V 



492 AGRICULTt'RAT. APPRf>PRTATIOX BILL, 1924. 



to a restricted extent in the form of semiwild cattle, which range on 

 the cane brakes and paiUe (inne or maiden cane pastures of the low- 

 lands along the southern Louisiana coast. It is a line of work which 

 the department and Louisiana Experiment vStation have prosecuted 

 in cooperation, and the department has considered it a worth while 

 work looking toward the future relief of the sugar territory from the 

 single-crop handicap which it carries. In its present location the 

 work is expensive per unit of operation and per unit of achievement 

 thus far. 



The site of the field station where the work is located was made * 

 available to the department by the State of Louisiana, it being a 

 portion of one of their penitentiary farms of which they operate 

 several in the State. The place is well equipped with buildings. It 

 is well stocked with mules and hoi-ses, cattle and hogs for the experi- 

 mental work that is being prosecuted, but it is expensive and in the 

 interest of rigid economy of expenditure the estimates proposed the- 

 determination of that work at as early a date as it can be done 

 advantageously. 



Mr. Anderson'. Is it so expensive as to indicate that live-stock 

 production in that section is likely to be, under normal conditions, so 

 expensive as to be unprofitable '. 



Doctor Taylor. I think not, under rather better soil conditions 

 than those which exist on this particular site. There is a great deal of 

 comparatively unutilized land in the region which will afford range 

 for supplemental feed. There is also in the region much land better 

 adapted to forage crop production under tillage than is this particular 

 site. However, there has developed during the past three or four 

 years a strongly marlvcd tendency under the prevailing economic 

 conditions to substitute rice for sugar cane, these wet lands proving 

 more profitable in rice than they have in sugar or in the forage crops, 

 than it is necessary to grow for silage or for hay. 



Mr. Anderson. Does the Government own the buildings? 



Doctor Taylor. The Government owns the buildings. The title 

 is in the form of a deed from the penitentiary board of the State 

 which holds the penitentiary farm, to the Government of the United 

 States for use for this purpose. 



Mr. Anderson. Conditioned upon your use? 



Doctor Tay'LOR. Conditioned upon that use as far as the lands 

 themselves are concerned. The other property would be disposed of, 

 I take it 



Mr. Anderson (interposing). They would not be of much value 

 without the land, would they? 



Doctor Taylor. Apart from the land; that is true. The above 

 statement applies, I believe, except with regard to a little entrance 

 plot deeded to the Government by the parish m order to give entrance 

 to the experiment farm without having to go through the peniten- 

 tiary inclosure. This wt)uld also revert. 



Mr. Buchanan. As a matter of fact, these buildings are not of 

 much value to anybody, l)ut they are fine buildings? 



Doctor Taylor. For the purpose for which they were planned. 

 They would not be of nuuh value except for that purpose. 



Mr. iJucHANAN. And that purpose is a failure? 



Doctor Taylor. I would not oe willing to acknowledge that Mr. 

 Buchanan. 



