areas are impressive. According to the inventory of major uses of land in the United States in 1959 (1), shown in Figure 1, the land in the nation is di vided as follows: crop land?24 per cent; grassland, pasture, and range? 33 percent; forests and woodland?33 percent ; special uses which include ur ban areas, highways, and parks, etc.,? 7 percent; and other land which in cludes deserts, dunes, and swamps?3 percent. If this is broken down fur ther according to acreage shown in Table I, there have been slight de creases in cropland, grassland pasture, and forest land from 1954 to 1959. There have been large increases in ur