Show washington aarm NEWS REAL FARM PROBLEM FIGHT ON TENANCY AIDS FLOOD CONTROL NEARING PRICE PARITY UP FOUR nillion BILLION FARM FIRE LOSSES one of the problems facing american agriculture is the rapid increase in the farm tenant population which in the opinion of many leaders might make possible something like rural serfdom if not checked one of the proposals advocated as a Fo solution lution is the purchase of farms by the government for resale ro re salo sale to tenants under a plan of payment stretch ing over a long period of years A bill authorizing to establish a governmental agency to finance the acquisition of farms by tenants was introduced n coless alt woo by Pe representative jones of texas chairman of the agricultural committee another group of interested students of the situation holds that the problem will be automatically solved it il the government concentrates efforts on a program to make farming profitable if faini fai ni products sell at prices to afford a fair profit they say the tenant problem will take care of itself representative hope of kansas ranking republican member of the house agricultural committee points out that under depression farm prices tenants were better off than farm owners it is probable that both methods of attack will be used to combat the rising tide of farm tenancy certainly it is that the agriculture of the united states be vested in land owners rather than in a horde borde df tenant farmers working for the ae owners of great tracts of land W 11 bennett chief of the soil conservation service calls attention to the importance of conservation practices in upland regions where proper methods will provide for the absorption and retention of enough water to prevent or reduce tle t ie danger of floods in lo 10 lower regions very probably somewhere in the united states the next few weeks wi will 11 witness considerable loss from floods caused by the rapid surface runoff run off of rainfall and the concentration of this water in stream channels not large enough to carry such volume the index of prices received by farmers for their products stood at when the last mid month review of fainn prices was made public by the bureau of agricultural economics this is sixteen points above a year ago the same source reports the index of price of commodities bought by farmers at or about five points higher than a year ago the ratio of prices received by farmers to prices paid for commodities purchased by farmers thus moves to 99 compared to the price ratio of 90 00 one year ago this virtually means prewar pre war parity in so far as prices lire are concerned but one should not lose sight of the fact that this price level has been attained through the combined effects of crop crap control and the ravages of the drought farm parity will aill a ill not be at hand until ta t a price ratio stands around the present figure in the face of a supply Par farmers mers gross income from agricultural production has been raised ly more than four billion dollars during the last four years according to the bureau of agricultural economics the bureau estimates the gross income at for 1936 compared with for 1935 with in 1934 and in 1932 gross income dropped mort mord than a half from 1930 through 1932 but has recovered more than 80 per cent of this loss A prospective increase of 10 per cent in national income for 1937 is expected to ie be accompanied by further recovery in farm income rural fires in recent years have taken annually an average tell tall of lives and piled up a property loss estimated at according to report of the united states department of agriculture however noticeable reduction in losses have been brought about in communities where rural firemen have made a systematic study of lire fire hazards and conducted conduct ea campaigns campaign for their elimination d |