five times that of agiicultiiic. "It seems 

 pretty .slioitsiiihted," McKiiiKht savs, 

 "when you consider that the $15 million 

 spent to develop hybrid corn now brings 

 in more than SI l)illion a year." 



To keep the U.S. (het as rich as now in 

 protein, Mcknight fignres that the $300 

 million spent last year for farm research 

 must be doubled within five years. (Half 

 of the annual bill is paid by the govern- 

 ment, Federal and state, and half b\ 

 food processors and farm suppliers.) 



Aii<ihi«>ll«'N: Whether or not the coun- 

 cil achieves its goal in that short a time, 

 farm researcli will continue to unfold 

 excitingly. The big news story at the mo- 

 ment is what is lieing done w ith antibiot- 

 ics, the w'onderfulK versatile wonder 

 drugs wjiich alone may prove a con 

 siderable antidote for the land shortage. 

 They are performing startling feats in 

 making an animal transform more of what 

 it eats into good lean meat. 



Antibiotics were initially used on ani- 

 mals to knock out bacterial infections. 

 Soon, scientists found that, in smaller 

 doses, they also made the animals grow 

 faster. First fed to chickens and pigs, 

 they have been supercharging ealtlc and 

 sheep to a profit-doubling extent in the 

 last two years. Even mink and beagUs 

 are thriving on them. In Terrc Haute, 

 Ind., the Pfi/er Kesearch and Develop- 

 ment Farm, wliich feeds and weighs ex- 

 perimental cattle like rats, now serves a 

 special antibiotic-and-hormone cocktail 

 that is setting fantastic new records foi 

 induced growth. 



Antibiotics may have even greater po- 

 tential for plants. Fresh on the market 

 are streptomycin sprays that knock out 

 costly bacterial blights on fruit trees, 

 tobacco, peppers, tomatoes, and pota- 

 toes. After treatment, the plants show 

 big croji gains, leading to speculation 



Heat lamps for ,<owlrs.< slioats 



that antibiotics not onl\' control plant dis- 

 eases l)nt may, as was found with ani- 

 mals, somehow stimulate plant growth. 

 E\perimentali\ , these potent suli 

 stances are also controlling Inngns at- 

 tacks, responsible for a major part ol tii( 

 nation's S5 billion-a->ear crop loss trom 

 pests. The\- are being screened as insec- 

 ticides. Dramaticalls , they are being 

 studied as a means of altering and im- 

 proving the very chemical characteristics 

 of plants, including tobacco and cabliage, 

 as they grow to maturity. 



A present obstacle to their widespread 

 use for all this is an economic one. Anti- 

 biotics are pretts expensive for repeated 

 sprayings of low-price crops. 



Closer at hand, probabh', is the auti 

 biotic preserving of meat. dair\' products, 

 and vegetables. This may soon comix'te 

 with radiation sterilization of foods, 

 which, apart from some use in preventing 

 potato spoilage, is still some years away. 

 Dr. F.E. Deatheridge, head of the Oliio 

 State biochemistrx' department, embalms 

 fresh-killed steers simpK b\ pumping an 

 antibiotic through their arteries. The 

 meat then will keep through three hot 

 summer days and acquires, in the proc- 

 ess, a delicate aged flavor. SiniilarK , b\ 

 pumi)ing brine and smoke llasor inlo a 

 slaughtered hog. Dr. Dealhciidge thinks 

 he can put ham and b.ienn on the table 

 in three da\s inslrad nl llnre weeks. 

 ■''iiliira' (iaitN: Supplementing the 

 .mliiiiiilics, hormones, and oilier surprises 

 on the brink ol dexciopmenl, the enter 

 prising farmer nl the liilnre will have an 

 old standin to rcK on: A clioice of some 

 40, 0(10 .igrienltnral ihemicils developed 

 over \cars ol res<'arch. 



All these will help, but the larmer will 

 still have other pi oblems— pressing jirob- 

 lems that demand immediate and thor- 

 oni^h investigation if those 2. .5 million 

 new mouths a year are to be adequately 

 fed. Some of them: 



►Mechanized as farming is, the farmer 

 still spends an estimated 6.5 per cent of 

 his day shoveling, lifting, and toting. 

 Needed: A variety of radical labor- 

 saving devices-evcrything from fertilizer 

 spread by the same vehicle that delivers 

 it to the farm, to pipelines for milk from 

 the udder to the vat. 

 ►Marketing is often a Stone Age process, 

 capable of depressing many a farm item 

 even when production has been modern- 

 ized. Needed: Studies showing the 

 dairyman how to sell his beverage, for 

 instance, as fast as brewers do, and re- 

 search to ease the way for more "vertical 

 organization" in marketing. 

 ►Though botanists, have catalogued 

 300,000 plants from all over the world, 

 chemists have intensively analyzed no 

 more than a "dozen, notably corn and 

 soybeans, for use by industry. Needed: 

 A greatly stepped-up search of all plant 

 life for new foods, pharmaceuticals, and 

 chemical products. 

 ►By 1970 American industry will hav<» 



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^hoH I heinlcal Corp. 



Private labs for tender shoots 



^oubled its already gargantuan thirst tor 

 water. With water already in tight sup- 

 ply over most of the nation, crop irriga- 

 tion is spreading fast over the eastern 

 half of the country, for it enlarges the 

 yields and helps insure against drought. 

 Needed: Common sense, stricter con- 

 servation, and, above all, more research- 

 on the development of crops and grasses 

 thriving on less water, and on rounding 

 out theories of the water cycle that can 

 be applied to each locality. 



This is perhaps the biggest and most 

 ominous scientific lag of all. Without 

 water, all agricultural research could 

 quickly become so much theory. 



SCIENCE- 



