Show co conservation prevention of erosion replacement of aline minerals rals chief effort in pro program ram what will the american farmer do after the war will he be able to grow and market the huge record crops of wartime will his land stand up under the stress of huge crops year after year early surveys indicate that the sturdy sons of the soil were already thinking out these problems in the midst of completing another amazing record harvest of food and fiber last year according to the war food administration problems of volume of crops and adequate markets must await postwar developments but both the american farmer and uncle sam are prepared to make necessary adjustments just ments that will retain for the farmer the stability he has enjoyed during the war first on the list of rural postwar planning to maintain production are rest and rehabilitation of the nations soil reports show despite caze caie to pr preserve oserve the land better than in world worl d war I 1 continuous years of record production have taken their toll but points out that farming tor for war has clearly demonstrated the tha value of con conservation er practices as protection for the soil as well as an aid to increased yield and higher quality crops acre e yield in 1943 was 23 per cent greater than in 1935 the year before the goern governments ments conservation programs began to receive special emphasis the 1944 harvest indicates a probable acre yield 6 per cent more than last year or about 29 per cent higher than the 1935 figure more than half the entire land area of the united states is in farms a total of acres this includes cropland rangeland and woodland about acres are available for crops more and more farmers have learned to protect their land from erosion by strip cropping contouring and terracing they are replacing minerals and other soil nutrients depleted by constant cropping and are using soil rebuilding crops and other conservation practices to protect and enrich the land boost yield in idaho out in idaho for example on five acres of land where sweet clover was turned under the per acre ha harvest r of potatoes last year was pounds greater than on the rest of the field where no green manure was used similarly contour farming with inter tilled crops in the north central states raised the corn yield 53 to 12 bushels per acre and in the southern states increased cotton yield 29 pounds per acre in addition this practice was reported to have resulted in a national saving of soil ranging from 15 tons to tons per acre per year emphasis during the war of necessity has been on such better farming methods as would give im mediate results in increased yield and be simple to put into eff effect act points out postwar farming will turn its attention to the longer range practices the more complex measures that may take additional labor and money and a longer time to complete but which bring more lasting returns and make for a better balance of land and use expansion of irrigation is expected to be one of the important larger conservation practices which will receive additional emphasis particularly in the far west states so important is planned irrigation to the productivity of western farming says that the irrigated area which includes only about 3 per cent of the land in farms and 11 per cent of the cropland pro duces some 30 per cent of the crop cropf in income corpe one benefit of a well planned and executed conservation program on a farm is that fewer acres need to be planted to produce the same size size harvest taken on land farmed without conservation practices this means that a farmer by using the right practices for his land can rest one acreage while producing on another yet get the same amount of a crop that in pre conservation days required planting of the entire acreage in this way all his soil will ue be kept in tiptop tip top condition he will get the crops he needs and they will be of a higher quality and better nutritional value summer fallow most successful farm plans in areas such as the pacific northwest and the western portion of the great plains include summer fallow as a regular part of the years program according to experimental results in oregon and idaho show increases of bushels and bushels of wheat per acre respectively on fallow compared to the return from land under continuous cropping A group of west virginia farmers reported that forage production increased in 57 per cent on their farms from the application of a ton of ground limestone and pounds of triple per acre at the same time the protein content of the forage increased more than 40 per cent some farms last year carried out one or more practices under the agricultural conservation program administered by AAA A considerably larger number is esti as success of these practices as wartime measures can be expected to influence not only these men but their neighbors as well in carrying out a postwar conservation arc program |