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Show rT7, wsm -: - - ... ,..r., ; - ik; W it! II ANN Kit HARVEST j Record-shattering Crops Boost Farm Production to New Peak WNU Features 1 While international crises and domestic ; difficulties have been dominating the news ! scene, American farmers have been rolling j up one of the most impressive production records in history during the current year. Crop production for 1946 is setting an all-time all-time peak, 2'2 per cent above the record output of 1942, best previous year, and 28 per cent above the average for the prewar years of 1935-39, a summary compiled by department de-partment of agriculture discloses. Wheat and 1 FARM RECORDS are being I broken throughout the nation as farmers wind up the biggest year in agriculture's history. This scene of a farmer storing corn in temporary tem-porary cribs is being repeated throughout the grain producing areas as farmers gather in the greatest feed crop ever grown in this country. 2 FOOD NEEDS exceeded even heavy wartime demands and farmers met the challenge with the largest harvested wheat acreage since 1938-940.000 ocres over 1945. The combination of Improved wheat varieties, good growing weather and national yield of 17.8 bushels per acre resulted In whopping 1.169.422.-000 1.169.422.-000 bushel crop. Production of all food grains set a new record more than 37 million tons. During the harvest season, farmers farm-ers worked night and day, frequently fre-quently with multiple crews and machines, as shown here, to save the precious uraln. The new crop helped to relieve the bread shortage short-age which resulted at mid-year when the nation shared its slender wheat stocks with hungry people overseas. Exports of wheat in this calendar year may reach 360 million mil-lion bushels, highest since 1921. READY FOR THE FUTURE. J- With the help of this big year, farmers are in tetter position to face conditions ahead. Good feed crops will help to maintain livestock production pro-duction at high levels nd savings of nearly 20 billion dollars provide a reserve for poor years or farm improvement. im-provement. This West Virginia farm, with its crops set in easy-to-work contoured I strips, offer a pattern for the future. fu-ture. With his farm' soil enriched by lime and green manure, and I slope protected from costly erosion, ero-sion, the operator ha the assurance of maximum eftlclency and minimum mini-mum production Costs. As of July 1. 2,750.000 acres had been laid out in corn production soared to new high marks, followed by record-shattering harvests of tobacco, peaches, pears, plums, truck crops and potatoes. Other crops have come through in good measure, with exception of cotton, rye, broomcorn, dry beans and pecans. Livestock production continued high, despite de-spite critical feed shortages in mid-year. Taking agricultural production as a whole, 1946 may stand for a long time as the farmer's farm-er's biggest year, the agriculture department concludes. The story of the farmer's big year, as told in the pictures: contoured strip cropping, with plans ready for an additional 2,250.000 acres. Two-thirds of all U. S. farms are actively participating in 1,675 soil conservation districts. 1 GOOD WEATHER favored the farmer in his fight for big crops. An early spring sent crops off to a flying start. Ideal conditions, illustrated illus-trated In this summer scene on a New England farm, often helped the farmer at critical times, such as haying and grain harvest. Little wheat was lost because of wet weather during harvest or after, aft-er, but sudden ripening of grain over large areas produced more grain at one time than elevators or railroads rail-roads could handle. Drouth did strike some areas, notably New Mexico Mex-ico and Arizona, and prolonged rain interfered with planting of grain sorghums. sor-ghums. The weather wasn't perfect, per-fect, but it was generally better than 1945 and proved a big factor in a record crop. 5 BIG BUYERS. Record produc- tion and good prices have created cre-ated the greatest farm purchasing power of all time. From total cash receipts of more than 23 billion dollars this year, farmers will realize real-ize a net income of more than 144 billion dollars, or more than three times the net income of 1940. Like city folks, farmers find goods scarce and prices above prewar levels. lev-els. As he shops for new shoes, this farmer finds proof that the average price of farm work shoes rose from $2.53 for the 1935-39 period to $4.49 on June 15. Price received by farmers for their goods had doubled dou-bled meanwhile. 6 MORE HELP, provided by re- turning veterans and war plant workers, made the Job easier for the farmer, but everyone had to work hard, early and late, to handle the bumper output. Typical of the veteran' return to the land, this ex-army sergeant and his wife, former army nurse, bought an Alabama farm with the help of an FSA loan. By mid-year 1,045,000 veterans were working on farms, representing about three-fourths of the number of farm workers who entered military service before July 1. 1945. 7 TWO ON ONE means good corn and account for this North Carolina grower' pride in a promising prom-ising crop resulting from use of hybrid seed corn and contoured field. In the nation as a whole, two out of ( v three acres this year were in .-, h-yiclding hybrids, accounting for 20 per cent Increase in corn yields by department of agriculture ag-riculture estimates. In some sections of the corn belt, hybrids were planted on 100 per cent of the acreage, boosting Iowa's corn yield to a phenomenal 61 bushels bush-els per acre. Better varieties of other oth-er crops, developed by agricultural scientists, helped push production to new records. Improved fertilizers and new cultural methods also boosted yields. 8 NEW TOOLS also helped to - swell 1946 production. Expansion Expan-sion by REA co-operatives brought electricity to additional thousands of farms and made daily chores like milking (above) faster and easier. On July 1, nearly 53 per cent of all U. S. farms received central station electric service and new customers were being connected to REA lines at the rate of 250,000 per year. Farmers also found DDT and chemical chem-ical weed killer potent weapons against old enemies. Production of new farm machinery machin-ery during the first half of the year fell below the war-limited production pro-duction of a year earlier, forcing most farmers to get along with old machines. Tires, fuel and seed were in fair supply, but containers, steel products and lumber continued contin-ued scarce. Farmers used more fertilizer in their drive for maximum maxi-mum production. |
