Too many Iteration markers without stories

Iteration markers should not show up when there are no stories to fill them. The result of this problem is that when my calculated velocity is very low (such as 1), and I have a story rated at 8 points, I end up having 8 week markers with no stories, taking up 3 inches of valuable space in my Backlog, and I can only see 2 or 3 of my 20+ stories in the Backlog at a time. I end up having to adjust the Velocity just to be able to see more stories.