other forest products, is found in the flatwoods area adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Coast. In

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general, erosion is not a problem in these areas, but considerable amounts of fertilizer are needed if crops are to be grown successfully. The chief problem is to work out a type of farm-unit organization which will maintain a reasonable standard of living for farmers, and to build up pastures so livestock can be kept. The problems in north-central Pennsylvania are about the same as those in the Southern Appalachian region, while the chief problem in the cut-over region in the Lake States is to restrict farming to soils which will return reasonable yields and to build up farm organizations which will provide a reasonable living standard.

XII. PROVISIONS OF THE 1936 AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION PROGRAM FOR MEETING REGIONAL PROBLEMS

The 1936 agricultural conservation program was drafted to maintain adequate supplies of food and feed for domestic consumers needs and for remunerative foreign outlets, without taxing too severely the soil fertility in farm land. It was an attempt to strike a balance among farm income, consumer requirements and soil requirements. Major emphasis was laid on soil needs, and payments were made to enable farmers to apply on their farm a Nation-wide policy designed to conserve soil in the interests of producers and consumers.

The goal originally set for the 1936 program included an increase of cropland devoted to soil-improving and soil-conserving crops which would bring this total to 130 million acres, as compared with the 1930 figure of 100 million acres. It also aimed at a more extensive use of practices which would check erosion and increase fertility. Congress provided approximately $470,000,000 for carrying out the program.

In broad outline, the 1936 program provided for: (1) Establishing base acreages for each farm; (2) defining the performance on which payments were based; (3) division of payments; (4) defining soildepleting and soil-conserving crops; (5) local administration through employees selected by State, county, and community committees; and (6) the establishment, for administrative purposes, of five regional divisions corresponding with the five major agricultural areas that make up the United States.

On March 20, 1936, the Secretary of Agriculture signed, for each of the five regional divisions, "Bulletin No. 1, 1936 Soil-Conservation Program." These bulletins were the official announcement of the provisions of the 1936 program as worked out for the different regions. Provisions contained in these bulletins were, thereafter, considerably modified as experience in their application indicated was necessary, and as the 1936 drought developed. Supplements and revisions were published as it became necessary to adapt the program to the requirements of different regions and to the drought situation.

Adjustment of the program to meet the drought emergency took the form of increasing the base of awards to farmers for planting and use of emergency pasture and forage crops, and for planting fall cover crops to protect the land and add to the supply of pasture and roughage available for fall and winter of 1936 and early spring of 1937.

In the Corn Belt the provisions were revised to authorize payments to farmers who failed, because of the drought, to obtain a good stand of soil-conserving crops planted under the program and with the expectation of earning awards. It was also arranged to leave

unchanged the classification of land originally designated as soilconserving, when an emergency forage crop for harvest was planted on such land after July 10. Late summer and early fall seedings of legumes and grasses were encouraged by authorizing payments for land on which grain or annual legume hay had been harvested, if a good stand of soil-conserving crop was obtained later in the season, on the same land.

In the southern and east central regions county committees were authorized to disregard the planting of an acreage of small grains, annual grasses, or sorghums for grain or hay in order to replace a shortage of feed crops caused by the drought.

The following summary gives the provisions of the 1936 soil-conservation program, largely as they were originally announced in Bulletin No. 1 for each region on March 20, but with the principal modifications made as experience indicated was necessary.

ESTABLISHMENT OF ACREAGE BASES

A farm's base acreage for any crop or crops was established under the 1936 program as the amount of land ordinarily planted on the farm to that crop or crops. Soil-depleting bases were established on each participating farm in order to provide a definite standard whereby to measure the extent of soil conservation and soil improvement on individual farms in 1936 and to determine the amount to be paid to the individual farmer who cooperates. The base was arrived at through information given by the farmer to his county committee, who recommended bases for each farm, to be approved by the Secretary of Agriculture.

The soil-depleting base was defined as the total acreage in soildepleting crops on that farm in 1935, modified to take care of unusual situations. These modifications included allowances for (1) acreage planted to soil-conserving and soil-building crops in 1935 because of the agricultural adjustment programs, and (2) for unusual variations in plantings in 1935 because of drought, flood, or other abnormal conditions. Adjustments in bases also were made in instances where a farm's soil-depleting or soil-conserving acreage was materially out of line with that of similar farms in the same locality.

To provide county committees with a guide showing the proportion of farm land formerly devoted to soil-depleting and soil-improving crops in the county, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration established the ratio of soil-depleting acreage to all farm land or all cropland in each country. As As a rule, the average of all individual bases established in the county could not exceed this ratio.

Special soil-depleting bases were established for cotton, tobacco, peanuts, sugar, rice, and flaxseed. The bases for individual farms for cotton, tobacco, and peanuts followed in the main the bases previously established under the production-adjustment programs. The county committees could recommend modifications that would take into account available facilities, and their past use producing cotton, tobacco, and peanuts. The total of individual bases for cotton for any county was not permitted to exceed the base acreage established for cotton for that county under the production-adjustment programs. The same rule applied to tobacco and peanuts. The bases for flax and sugar-crop acreages were the 1936 acreages of these crops not in