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Show f?ZOOJ?fArG jttrf AHZAD bv GEORGE S. BENSON 'irS rrtildttt)lirditecUtgt 'V'i3 Startp. Art mists p i i it i mi lint TOWARD KKTTKll LIVING Something good has been happening hap-pening to the American farmer. In a single generation he has been able to double the productivity of his farming effort. That's the greatest advance on the land since men of ancient times fashioned fash-ioned the first crude plows from tree boughs and cultivated the world's first farms. The farm implement imp-lement companies, the chemical industries and agricultural agencies agen-cies have teamed with the enterprising enter-prising American farmers to achieve this great advance. And it ' has contributed to the improving ! welfare of every man, women and child in the nation. . i Du Pont, one of the pace setting research, presents the story of John D. Burkholder, of Lititz, Pa., as an example of what's happening to industrious, progressive farm families throughout the nation. His farm life, his farming practices, prac-tices, and his family's living standard stand-ard are typical of conditions on perhaps 20 per cent of the, family farms. The other 80 per cent are constantly improving their situation, situa-tion, but the degree of scientific farming practiced is varyingly lower than on the Burkholder 80 acres. WELL EQUIPPED John Burkholder has 26 cows, 8 steel's, 6 heifers, 1500 chickens. He grows corn, wheat, hay, tobacco, potatoes. He uses chemical fertilizers fertil-izers and soil conditioners, fungi- cides, insecticides, and a barnful of modern mechanical equipment. In the course of a year on his various var-ious crops he uses 38 different chemicals, not countnig 20 tons of fertilizer which is one of his best investments. Fungicide spraying has helped boost his potatoe yield 100 per cent. Insesticides, medicin-als medicin-als and feed supplements for his chickens have increased egg output out-put 71 per cent. And he estimates that just by eradicating flies which plagued his cattle, his milk production has been increased 20 per cent. A big boost in his farm's pro- ductivity and profit came when he thoroughly mechanized his equipment. equip-ment. Either one of his two small tractors today do the work which used to require five men, five plows and ten horses. He has an automatic hay-baler, a self-propelled harvester, and a dozen other machines which help him plant more crops, fertilize, spray and harvest them faster. PRODUCTION INCREASED From his 80 acres, Burkholder is getting considerably more than twice as much production and income in-come as the average 80 acres around the country produced 25 or 30 years ago. This fact is important im-portant not only to this one farmer his wife and two children; it is vitally vit-ally important to the whole population. pop-ulation. By 1975, the U. S. population pop-ulation will be 210,000,000 about 60,000,000 more appetites for the farms to satisfy. Ordinarily that would require, on the basis of average av-erage production, an additional 200,000,000 new acres of farm land. - There just isn't that much additional ad-ditional land to break to the plow. In fact our farm acreage has expanded ex-panded hardly at all since 1920. The solution to the food problem seems obvious: Burkholder and the million or more farmers who have utilized almost every scientific farming advancement must continue con-tinue to push up their productivity and the 80 per cent who have not fully mechanized nor taken advantage advan-tage of chemical developments must, do so or quit fanning. THE FUTURE The chemical industries, the agricultural ag-ricultural agencies and the equipment equip-ment manufacturers are going to make available untold new services servic-es to the farmers. And when you look at John Burkholder's income his spacious modernly equipped home, his good- looking automobile automo-bile and his happy family, you can feel confident that most American farmers who have the ability are going to adapt their farming to the new developments and practices. prac-tices. The incentive to the farmer is the opportunity for better living and greater service. In the evolution toward this goal some of today's 5,000,000 farm tamuies win not De aDie to Keep pace, and will cease farming. This is a normal, healthy transition. John Burkholder was born on a farm and has adapted himself to agricultural progress. He fits the requirements for successful farming. farm-ing. Some don't. They will be better bet-ter off doing something else, more productive for themselves and for society. It is my prediction that in the scientific evolution now taking place on the farms, the capable, industrious, enterprising American farmers will recognize the indis-pensible indis-pensible value of the competitive market and the economic law of supply and demand. |