Land Inventory and Land Requirements in the United States

Excerpt: This paper is intended to describe briefly the use of land for agriculture and the possible effect of the growth of our population on land requirements. It includes an explanation of any special relationships and how they came about. To explain these relationships, a brief account must be made of significant changes in land use that are in progress or in prospect, and of some of the factors that affect them. This is an assignment of large proportion, for changes in land use and population growth are so interrelated that it is difficult to describe and evaluate them properly. However, I have brought together some significant facts and projections that indicate possible trends in land requirements under certain assumptions as to productivity, employment, income, consumption and population during the next 20 to 25 years. These facts are taken from recent studies of land use, long-term prospects for agriculture, and land-capability surveys made in the Department of Agriculture, and from population studies of the Bureau of the Census.