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Show Moss Tells Freeman He is 'Surprised' At Sugar Statement Senator Frank E. Moss CD-Utah) CD-Utah) has told Secretary of Agriculture Agri-culture Orville Freeman that he . is "surprised and not a little shocked" at a Freeman letter which implies that Utah sugar producers are dubious about increasing in-creasing the state's beet-sugar acreage. And Moss warned Freeman that any proposed sugar legislation legis-lation would be "heading for serious seri-ous trouble in the Congress" unless un-less it contained beet sugar quota increases" to allow for reasonable reason-able growth, and the entry of some new growers." The exchange resulted from a letter which Senator Moss wrote Secretary Freeman in January urging that administration sugar legislation be speeded up to Congress Con-gress and that it support an increase in-crease in domestic beet sugar acreage. In reply, Freeman wrote: "I am sure you are aware how exceedingly complex the issues are in our sugar program. De- . f A . A 1 1 . spue me ciamor ior increasing the beet sugar share in total sugar marketings, many long-term long-term beet producers are appropriately approp-riately dubious about' the effect of a major increase on their returns. re-turns. Recent acreage history indicates in-dicates some rather substantial areas of the established industry to be in that position. In Utah, for example, the harvested acreage acre-age in 1961 was the second lowest low-est for any year since the war while the industry as a whole was establishing a new all-time record high." In his reply, Senator Moss emphasized the drought which afflicted Utah and other Western states last year, and said: "Apparently you have been misled by bare statistics, and in forming an opinion without full reference to all the facts behind the statistics you have reached ' thp erroneous conclusion that ly planted, compared with almost al-most full planting (2,907 acres) of contracted acreage in 1960 Acres finally harvested in this district totalled only 1,905 ir 1961, compared with 2,716 har vested acres in 1960 due, again, to still further reduction of the water supply. Thus last year, because be-cause of the severe water short age, there was a loss of 1,157 acres between contracting in this harvest and one factory district a loss of 37 per cent." In Cache Valley, Moss said that some 5,000 acres were contracted and less than 4,000 were harvested har-vested more than 1,000 acres lost because of insufficient water. And the Senator stated that Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, with headauarters in Salt Lake Utah farmers are not interested in legislation permitting growth of the beet sugar industry. "Surely someone in the Department De-partment of Agriculture knows that agricultural production in Utah, as well as in some other western states, was seriously hampered last year by a severe shortage of water in many irrigated irri-gated areas. In Utah, the. water supply generally was the lowest since 1934. Early in the year, before the sugar companies contracted con-tracted for acreage, the Governor's Govern-or's office recommended to growers grow-ers througout the state that they refrain from planting crops requiring re-quiring irrigation late in the season, sea-son, because of the unusually short water supplies. Sugar beets are in this category of crops requiring re-quiring water late as well as early in the season." City, reports that even though the 1962 water supply is not yet fully predictable, the brighter outlook has already caused an upsurge in demand for sugar beet acreage. He wrote: "For example, in the company's com-pany's Gunnison district, where only 1,600 acres were planted last year, some 3,600 acres or more will be planted this year. In the West Jordan district, acreage acre-age will jump this year to 6,500 from 4,200 last year. In the Lay-ton Lay-ton district, where 2,700 acres were planted last year, plantings this year will be at least 3,400 acres, and even more if the present pres-ent moisture outlook continues to improve." Moss wrote that sugar beet acreage increased in the only area of Utah the Bear River Valley in which water supplies were anywhere near normal. Senator Moss cited figures for the 1961 growing season in Utah to show the effect of the drought on sugar beet production. Concerning the growing area around Ogden, Utah, headquarters headquar-ters of the Amalgamated Sugar Company, he wrote: "Farmers in the company's Ogden district contracted for 3,062 acres in 1961 compared with 2,935 acres in 1960. 'Had the water situation been more hopeful, contracted acreage would have been much higher,' I was told. By planting time, however, the water situation had so deteriorated that only 2,414 acres in the district were actual- |