Acres Of Cropland Research Articles

REGIONAL AND SEASONAL WATER SUPPLY IN THE TARIM BASIN AND ITS RELATION TO CULTIVATED LAND POTENTIALS

In Communist China's effort to enlarge the support base for her large population, her geologists, geographers, climatologists, agronomists, and engineers have concentrated especially upon irrigation measures. In Sinkiang, as elsewhere in China, much water has gone unused that could have been exploited for irrigation. This article examines the glacial-melt sources for water in the Tarim basin (the most important agricultural region of Sinkiang), the flow data for its fourteen largest streams, and the character of the seasonal flow in various parts of the basin. Since the water must be fresh enough to be usable, the limitations posed by groundwater salinization resulting both from natural processes and from cultivation add to the complexity of the problems. Using the data on river flow, the average requirements of various crops, the reported area already under irrigation, and the considerations of salinization and seepage in reclamation problems, the writer arrives at the conclusion that as of 1963 there remained only sufficient potential water from the fourteen major rivers to irrigate an additional four to five million acres of crop land.

HAIL DAMAGE IN IOWA, 1923–1948

A distinction is made between hail as a meteorological phenomenon and hail as an economic phenomenon. A method of collecting hail damage statistics is described, and the statistics are subjected to adjustment to a common dollar base. Since there are marked differences in the use of land and in the size of counties and crop reporting districts] the data are reduced to show the dollar damage for each 1,000 acres of cropland. The resulting data are comparable] area for area and year for year. Variations in the dollar damage are shown for the different sections of the State and for the years of record. An enveloping curve is developed which shows the maximum damage for each 1,000 acres of cropland for units of area varying in size from a single township to the State as a whole. It is noted that the adjusted dollar data on damage per 1,000 acres do not reflect meteorological factors alone, but include production factors as well. A further adjustment is made, using a crop production index developed by the Iowa Department of Agriculture. The resulting damage data, as influenced by meteorological factors alone, shows less variation between the various sections of the State.

Problems of Response in Enumerative Surveys

D ATA such as age, sex, occupation, acres of cropland, number of cattle, and similar information collected by the Bureau of the Census are sometimes referred to as data. These are frequently contrasted with another class of items known as attitudinal data. It is generally supposed that data can be collected with relatively little difficulty, and that response problems in enumerative surveys are minimal. Aside from the fact that the line between factual and attitudinal data is somewhat nebulous, the studies we have made indicate that response errors in enumerative surveys are not always negligible. There is some indication, for example, of an under-count of population in some enumerative surveys that may amount to as much as two or three per cent. In a factual item such as age it is likely that inaccuracies are minor, but it is common knowledge that too many ages are reported in figures ending in o or 5. The folklore of our culture is rich in jokes about the reluctance of women to tell their age, and the forgetting of a few years is not considered to be particularly bad taste. Actually, many men are also subject to similar memory lapses. Aside from people's reluctance to tell their exact age, other factors affect the data that are collected. There may be confusion as to whether one should give age as of last birthday, or age to the nearest birthday. Also, a moderately large number of persons simply don't know how old they are-there are no birth certificates on file for millions of persons, and some of these persons never knew the exact year in which they were born. The errors which we observe in age statistics do not appear to be uniformly distributed-they seem to cluster around ages

Pasture Types of Western Kansas in Relation to the Intensity of Utilization in Past Years

Introduction Short grass pastures on the high plains of Western Kansas vary in their ability to produce forage for livestock consumption. One of the reasons for this difference is a variation in the degree of utilization in past years. Forage production of short grass ranges has been reduced to about one-half after only a few decades of improper grazing; therefore the problem of proper utilization is becoming more important every year (Forest Service, 1936). When the early settlers came to western Kansas they found an almost complete cover of native vegetation and for a number of years only a small portion of the range was put under cultivation. With the coming of the dry land farmer, however, a large percentage of the native prairie was broken. A recent survey shows that in the Great Plains Region there are about 17 million acres of range land as compared to approximately 11 million acres of crop land (Great Plains Committee, 1936). Many operators have been unable to adjust their livestock programs to the range lands that are diminishing in area and yield. Some have reduced their stocking rate so much that it has resulted in their pastures being undergrazed. Many operators, however, have retained too many animal units on their pastures, thereby producing some badly overgrazed grasslands. The detrimental effects of improper management of the short grass ranges have never been fully understood. Farm operators have observed that some pastures are inferior to others, but they have been unable to correlate these conditions with past treatment. Many have been unable to recognize areas that have been either too lightly or too heavily utilized. This inability is probably due to the enormous changes that take place in the vegetative cover of the pastures during extreme variations in climatic conditions as well as those that result

