The Standard View of Farm Life in Alabama is That A Lot of Farmland Vanished.

In fact, the situation is more complicated. Farmland was transformed. To see how, we

have to look at some numbers.

Table 1. Land In Farms (in acres, all numbers x 1000)USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS), "Farm Real Estate Historical Series Data, 1950-1992", Statistical

Bulletin No. 855

 

A. B.

Year Number of Farms Land in Farms

 

1950 220 21300

1954 168 21200

1959 129 17600

1964 102 16200

1969 85 15000

1974 78 14600

1978 59 12500

1982 55 11800

1987 49 10700

1992 46 9800

 

What Happened to the Apparently Missing Farmland?

Most of it wasn’t actually pure farmland to begin with, so it didn’t actually disappear

Most of it was actually mixed light pasture land with moderate hardwood tree cover. This mixed pasture land was converted to

other uses, mostly forestland.

Table 2. Land Use (in acres, all numbers x 1000)USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS), “Major Land Uses 1945-1992", Stock No. 89003

 A. B. C. D. E.

Year Total Crop Total Forest WoodlandOnly Forest Only as Pasture

Including No

Pasture Grazing 1945 32690 8266 18748 4889 138591949 32690 8271 18817 8305 105121954 32690 7481 20766 10785 99811959 32678 6028 20771 16000 47711964 32545 5211 21749 17241 45081969 32452 5885 21748 19437 23111974 32452 5797 21333 19444 18891978 32452 5888 21333 19452 18811982 32491 5642 21179 19479 17001987 32491 4803 21659 19965 16941992 32480 4539 21941 20337 1604

C (Total Forest) = D (Pure Forest) + E (Woodland as Pasture)

Confusion Occurs Because:

-Sometimes “forestland” (D) is counted as including only “pure” forestland but not including any mixed tree-covered pasture land (E). This forestland (D) increased rapidly in extent.

-Sometimes “forestland” (C) is counted as including both “pure” forestland (D) plus tree-covered pasture land (E). This Total Forestland (C) stayed fairly steady in extent.

These Major Changes Occurred:

-The old mixed pasture land (E) was largely converted to forestland composed mostly of fast-growing evergreens

-”Pure” cropland (B) diminished, but only by about half

-Total farmland (see Table 1), including “pure” cropland (B) and mixed pastureland (E) , decreased considerably, primarily by conversion of old the mixed pasture land to forestland

Differing Points of View

-To someone who sees only total farmland (from Table 1), it appears as if farming has collapsed

-To someone who sees only pure cropland (B), farming declined steadily then bottomed out

-To someone who sees only total forestland (C: including old tree-covered pasture land), forest cover has remained steady

-To someone who sees only pure forestland (D), fast-growing evergreens replaced nearly all the old mixed pasture that was covered by hardwoods (E)