were estimated to be somewtiere between 500 and 

 700 million people whio were badly nourishied 



Thiere are two problems. One, to produce enougti 

 tood, and thie second, to distribute it equitably to meet 

 tiuman needs There we run into thie problem of pov- 

 erty, lack of purchasing power by a large segment of 

 the world population, and its cost because of unem- 

 ployment or underemployment, for the first basic 

 necessity for survival, even for a few days — food. 



Why is our agnculture so productive? First of all, 

 we were blessed with a broad base of excellent natu- 

 ral resources — good soil and a favorable climate 

 And we had creative forefathers, political leaders, and 

 farmers At the time of independence, our population 

 was dispersed, about like it is in many of the third 

 world nations today. 



We were somewhere between 85 and 90 percent 

 rural, tilling the land — a small piece of land mostly by 

 hand. We had vast tracts of land As our population 

 grew, we were developing industries, also, and over 

 the next 150 years with each generation there were 

 better opportunities for employment at higher rates of 

 income for many of our rural youth and they shifted to 

 the cities. 



Our agriculture was expanding in area to produce 

 more food as it was needed in the early 1800s, but 

 mostly by development of machinery that permitted 

 each family to cultivate more land even though yield 

 didn't change very much. But we did something more 



Early visionary government leaders, especially 

 Washington and Jefferson, were tremendously inter- 

 ested in agriculture. I think the vision Jefferson had in 

 the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, laid the ground work 

 for the economy of the USA Other things contrib- 

 uted to its development subsequently. 



There were many of these early people who added 

 to our knowledge and who stimulated inquiry Under 

 President Lincoln, in a period of six weeks, there were 

 three basic laws passed that set the stage for the 

 revolution in agriculture production that was to come 

 80 years later. It didn't come overnight, and so when 

 we look at our third world brothers, and we are impa- 

 tient that they don't change their agricultural produc- 

 tion, we have to remember that we, too, had a long 

 gestation period and that we weren't burdened by this 

 tremendous population monster blowing on the back 

 of our neck as many of the newly awakening third 

 world nations are burdened with today. 



In 1862, in a six-week period, the land grant col- 

 leges were established, subsequently growing into 

 some of our largest and most effective universities. 

 Today, sometimes it is hard to tell whether the tail is 



wagging the dog because agriculture is all too often, I 

 think, looked down on. I will mention that in talking 

 about the third world nations, where anyone who 

 works in agriculture is on the lowest rung of the 

 social, economic, and political ladder, we don't get a 

 fair share of the talent. They want to be lawyers or 

 doctors or chemists or engineers, and one can under- 

 stand well why, when you look at the misery and the 

 drudgery that they went through in their early lives. 

 We have got to correct this. 



At the same time the land grant colleges were 

 established, the Homestead Act gave land to many of 

 the immigrants who came into the country from 

 abroad, especially those who settled on some of the 

 worst land that possibly could have been settled on 

 with the lack of knowledge of soil fertility We then 

 created this small bureau to coordinate agriculture. 

 The Bureau of Agriculture which has grown into the 

 US Department of Agriculture after many trials and 

 tribulations 



The Hatch Act was passed because Congress was 

 not very happy with the way things were going in the 

 land grant colleges and universities. Reading between 

 the lines, you can see that they were saying, "These 

 professors don't know a hell of a lot about practical 

 farming. They don't even know how to plow, and 

 they're trying to teach our sons and daughters things 

 that are worthless." 



"Early visionary government leaders, 



especially Washington and Jefferson, 



were tremendously ititerested in 



agriculture. " 



So they set up, under the Hatch Act in 1887, the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station mostly in juxtaposition 

 to the land grant colleges. That began to lay the 

 solid ground work for what was to follow. 



Not much happened to change yields. The only 

 increase in yields was the result of better machinery in 

 the early 1800s, which permitted more effective weed 

 control and to conserve moisture. But the ground 

 work had not yet been laid for fertilizer use, for 

 improved plant varieties, better control of diseases 

 and insects. This was to follow gradually over the 

 next 80 years And about the time when all the 

 pieces of this complex jigsaw puzzle came into being 

 as a result of good research work done by many, the 

 other piece just collapsed Markets, the Depression 



27 



