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1862-1962   "Ill Fared the Land"

Excerpted from the 1962 USDA Yearbook of Agriculture "After a Hundred Years"

        In 1862 at the beginning of the civil war President Lincoln established the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and signed the Homestead Act which opened the American continent to the pioneers and the land to the plow.

        During those 100 years from 1862 to 1962, 32 million Americans increased to 180 million. In 1862 with about 7 million farmworkers one produced enough food for five others. A century later one produced enough for 26 others. Machines were being made to help the farmer. The prairie soil demanded the steel plow. The mechanical reaper, the grain drill and corn planter and the threshing machine began to revolutionize farming.

        But all was not well during this period as was recorded and written on the land and by the USDA in the following section for us to learn--lest we forget.

"Ill Fared the Land" (pages 152-157)

        A hundred years ago there was an average of about 60 acres of land for every man, woman, and child counted in the 1860 Census. These acres included fertile valleys, virgin forests, rolling prairies, short-grass plains, mountains, and deserts. But the original forests of the East gave way before the ax, fire, and plow. The prairie grasslands withered through overstocking and breaking the sod where rainfall is low. Erosion by water in the East was matched by erosion by wind and water in the West. Floods increased as the land was cleared. That was the only water problem then; scarcity of water became serious first in the low-rainfall areas of the West.

        Our land problems have varied from one region to another, but one pattern has been common: A single-resource approach to development, a single-practice approach to problems, and exploitation of resources for immediate gain. In the Southeast the period of exploitation began more than 100 years ago--in the cotton country when the cotton gin changed the way of life of a people as have few inventions in history. Many farmers began to expand their operations; commercial agriculture based on cotton began. Farmers cleared the slopes farther and farther up the hillsides to plant more cotton. It mattered little to an individual if he got only a few crops before the topsoil was washed away: Two or three crops would pay for the land, and there were always more acres to be brought into production with ax, fire, and plow. Tobacco, not cotton, was the principle cash crop in some sections. The effect on the land was the same. Both crops were planted in rows and were clean tilled to keep down weeds. The upright-growing cotton and tobacco plants gave little protection to the land against runoff water during heavy rains. This attitude toward the land was natural among the pioneers who settled on a new continent with a lot of land. Many of them were not interested in a permanent [Sustainable] agriculture. Adventure, wealth, and freedom were among the settlers' goals. This disregard for natural resources was carried westward by men of later generations.

        The damage increased as steeper land was brought into cultivation. After the crops were harvested, the land was bare and exposed to the elements. On sloping land during a single rain, an inch of topsoil might be washed away into the river below. Stream channels made shallower by accumulating sediment caused the water to spread more readily over the bottom lands during heavy rains. Swamped-out areas developed along the streams. Floodwaters moved out more slowly and prolonged the flood damage. Streams ran red with sediment. Game fish disappeared from many rivers. Sand and other inert materials were deposited on fertile bottom lands. Ponds, created by damming streams, provided the source of power for many of the early cotton mills in the Southern Piedmont. Later hydroelectric reservoirs were built on available damsites along the streams. Most of these reservoirs, small or large, filled with sediment and became useless in time.

        The economic life of the South depended on cotton for more than a century. It was the one crop admirably suited to economic and climatic conditions. There was always a market for it. If the price was down, the crop could be stored without much damage. Bank loans could be obtained on it. Even after the First World War, cotton continued to dominate nearly every act of southern people. Through war and peace, drought and flood, slavery and freedom, panic and prosperity, the production of cotton continued. The price of cotton afected the lives of everybody in the South during these long and often lean years. Fluctuations of a fraction of a cent a pound on the New York market were felt in the lives of the people of every community throughout the King Cotton's empire. Under those conditions, the cotton farmer followed what seemed his only hope. He planted cotton and more cotton. When the price dropped to 5 cents a pound and when the boll weevil threatened destruction, he plowed more land and cultivated steeper slopes.

(Picture caption) The Missouri River in flood in Iowa.

        The cotton farmer was not alone in his predicament. His was not unlike the situation faced by the rancher and the wheatgrower of the West, when the destruction of the lush native grass of the plains spawned the duststorms of the 1930's. Seven hundred million acres of grass west of the Mississippi River were depleted or destroyed within 50 years after pioneers moved into the area late in the 19th century. Oversized herds of cattle, sheep, and horses made waste of Nature's bounty.

