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Show m Farm Conservation Report i t ' . Fronhcrs il a rricultural Conservation ,! . The-Xlping the farmers fTto open up a whole new l Hw of arming land says t . J HoDkin, chairman of the fproducllon and Marketing lc- ration committee. Not i AfetrACP helped farmers of I uheal gullies and check V t0 nbut the conservation ' Sc carried out under the 8S?am have increased the pro-l pro-l IKS of the land. dC the nation, the per-acre rl n( major crops was 51 I nf more in -1948 than the for the 1923-32 period. k Effect this represents open-:' open-:' tZ i productive area larger r 1112 oil the land from which eSere harvested in the west- ftTf of the United States. ' i si dct cent increase in the ; Ktp vields is equal to ad-Pn ad-Pn acre to each 2 acres m the 1923-32 yields. It !; atinjf from 160 acres. that would have taken 240 i i the 1923-32 yields 5 Restate chairman points out I ,H.?S-ior to 1937, when the Ag-'A Ag-'A iSiral Conservation Program I J r?Ser way in earnest, there 1 been hardly any increase in ' bper acre yields of most major SJSJS eicept potatoes. Since SCie increase has been. gen-Jl gen-Jl Hybrids, new chemicals, S'imoroved machinery have . SiSffied with better land .' 2fL conservation farming ' ? bring about increased yields rV Thcwhole movement to better methods has resulted in opening fvast frontier of production for American people. Mr. Hop- ' Z said. "How much farther we S go. I am sure no one. knows, 3 I am certain we have only f sUrted," he concluded. Price Supports Help Farmers broach "Parity" A basic reason for price support sup-port programs is to give the Sinner greater independence in choosing the time and the price - at which he is willing to sell, 4 Secretary of Agriculture Charles F B.rannan recently stated at a - congressional committee hearing. "Industry has cut production , to maintain price, while the janner traditionally has gone on producing while his prices went iarther and farther down out of line with industrial prices," the Secretary said. "Between 1929 and the depression de-pression low of the early 1930's. here is what happened in certain i ' Industries: Agricultural implementsprices imple-mentsprices declined 14 per J cent, payrolls declined 83 per h cent; iron and steel price went ft.dowa 10 per cent, payrolls went i down -75 per cent; cement j prices went down 13, payrolls, J 12; aluminum prices went down 21 per cent, payrolls 69. "At that same time, farm prices pric-es went down by two-thirds, and in self-protection many farmers I increased their crop acreages. I 'Trom 1932 to 1938 industrial production averaged about 25 to cent below that of 1929. while farm production averaged ; approximately the same as in ' 1929. . . . Since the end of 1947 the prices of farm machinery have gone up 2 per cent and other oth-er farm equipment and supplies have gone up nearly 10 per cent. But prices received by farmers '. for their commodities have dropped drop-ped 18 per cent . . . i "As an offset to the economic power which is used to cut pro-I pro-I Auction and maintain the prices of goods sold to farmers, wc (must maintain the strongest possible pos-sible farm price support program and provide the means for storing stor-ing supplies which are not currently cur-rently needed and for shifting gradually from production of commodities faced with declining declin-ing demand to others where consumption con-sumption can be expanded . " McCormack Presents Paper At UN Conference How the Agricultural Conservation Conser-vation Program has proven an effective and economical means of obtaining widespread application applica-tion of improved conservation methods is the central theme of a paper presented by Alvin V. McCormack, director, ACP Branch of the Production and Marketing Administration. U. S Department of Agriculture, at the United Nations Scientific Conference on the Conservation and Utilization of Resources. The conference held at Lake Success, N. Y,, opened August 17 and continued through September Septem-ber 6. Leading scientists and specialists in resource utilization utiliza-tion from nearly all the countries of the world took part. Mr. Mc-Cormack's Mc-Cormack's paper was presented in a section meeting devoted to land resources. The ACP Director pointed out that financial assistance to farmers farm-ers provides an incentive and makes it possible to carry out approved conservation practices on a wide front. The farmer shares the cost but the assistance assist-ance is the "spark" that sets in motion on individual farms the educational and demonstrational work of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Through the farmer committeemen commit-teemen who are elected by their neighbors, the way is provided to reach all farmers in the country coun-try in a short time. These elected elect-ed committeemen are an effective effect-ive means of bringing' to the attention at-tention of the farmers of the country the need for and tho practical application of better methods of soil and water conservation. con-servation. In defining conservation. Mr. McCormack says. "Soil and water wa-ter conservation as applied" to agriculture, means using the land so that its productivity is not diminished. But it also means using the land to improve standards stand-ards of living and to meet the needs of an increasing popula tion." |