Show 75 MILLION ACRES US boosts 1948 wheat goal washington fourth largest wheat acreage the farmers of this nation have ever planted may be realized in 1948 tt if the department of agricultures agri cultures revised goal of 75 million acres is met next year that mark is a five million acre increase from the pattern recommended last year and a seven million acre boost over the wheat goal set last spring before the corn outlook took on its gloomy cast continued and unremitting in g international demand for food grains influenced fluen ced the agriculture department into making the upward revision while officials admit admitted tid that the increased acreage constitutes an invitation vi to farmers to plant heavily in wheat they cautioned against plowing up sod lands not suited for sustained farming in order to take advantage of high wheat prices however an even more important factor in determining the nations wheat acreage in 1948 will be the lure of the two dollar a bushel market price department authorities admitted that high market prices will do more to dictate the amount of wheat planted than could any arbitrarily assigned government goal the department said the 75 mil lion acre goal it if achieved would provide the fourth largest wheat acreage the farmers in the united states have ever planted higher plantings occurred in 1919 1937 and 1933 estimating on the basis of a 10 year average yield figure ol of bushels an acre the crop in 1948 would be billion bushels but il if the outturn follows the 1942 46 average of bushels an acre production would reach 1221 billion bushels in the wake of this years bumper crop a much smaller IM wheat yield normally would be indicated however the world food shortage makes it desirable according to department part ment spokesmen that the united states continue its high rate of production the united nations has warned that the world food situation has not improved in the past year and predicts shortages will continue another two years |