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Show FARMERS TO HAVE RECORD INCOME I STATISTICS STATE Utah farmers and livestock and poultry raisers this fall will enjoy an all-time record income, according accord-ing to estimates of bumper harvests harv-ests released by the office of agricultural agri-cultural statistics, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, and other agencies reporting abundant crops and good prices prevailing for products of farm and range. Edward C. Paxton, agricultural statistician for Utah and Nevada, said probably never before in the history of the state have there been such uniformly heavy crops. Improved farming practices coupled with a growing season "made to order" are the principal princi-pal factors involved, he said. "There was an early spring,, followed fol-lowed by plentiful rains just when they were needed, supplemented by ample irrigation water," he said. Spring frosts took some of the apricots but only thinned out peaches to greatly improve the quality of this crop, Mr. Paxton related. A heavy crop of pears has been realized and the crop of apples for this fall is estimated at 612,000 bushels, compared with 486,000 last year and a ten-year average of 470,000 bushels. Abundant rainfall lowered the quality of some of the hay because so much time was required to cure it, but the quantity is larger than usual. Yield of small grains, now virtually vir-tually all harvested, is exceptionally exception-ally high, being 37 bushels per acre for spring wheat and 24 bushels for winter wheat, compared com-pared with the 1945 yield of 31 and 20 and a ten-year average of 30.8 and 19.4. Yield of sugar beets is estimated estimat-ed at the all-time high of 16 tons per acre. Highest previous yields were 15.7 tons in 1909 and 1938 and 15.6 in 1943. Prospects for a good sugar content appear to be excellent and the total production is estimated at 704,000 tons, compared com-pared with 568,000 tons last year and 553,000 for the ten-year average. aver-age. The price to -be realized by the farmer is $1 higher per ton than last year, another all-time high. |