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In this article, we examine the maps used by the US government during the New Deal to treat the very serious problems faced by farmers at the time. The technique of local area surveys based on mapping was developed, midway between university and government administration, which is still widely used today. The aim was to come up with an exhaustive map of the United States and introduce the bureaucracy to handle it. Far from being disciplinary instruments to control the population at a distance, the maps were one of the ways the population with its new characteristics arising from the Depression gradually transformed government.