Cropland used for crops
Year	Harvested	Failed	Cultivated summer fallow	Idle cropland	Cropland pasture	Total programs	Cropland idled by federal programs
	million acres
1945	336	9	18	40	47	454	4.1
1949	352	9	26	22	67	478	0.0
1954	339	13	28	19	66	465	0.0
1959	317	10	31	33	66	457	22.5
1964	292	6	37	52	57	444	55.0
1969	286	6	41	51	88	472	57.5
1974	322	8	31	21	83	465	2.7
1978	330	7	32	26	76	471	18.3
1982	347	5	31	21	65	469	11.1
1987	282	4	35	57	65	443	76.2
1992	296	6	27	40	67	435	54.9
1997	309	4	21	33	65	431	33.0

Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistical Service, 1997 Census of Agriculture, Vol. I: Part 51, Chapter 1. United States Summary National-Level Data, National, State and County Tables (Internet accessible data tables as of February 22, 1999).

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Census of Agriculture for 1992, Vol. I: Geographic Area Series, Part 51 United States Summary and State Data, Table 7, p. 17, AC92-A-51 (GPO, Washington, DC, 1994), and earlier census reports.

Notes: Excludes Alaska and Hawaii. Fewer than 200,000 acres were used for crops in Alaska and Hawaii in 1997. A double-cropped acre is counted as one acre. Idle cropland also includes cropland voluntarily planted in cover crops, legumes, and soil-improvement grasses, but not harvested, not pastured, and not enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Cropland is also idled under various federal farm programs, including in previous years the Agricultural Conservation Program (1936-1947), Soil Bank (1956-1970), Cropland Adjustment Program (1961-1977), Agricultural Reduction Program (1961-1995), and CRP (1986-1997). CRP data for 1997 also includes cropland idled by the Wetlands Reserve Program, but does not include 16.1 million acres of newly enrolled CRP land.

Last Updated on Tuesday, February 6, 2001