Employment Prospects in Southern Agriculture

The subject of this discussion is of interest not only to agriculturalists but to industrialists; not only to farmers but to fertilizer salesmen; not only to tractor drivers and mechanics but to school teachers and merchants. It concerns both the man who is now or may shortly be looking for a job and the man who is now or may shortly be looking for a worker. It has significance not alone the South where the prospects may be gloomy or bright but the North, the East, and the West where some of the dregs of the unemployed will certainly settle and toward which some of the dollars of the efficiently occupied will certainly flow. It is clear from this somewhat flowery introduction that the writer has given no narrow interpretation to the subject. As an economist, he believes specialization and a division of labor; as a realist he knows that many a farmer will paint his own barn and repair his own tractor without sacrificing his position as a farmer and that the employment which such jobs provide is just as truly employment in as if it has been spent picking cotton or reaping grain. Too fine a distinction, therefore, will not be drawn between agricultural and nonagricultural jobs on the farm or even between employment in and employment which grows out of agricultural enterprise. As a source of employment, southern agriculture the past has established something of a record comparison with other sections of the country. In 1940, for example, nearly one-half of all agricultural workers the United States lived on southern farms and were trying to make a living on one-third of the nation's agricultural land with one-fourth of the nation's livestock (Fig. 1). For standing room, the average farmworker the north central statesrequired 64acres of crop land and 22 acres of pasture as compared with 24 acres of crop land and 11 acres of pasture for his brother under the southern sun. The land, moreover, was more productive where it was less crowded. If north central agriculture had provided farm jobs the same proportion as southern agriculture, this alone would have been sufficient to have opened up nearly 4.5 million new employment opportunities (?) farming.l This is a larger number than were classified as workers on southern farms 1940. While the states the western part of the United States have effect insisted upon an average investment of approximately $12,000 as prerequisite to the operation of a farm,we the South have been content to do business with something

A Permanent Loss to New England: Soil Erosion Resulting from the Hurricane

4HE tropical hurricane that swept across New England on September 2I, 1938, caused damage and destruction variously estimated at from a quarter to a half billion dollars. Appraisals of the loss have been dramatized largely in terms of human suffering and damage to buildings, telephone and telegraph lines, highways, forests, and crops. Less dramatic, but even more destructive, was the damage done to the land itself. Throughout the storm-swept area thousands of acres of rich farmland was literally ripped apart by the force of the rains and floodwaters. In the states most seriously affected Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and, of the Middle Atlantic States, New Jersey-it is estimated that about five million acres of cropland was exposed to the full force of the storm. Because the rains and floodwaters struck at a time when many fields had been bared by harvest or for the fall seeding, there were few impediments to the wholesale removal of surface soil. All sloping fields suffered severe soil losses except where adequately protected by vegetation (Fig. i). Surveys of damage done to harvested and growing crops have placed the loss of tobacco at about 6,ooo,ooo pounds, or almost 25 per cent of the total production forecast for the area. Some I50,000 bushels of onions were destroyed or seriously damaged. About 4,ooo,ooo bushels of apples, more than half of the estimated New England crop, were blown from the trees, at heavy loss to the owners. About a fourth of the apple trees were damaged to some extent, and io per cent are considered a total loss. Damage to forests was even more severe. According to the latest revised estimates of state and federal forestry officials, from 3 to 4 billion board feet of timber, or about one-eighth of the total annual cut of the whole country, was leveled by the force of the hurricane. In terms of permanent loss to the region, the wholesale removal of productive soil may equal the total of all other costs imposed by the storm. Buildings, telephone and telegraph lines, highways, bridges, and even the forests can be restored or the damage minimized by salvage. But the thousands of tons of productive topsoil, sluiced into the streams and rivers, are gone forever. This cream of fertile farmlands not only was removed from upland fields but was deposited on lower cultivated lands and in and along drainageways (Fig. 2). The future well-being of numerous farms and orchards (Fig. 3) throughout the seriously affected areas has been permanently impaired. I96