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Show 1J1U1II Farm Notes ' 1947'Turkey Support Program To assure turkey producers of nrice support throughout the formal marketing season, the I Department of Agriculture has i announced a support program for 1947-crop turkeys marketed V during the period October 1947 reti through January 1948. Support ..'prices will be announced about r . October 1 and will reflect a na-rStional na-rStional average price of 90 per e cent of the September 15 parity t' nrice The Government's pnee-' pnee-' support program may prove un-necessary un-necessary with fewer turkeys being be-ing raised, but the Department will be prepared if necessary, to buy dressed turkeys from processors pro-cessors who certify that they have paid all producers not less J than the support prices. ,'More Research Needed !V With the Nation's farms pro-Uucin" pro-Uucin" about a third more than m 'before the war, there is a press-Lin press-Lin demand for stepping up the research needed for meeting the "marketing problems which this ie4eed-iiP creates, E. A. Meyer, ; taldrninisirator of the Research eand Marketing Act of 1946 "bolrpoints out. He illustrates his point this -way: "Today we have American Agriculture operating at high ?asDced, going down the straight-liV:y"-ov at 60 miles per hour and i around curves at loriy. inow no experienced driver has to be told that a different problem arises! when you have a blowout at 20 j miles per hour and a blowout at 60." I . Speaking of the possibilities of the Act, Meyer says: "It cannot work miracles but it can bring science more powerfully to bear on agricultural problems. The Act is very broad. It provides for the development of new uses, and the improvement of marketing market-ing facilities and services. It provides pro-vides for research not only into long range problems, but into such short range questions as the immediate improvements that can be made, for example, in grading and processing farm products, and in the whole field I of marketing." I Land Price Trend Prospective land buyers need to be increasingly cautious and avoid debts that may turn out to be too burdensome to carry, the Department, of Agriculture warns. The further sharp increases increas-es in land values "during the last 4 months, along with the great number of transfers, reflect the continued operation of strong inflationary forces in the farm land market. Apparently, many buyers are paying all cash for the farms they purchase, and others are making substantial down payments. pay-ments. Compared with the previous pre-vious year, commercial banks furnished more credit to finance farm purchases during 1946 and Federal lending agencies less. I Farmers are buying most of the tracts being sold, and more of the non-farm buyers are indicating indicat-ing an intention of operating rather than rnting the farms they purchase. Despite further rises in prices of farm real estate, farm sales continued high during 1946. For the country as a whole, prices rose 12 per cent, bringing average aver-age market values to a point 92 per cent above the 1935-39 average. av-erage. U. S. Wheat Slocks The Nation had about 310 million mil-lion bushels of wheat stored in all positions, on and off farms, on April 1, says the Department of Agriculture. About 140 mil-, mil-, lion bushels of this remained on farms. Total stocks are about 7 I per cent smaller than a year ago, and the smallest for the date i since 1937, when recurring1 'droughts reduced stocks to the Record low of 211 million bush-Uis. bush-Uis. About 946 million bushels 'of '"the 1,256. million stored have . disappeared 'since las July, a j disappearance second only to the previous year's 1,056 miUiQn bushels. Much less wheat has been fed than in other recent 'years, but exports and millings' have been very high. ! ' I Use of Soil Surveys I "Nearly the whole body of j knowledge that we have come I to know as modern soil science was developed during the past 50 years, according to Dr. Charles E. Kellogg, head of U. S. D. A.'s Sail Survey. I Dr. Kellogg 'reports that roughly one-half of the arable land in the United States has been cgyered by detailed soil surveys and that most of thp rpst of the country has been covered by reconnaisance surveys and that in the past 15 years in the U. S. the public use of soil surveys sur-veys has increased engrmgusly. Experiments at the Southern Great Plains Field Statipn show that the use of cool-weather grasses to provide green winter pastures can add greatly to the forage resources of the Southern South-ern Great Plains region. Officials said that the tests showed that abandoned farm land, or sub-marginal sub-marginal crop land reseeded to good perennial grasses will produce pro-duce grass crops equal to or more valuable than the adjacent native range. Prices paid b$ farmers for things they buy averaged slightly slight-ly higher on April 15 than on March 15, pushing parity prices up a little further. Trade Hint: There seems to be something of a glut in the ballpen ball-pen market. |