Conservation capital in the United States, 1935–1980

Excerpt

SOUND public conservation policies require reliable information on the economic “condition” of land as the basic component of the nation's agricultural production “plant.” As John Timmons (14) and others observed, four factors converged in the last decade to cause considerable alarm over the condition of land: (1) increased reliance on farm exports for improving the U.S. balance of payments and trade; (2) the reality that cash grains and oilseed are prime exports as well as soil-depleting crops; (3) conversion of so-called fragile land to cash crop production; and (4) a reduced flow of new investment into conservation, which could result in a long-term decline in soil productivity and in the nation's productive capacity to meet domestic needs or export demands.

The first two factors have been discussed extensively (14), and useful statistics supporting the third factor are available (5, 6, 8). My intent here is to concentrate on the fourth factor. Relating conservation effort to farm production potential ultimately comes down to the conservation improvements actually in place on the land. These can be identified and measured as a formof farm business capital, the same as land farm …