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, ", Statistical Bulletin No. 855 A.B. YearNumber of FarmsLand in Farms

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 ", Stock No A.B.C.D.E. YearTotalCropTotalForestWoodland OnlyForestOnlyas Pasture IncludingNo PastureGrazing 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)