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Show V1IY MORE FARM LAND? It :;hould be evident to any student of the agricultural situation that there is too much land under cultivation cultiva-tion in this country already. The secretary sec-retary of agriculture himself says that "we need to reduce our present cultivated acreage by 30 or 40 million mil-lion acres." In spice of this .situation, which has existed for several years, we see the government spending hundreds of millions on Boulder Dam, which is intended in-tended to bring under cultivation a va?t new area of farm land through irrigation. Numerous other irrigation projects have hern built by the government gov-ernment for the same purpose, and more are. in prospect. There is now before congress a proposal pro-posal to spend some 400 million dollars dol-lars on the Columbia basin irrigation F.cheme, whereby about a million and a quarter acres more would be available avail-able for farm purposes. While these things are going on, the farm board is spending half a billion bil-lion dollars in a futile effort to handle han-dle the surplus farm crops already on hand. And all the taxpayers, including includ-ing the farmers, must dig in their pockets to pay the bill. Commenting on the situation, Farm and Ranch, a leading agricultural publication, says: "That this Columbia Colum-bia bssin project should be turned down flatly by congress, if the interests inter-ests of the country and especially of the farmers are to be served, will be recognized by all unbiased men. The federal government should leave all economic activities to private enterprise." |