Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1922-08-04
PLANS STUDY OF
LAND PROBLEMS
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace
Names Five Scientists to
Make Investigation.
TO BE MOST CAREFUL SURVEY
Consideration VIII Be Devoted to
Country's Present Crop Produc-
ton, Home Consumption and
Foreign Demand for Products.

prepared by the United States Department
of Agricultural
Washington. = Secretary Wallace
has appointed a committee of five
scientists of the Department Of Agri-
culture to consider the entire problem
Of land utilization, especially with re-
spect to the country's future require
ments.
In appointing the committee Secre-
tary Wallace suggested that as the
basis of the work to be undertaken
careful consideration should be de-
voted to the country's crop produc-
ton, home consumption and foreign
demand, relating the land now under
cultivation to present and near future
demands. 1t seems to the secretary
that this study should be followed by
more careful survey and classical
ton than has yet been made of lands
which can be brought under cultiva-
ton in the future, and the conditions
necessary to make it profitable under
the pillow.
Survey Arid, Swamp and Cut-Over
Lands.
The suggested survey would include
the arid lands of the West suitable for
irrigation, swamp lands which can be
reclaimed by drainage and the cut
over timber lands of the various Sec
TONS In studying the cut-Over lands
consideration will be given to their
fnY 0I11t We
for reforestation.
The personnel of the committee Of
five is as follows:
DR.. l.. G. Gray, agricultural econo-
mist, office of farm management and
farm economics, chairman.
G. V. Piper, agrostologist in charge
forage crop Investigations, bureau of
plant industry.
DIR. G. M. Rommell, chief animal
husbandry division, bureau of animal
industry.
C. f. Marbut, scientist in charge,
soil survey investigations, bureau of
soils.
E. E. Carter, assistant forester, for
est service.
At the present time little less than
half the total national area is in
farms, and only about one-quarter of
the total area is improved land. Many
persons. deceived by these facts, as
sumo that there is an unlimited re-
serve supply Of farm land. Such is
not the case, however; by far the
greater part of the 1,00O,000,00O acres
not yet in farms probably can never
be used for the growing of crops, and
that part of the reserve land which
may be regarded as potential farm
land can be brought into use only at
heavy expense for clearing, drainage,
irrigation or fertilization.
Per Capita Acreage Decreasing.
Population increases land area does
not. The acreage of improved farm
land per capita, for instance, has de-
clined at an ever-increasing rate since
1890. By 1850 the total population, at
a normal rate of growth, probably
will be about 100000. This would
require an addition of 243,OOO,0OO
acres of improved land if the pres
ent per capita acreage Of improved
land is to be maintained.
This situation presents the national
problem of how best to use drainable,
irrigable, cut-over and lands of in
ferior quality that heretofore have
been rejected as Observation-Disclosures
they should be brought under the pillow
or reserved temporarily or permanent
ly for. forests or grazing.
The rate of expansion Of our ma
tional area also is an important factor
for consideration. Despite the i'm.
pending demand for a large expansion
of the land basis Of American agricul-
| ture, there are many reasons why we
should consider most carefully before
encouraging any considerable expan-
sion of land under cultivation during,
say, the next three years. The shrink
| age in the volume of farm exports, the
many indications Of a probable in
crease of agricultural imports into this
country, and the present depression In
developed agricultural areas raise
serious question as to the wisdom of
an immediate policy of stimulating the