UTILIZING OUR SOIL RESOURCES — SALTER 333 



yielding cropland. While efFective use of this land is a problem of 

 long standing, recent discoveries suggest tremendous opportunities 

 for using much of it in the production of milk, beef, and other live- 

 stock products. Through the introduction and creation of new and 

 better legumes and grasses and the development of improved fertilizer 

 and soil-management practices for efficient forage production, much 

 of this land could be used for efficient livestock production. In 

 Florida, for example, thousands of acres of flatland originally grow- 

 ing pine and palmetto have been cleared, limed, fertilized, and seeded, 

 and are now producing beef cattle profitably. Here alone, several 

 million acres could be brought into production. 



Obviously, there are sizable opportunities for expanding produc- 

 tion through the development of idle or unproductive land. There 

 can be no question. Our soil resources are adequate. The job is to 

 use them intelligently for sustained production with conservation. 

 This involves two important areas of action: (1) continued and in- 

 creased effort in crop and soil research to provide additional improved 

 technology and to give greater precision to our recommendations; 

 (2) continued and increased effort to coordinate and unify educational 

 and service programs concerned with production and conservation to 

 reduce lost motion and to speed adoption of balanced programs for 

 efficient, abundant, and sustained production on individual farms. 



