Show director william peterson of the utah state agricultural college extension service has just completed a study of conditions in the southern counties of utah while there he gathered data on underground water developments and made observations regarding agricultural conditions his observations are contained in the following article agricultural crops in the southern counties of the state have a much better outlook than they hs e had for several years past washington county has more water than usual and the farmers there passed through the spring season without a frost the fruit promises not only to be goodbub good but abundant at enterprise the two reservoirs are full of water a condition which has not been apparent in many years the sevier river Is not going to give as much water as was earlier expected and while the ground has been quite thoroughly saturated the most economic use of water from the sevier Is necessary livestock show the effect of a long hard winter and in many of the southern areas a large part of the first crop of alfalfa will be sacrificed as pasture in an attempt to teed and rehabilitate the animals which are in such poor condition due to the lack of feed during the past winter feed and seed loans have been most helpful the distribution of feed grain and flour through the red cross representatives has been almost a lifesaving procedure to most of the communities muni ties while large amounts of the red cross grain were distributed surveys were made hurriedly by the local organizations and county committees and it has been found that some persons who are entitled to a liberal distribution trib ution of grain and flow because of their financial stress have been missed because the lists were not completed others have suffered a short distribution because of a misunderstanding in the purpose of the red cross activity and the extent to which this help might be extended some of the areas are urging a further distribution on account of the lack of an equitable measure this further distribution Is not only justifiable but actually needed it Is hoped that it might be possible to give to these areas m want a further allotment from the red cross granary A strong effort Is being made in all communities by the extension service the relief society and the farm bureau to effect a program for better food preservation and storage in order that the coming winter may find the people so prepared that they will not suffer from lack of food also an effort Is being made to encourage a larger accumulation of feed for the livestock to insure them an adequate manger during the coming winter the farmers of the state have an extra problem to meet in that the tor age and farm products to be raised must not only be enough to feed the family and the livestock but it must be sufficient to pay back the loans which have been made this ear from the federal government approximately one half million dollars were borrowed for feed and more than two hundred thousand for seed in addition to this data collected indicate that more than two million dollars was lent by private individuals and banks for feed which has been purchased during the past hard winter farmers of the state are urged to produce as large a feed supply as possible extra tons of feed in utah are money in the bank and in those areas where there Is an extra supply of water feed should be for sale this year |