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Show American Farmers to Continue High Production Goals in Satisfying Demands of Entire World -rr " 1 t . 5 n, . s J tZ -C- rv.r. e i ,,ft&L , The war production of garden crops reached a new high. The demand will continue for some time. New varieties, improved soil fertilization and new equipment will aid the farmer in repeating his record production of these crops. Peacetime Need for Prod-I Prod-I ucts Assures Farmers of Good Market and Price. What will the impact of war's end mean to American agriculture? That question has been raised with Increasing frequency ever since Hirohito accepted President Truman's Tru-man's unconditional surrender terms and the Jap hordes have laid down their arms. It has brought in Its train other questions: Will a farm slump occur? Will continued vast production smash prices? Will transition to peacetime schedules ! upset farm economy? Three fairly definite answers have emerged and each is hearteningly reassuring to everyone who lives on or near a farm: 1. Demand for foods, fibers and oils will continue to require a high rate of farm production. The world must eat and American farmers must feed it. 2. Farm prices will not be deflated. The government has already guar- 1 anteed the farmer support prices for many of his products for one or two years after the war. 3. The farmer, unlike industry, is not faced with reconversion problems. prob-lems. His job is growing crops and he needs no different set of tools to accomplish his objectives. All of these factors eliminate the possibility of a sudden crash in farm income. Farm economists are agreed there will be no immediate cutback in production despite the end of the war. In the months to come, domestic do-mestic and military needs of the United States plus the relief demands de-mands from liberated areas in Europe Eu-rope and the Pacific will take all the food this nation can produce. With vast areas of Europe and Asia laid waste, American farmers will be called on to produce and keep on producing. It may be years before the ravaged countries can come back anywhere near to normal. nor-mal. In the meantime American farmers have a big job ahead to help keep whole continents alive and healthy. During this same time the United States itself must be fed. As demobilization of our armed forces proceeds, there will be less need for the various services to have great stocks of food in reserve. That will tend to increase civilian supplies sup-plies as well as permit better distribution. dis-tribution. No Major Farm Surplus. With industrial reconversion getting get-ting the green light, the dislocation of workers i caused by war contract cutbacks may be of much shorter duration than has been anticipated. That means more peacetime civilian jobs. One thing the war demonstrated demonstrat-ed was that if the entire nation is at work, there is no major farm surplus sur-plus problem. The greatest crops in history have been produced during the war. The record year was 1942. Next was 1944 and indications are that this year will exceed 1943, so that 1945 may be the third best. Credit for this epic achievement must go to the nation's farmers, but the contribution of the fertilizer industry in-dustry should not be overlooked. Agricultural Ag-ricultural authorities estimate that more than 20 per cent of the crop production in the war years has been due to the use of fertilizers. The use of plant foods has been of essential es-sential importance to the food production pro-duction program because it has en- War I. Prices are now near or above parity. Even if prices should come down to government-support levels a drop of perhaps 15 per cent below present peaks farm purchasing purchas-ing power will be enormous. The farmer has a higher amount to spend out of his income than other wage earners, for the reason that less of his income is required for rent, food and fuel than is the case with city dwellers. Six million farm families comprising approximately 30 million people having a gross income in-come in excess of 20 billion dollars a year will be a .factor of tremendous tremen-dous importance to America's peacetime economy. Farmer in Strong Position. Just as significant as agriculture's high Income rate in recent years is the fact that the farmer has been laying aside a good portion of his savings in war bonds to spend for essentials in years to come. Clearly the farmer has emerged from the war in a stronger position than he was at its start. To maintain that position the farmer should do some straight thinking and planning. Two things are especially important: 1 He should avoid overexpansion through the purchase of additional land in the peace years ahead; 2 He should make immediate plans to repair re-pair the damage to his soil's fertility fertil-ity level which the vast war crop production quotas have caused. The experience of the last war with its farm land boom and subsequent subse-quent collapse should be a reminder that the American farmer should not go in for more land than he can successfully suc-cessfully handle. Farm land prices have already risen dangerously toward to-ward inflation levels. Farsighted ; agricultural authorities are urging ! farmers to "keep their shirts on" and steer clear of the pitfalls of land speculation. Better soil management methods on a well-equipped and economically economical-ly operated farm will prove safer in the long run than vast fields without "In months to come the emphasis will be on reducing the cost of crop production per unit," the statement sets forth. "That means making every ev-ery acre do a better crop producing job. "In every community there are farmers who increased their wartime war-time crop output as high as 50 per cent, without increasing the cultivated cultivat-ed area by one single acre. In every case the larger yield was the result of adopting goo soil fertility practices. The experience of these farmers can be profitably followed by their neighbors in their peacetime peace-time operations. Their soil-conserving methods not only prevented waste of fertility, but actually have helped restore it. "Such methods include growing legumes to enrich the soil's nitrogen nitro-gen and organic matter supply, the use of adequate quantities of mixed fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus phos-phorus and potash, liming, contour plowing and a lirhiting, so far as pos. sible, of soil-depleting crops." Soil Fertility Replenishment. The matter of soil fertility replenishment replen-ishment will have an importan1 bearing on the peacetime continuation continua-tion of farm prosperity. If thf nation's farms are to be kept productive, pro-ductive, a vast soil-rebuilding job lies immediately ahead. How important this is may be understood un-derstood from a recent report issued by the Soil Conservation service of the department of agriculture which estimated that nearly one billion acres more than 90 per cent of the nation's farmlands need soil conservation con-servation treatment to protect them from erosion and to maintain their fertility. Wartime crop goals used up the soil's resources of nitrogen, phosphorus phos-phorus and potash faster than they could be replaced in spite of the fact that the fertilizer industry broke all previous production records. Farmers Farm-ers have realized that this wartime drain on their soil's fertility level was a necessary contribution to vie- abled farmers to produce bigger crops on existing acres instead of having to plow up millions of acres of additional farm land. The saving in labor, equipment and man hours has been enormous. Farm income during recent years has passed the peaks reached during dur-ing and immediately after World efficient management. The key to successful farming operations op-erations in postwar years will lie in increasing the per acre yield on existing ex-isting crop land rather than in bringing bring-ing additional acreage under cultivation, cultiva-tion, a recent statement by the Middle Mid-dle West Soil Improvement committee commit-tee pointed out. tory. But the fact remains that wealth borrowed from the soil to help hasten peace must be repaid. While every encouragement will be given to soil rebuilding projects by the federal government and by state agricultural agencies, the major ma-jor responsibility for getting the job done will rest on the shoulders of individual farmers. The effectiveness of the individual farmer's soil rebuilding program can be enhanced by the co-operation of agronomists at state agricultural agricul-tural colleges nd experiment stations. sta-tions. Through research and experimentation experi-mentation over a long span of years, these experts have .developed information infor-mation concerning fertilizer needs for various crops and soils that is helpful to the farmer who is undertaking under-taking a replenishment program. The co-operation of the fertilizer industry will be an effective aid, also. The present plant capacity of manufacturers is sufficient to meet all' peacetime needs of agriculture. Farmers are more fortunately situated sit-uated for accomplishing their soil-restoring soil-restoring job than at any time in the past generation. Dollars invested in war bonds, during the period when farm cash income has been at a high level and farm debt at a low point, can provide the ready cash to pay for the nitrogen, phosphorus and potash pot-ash needed to build up the fertility level of America's soil. L N I? " rr "7 ? t n nr? ,?r i r -r 1 I - t , 4 ' I . I Increased production of dairy and poultry products has been little short I of a miracle. Better breeding, feeding and management has been the ; answer. Even greater results can be expected in the next few years. |
