Show 1 m a h n ton a D By WALTER SHEAD WHAT X ii is the job ahead for V farmers who mutt must provide the food and fiber to keep this nation going at a high standard of living According to the tho estimates at the census cenus bureau the population of the country Is I. increasing at a 2 million annual rate which means that in another 20 years we will wUl have an additional 60 50 O million pe pepie peo people pie to feed or anywhere from million to million Americans Americana dependent upon the diminishing farm population for food and cloth- cloth tn Ing And according to the Department of Agriculture the farmer must mut do doI I this Job on just jut about the acreage that is cultivated today Also according ac ac- cording to the research section of the department the production of the American farmer can be pushed up about 60 per cent To do this job of Increased production pro pro- pro pro- production means that the farmer given Iven growing weather must make a wider application of the research knowledge now available it means application of more fertilizer fertilizer fertl- fertl lizer more of the conservation and rotation practices which have been found beat best to increase yields I continued soil IOU Improvement expansion of electric power and mechanical implements better seeds leeds both from a production production production tion standpoint and resistance to plant disease more and better insecticides it means more and better credit facilities and continued contin contin- continued price supports at a figure which will insure the farmer a fair profit for these additional al yield practices will mean higher costs o of oC operation According to these folks who are looking ahead to the future of 1 American agriculture there also must be put Into practice a better distribution system to provide for fora a better farm market and more thought given to the actual needs of farmers in the matter of the nations nation's manufacturing output Few folks realize reaUze It it but the fact Is h that the farmers of the country use use more mora steel teel In a year than goes Into a years year's output of passenger automobiles that they use ue enough rubber to put tires on six million cars that they use ue more petroleum and its derivatives than any other industry that they use enough electric power to supply the Cities clUes of Chicago Detroit Balti DalU- Baltimore more and Houston In 19 1991 1001 1 the operating cost of farmers alone amounted to 22 billion bUllon dollars which is more than the total farm gross groll income of any year ear prior to 1943 1043 Years ago a I farmer could operate a lon long time at a loss if It f he had to Today the job the farmers are doing and the cost of production In producing 41 per cent more total farm output than in the years 1935 to 1939 would wreck him bun In short order without a guaranteed fixed and long range rang price support program This outlook k of oi the job ahead for farmers farmer Is just as important to the American people as a whole as It ItIs itis Is II to the seven leven per cent of the population which operates the nation nations nation's nations nation's na na- na- na tion's tion farms and it Is just as important important Important Im im- In a time peacetime economy as asIt asIt asit It Is In a defense economy for forIt forit forit it means food and clothing and the maintenance of a high standard of living for all aU the people of this country And although Americans generally have bave increased food consumption consumption con con- consumption about 12 per cent over World pre War II levels there are still stUl plenty of people in the country who could be better fed Looking ahead too there is every indication that the United States if it is to play Its role of or fighting communism must export more and more of its food and fiber supplies Roughly over the past four years we have ported exported about third one of our cottin one- one third of our wheat one-fourth one of our tobacco eo and third one of our rice We have exported lesser amounts of other crops We likely will export more and more of our er crops ps So there will be continual pressure on economy |