WFA Official Lauds 

 Co-ops for War Effort 



FARMERS' cooperatives have made a 

 distinguished contribution to the war 

 effort and have been of inestimable value 

 in working with the WFA to develop 

 fair, practical programs, Tom G. Stitts, 

 chief of the WFA's dairy and poultry 

 branch, told members of the IMPA and 

 Illinois Producers' Creameries at their 

 sessions held in conjunction with the 

 30th annual meeting of the I A A. 



Stitts was scheduled to speak at the 

 IMPA meeting Wednesday morning, 

 Nov. 29, but his train was delayed and 

 he did not arrive until noon. Those who 

 had attended the IMPA meeting were 

 given an opportunity to hear his address 

 at the Wednesday afternoon program of 

 the IPC. 



Citing milk statistics of the last dec- 

 ade to prove his point, Stitts character- 

 ized dairying as "One of the most stable 

 of farm enterprises."' 



During years of falling agricultural 

 prices, milk production increased even 

 while total agricultural production was 

 declining, he said. During years of ris- 

 ing agricultural prices, milk production 

 also increased, but at a slower rate than 

 total agricultural production, he asserted. 



Stitts said he thought that America's 

 dairy farmers would make the transition 

 from war to peace in a more orderly and 

 less disruptive manner than any other 

 major farm group. The pre-war rec- 

 ord, he stated, shows that consumption 

 of fluid milk and every major dairy prod- 

 uct except butter was on the increase. 

 Moreover, far from o\'er-expanding dur- 

 ing the last 3 years, he said, milk pro- 

 duction probably has increased less rap- 

 idly than if there hadn"t been a war. 



So far as demand is concerned, Stitts 

 said, civilian markets alone would ab- 

 sorb the entire wartime increase in milk 

 production if it were available to them. 



In pointing up relent increases in war 

 requirements, most of them occasioned 

 by the increasingly large number of men 

 overseas, Stitts revealed that the armed 

 forces bought only 14 million cases of 

 evaporated milk in 1943, whereas up to 

 November this year they already had ob- 

 tained 25 million cases. 



Stitts emphasized that all war food 

 orders applying to dairy products would 

 be terminated or relaxed as soon as pos- 

 sible, but said that so far milk is still too 

 "tight" to allow many significant adjust- 

 ments. 



WFA's dairy chief reported that from 

 1943, when the first set-aside programs 

 were enacted, through December, 1944, 

 the government will have purchased for 

 U.S. military and lend-lease purposes 749 

 million pounds of butter — 464 million 

 pounds in 1943 and 285 million pounds 

 in 1944; 740 million pounds of cheddar 

 cheese — about half each year; and 586 

 million pounds of nonfat dry milk solids 

 — again about half each year. 



Of the 749 million pounds of butter 

 set aside during the 2 years, 551 million 

 pounds went to U.S. military and war 

 services. Most of the remaining 198 

 million pounds was for the Russian army, 

 primarily for hospital use. 



The mounting offensive in Europe and 

 the South Pacific is as a twin summons 

 to America's five million dairy farmers 

 to break still more production records and 

 to prepare, at the same time, to deal with 

 the threat of a postwar surplus, Owen 

 M. Richards, Chicago, manager of the 

 American Dairy Association, declared. 



While dairymen are ready to exert 

 themselves still more to carry out a pa- 

 triotic responsibility for boosting milk 

 supplies, Richards said, they must also 

 get set for "anything that may happen to 

 change the entire food outlook," in view 

 of the knockout drive which is under 

 way. 



Advising against "counting too strongly 

 on experts" for future dairy food mar- 

 kets, Richards advocated united support 

 by dairy farmers of their own business 

 measures, including aggressive, nation- 

 wide advertising through their American 

 Dairy Association, to elevate America's 

 postwar consumption of milk and its 

 products to the record war-time produc- 

 tion levels. 



Farm production, he said, underlies the 

 jobs of more than five million persons 

 in food, leather and textile manufactur- 

 ing, in wholesaling and retailing farm 



3i 



Tom StitU 



John Hagenztoz, Washington, left, receives 



congratulations irom his predecessor on 



the IMPA board, Ryland Capron, retiring 



president, Peoria. 



products, and in the hotel and restaurant 

 business. He asserted millions of other 

 jobs "go hand in hand with farm pros- 

 perity because one-third of all manu- 

 factured products are bought by rural 

 people." 



Annual report of the Illinois Milk 

 Producers' Association presented by Wil- 

 fred Shaw, secretary-manager, showed 

 that more than 2 billion pounds of milk 

 were marketed, which on a 3.5% price 

 basis, amounts to $63,413,074.65. The 

 volume of milk marketed in 1943-44 was 

 3.02 per cent greater than that marketed 

 by the association as a group for the 

 period 1942-43. The daily average num- 

 ber of shippers of member cooperatives 

 during the year was 20,103 as compared 

 with 19,802 a year ago, or an increase 

 of 1.5 per cent. "The daily average 

 quantity of milk shipped by members of 

 member associations increased 1.47 per 

 cent over that for the year previous. 

 Value received showed an increase of 

 7.09 per cent. 



Newly planted trees need to be cultivated. 



Shallow cultivation will keep down weeds 

 and will increase tree growth. 



14 



L A. A. RECORD 