        The damage of the Western Plains reached a peak druing the First World War, when opportunists plowed up great tracts of marginal land for a few crops of wheat or cotton. The boom burst when prices went down after the war. The land was abandoned, and no protective cover was planted. The dry years came. From the bare, abandoned land, from abused pastures, and from fields unwisely maintained in cultivation in the High Plains, there arose billowing clouds of dust that hid the midday sun in many parts of the country. The evidence of the destructive processes was everywhere, but for a long time no one seemed to see it. Some accepted erosion as a natural consequence--something men would have to learn to live with.

        In 1900 the total United States population had passed 75 million, but even then there was no shortage of land. There was still an average of 25 acres to supply the food, fiber, and other needs of each person. The per capita acreage of land had shrunk to 15.5 by 1930, a reduction of 40 percent in three decades. By then the evidence of what was happening was clear. The University of Missouri was the first to establish experimental plots to determine the effect of slope, ground cover, soil type, and tillage methods on the rate of runoff and soil removal. The early activities of the Extension Service in soil and water conservation emphasized terracing, and county agents throughout the Southeast labored with improvised equipment to help farmers construct terraces.

        A Federal appropriation was made in 1929 to study the effects of erosion and how to control it. Eight erosion-control experiment stations were set up in representative areas. The Soil Erosion SService was created in 1933 as an emergency agency. Watershed demonstrations on 25 thousand to 100 thousand acres were established by the Service in strategic locations. The Soil Conservation Service was established in 1935 as a permanent agency. The number of watershed demonstrations increased to serve all of the country's major problem areas. Members of the Civilian Conservation Corps were assigned to work on them and elsewhere to demonstrate methods of erosion control and conservation. The outstanding accomplishment was to bring all appropriate sciences to bear upon the problem of proper use of the land. Agricultural engineers, foresters, agronomists, biologists, soil scientists, economists, and others contributed to the program. The viewpoint developed that each acre of land should be properly used and treated by methods that were coordinated with the needs of the land and needs of the owner.

(Picture caption) An abandoned farm in Oklahoma.

        It became apparent by 1937 that conservation must be undertaken not alone by a bureau or department of the Government, but by the people themselves. That year soil conservation districts began to come into existence as result of the passage of permissive legislation in a number of States. New action programs took shape across the Nation. Today (1962) 96 percent of our farms and ranches--more than 1.6 billion acres--are included within the limits of legally constituted, locally governed soil conservation districts. A total of 1,887,091 cooperators operating more than 594 million acres were cooperating with their local districts in 1961. More than 700 million acres of land have been mapped by the Soil Survey. Almost 99 million acres are in conservation cropping systems. Crop residues are being properly used on 68 million acres. Thirty million acres of woodland have protection. More than 4 million acres of wildlife areas have been developed. A million acres of waterways have been grassed. A million ponds have been constructed. More than a million miles of terraces have been built, and 23 million acres of drainage improvements have been carried out. Six million acres of land have been leveled for more efficient use.

        Millions of acres of land have been shifted from cotton, corn, and other row crops in the Southeast to pastures for dairy and beef cattle. The acreage of improved pastures in a number of Southeastern States is greater that that of cotton. One has to know the deep-seated antipathy of cotton farmers toward grass--it was something they fought for generations every summer day--to appreciate the significance of this change. Modern farmers of the South are using more lime and fertilizer on their pastureland that they ever thought of using on cotton and other cash crops in years past. New grasses and combinations of grasses and legumes are making it possible for southeastern farmers to pasture cattle almost all winter.

        Similar changes have occurred elsewhere. In the plains of the West, where wind erosion was a menace a few decades ago, good grazing exists in increasing abundance. Abused lands in the dry plains have been planted as suitable grasses were found and identified, adequate seed sources and harvesting methods were developed, and planters capable of handling mixtures of the light and chaffy seed were designed and built. Ranchers have learned that denuded land can be returned to profitable pasture by planting the right grasses and that depleted range can be returned to vigorous stands of lush grasses with rest and proper stocking. The Nation today (1962) has a clearer picture of its available resources and a more scientific basis on which to make its present and future plans for wise use of resources than ever before. (T. S. Buie)

(Picture captions) An overgrazed range in New Mexico.
Improper logging destroyed vegetation on a hillside in Oregon.

        This article shows how easy it is to neglect and destroy our resources, which is stealing from our children and future generations. The good news is we can also learn to take care of and restore our renewable agricultural resources if we are willing.