WHAT'S AHEAD 



{Continued from page 9) 



have proved their value in peace as well 

 as in war. 



"We are not unminded of th/s. fact 

 that we increased farm productiori more 

 than 30 per cent during the war, and 

 that when conditions return to normal 

 we will again face the problem of sur- 

 pluses. We want to be ready with a 

 program when the problem appears," 

 he asserted. 



Of equal importance in the long-time 

 outlook, President O'Neal said, is a 

 program for halting loss of plant food 

 from the soils and an expanded pro- 

 gram of farm research. 



Other sections of the agricultural out- 

 look were given to Farm Bureau mem- 

 bers attending the convention by a 

 group of distinguished guest speakers. 



Congressman Clifford R. Hope of 

 Kansas, who has been a member of the 

 House committee on agriculture many 

 years, and is expected to become chairman 

 of the agricultural committee in the 80th 

 Congress, said that he forsees no disas- 

 trous slump in agricultural prices such as 

 followed the first World War. He 

 said that the Steagall amendment would 

 give the country a breathing spell dur- 

 ing which careful consideration can be 

 given to a permanent post-war agricul- 

 tural policy. 



He further declared that the 80th 

 Congress should make a careful examin- 

 ation of the country's agricultural pic- 

 ture to determine what changes in leg- 

 islation and policy are necessary to meet 

 the new problems resulting from in- 

 creased wartime production, increased 

 mechanization of farms, improved vari- 

 eties of crops and breeds of livestock. 

 As one possible 

 means of remedy 

 of overproduction. 

 Congressman Hope 

 advocated the appli- 

 cation of research in 

 the field of market- 

 ing to the same ex- 

 tent that it is ap- 

 plied in the field of 

 production. 



Senator Richard 

 B. Russell of Geor- 

 gia pointed out that 

 while farm income reached the highest 

 record level during the war, the farmer's 

 income is still below the income of indus- 

 trial workers. The per capita farm income, 

 he said, in 1945 was 1585, the highest 

 ever known. But in the same year, the 

 average per capita income of all persons 

 in the United States, including the farmer, 

 was |1294. The total national income in 



Sencrtor Russell 



1945 was nearly 162 billions of dollars, 

 and farm income reached a record high 

 of 2114 billion dollars, but the fact 

 still remains that the less than 20 per 

 cent of the nation's population who live 

 on farms only received 9.I per cent of 

 the total income. He pointed out that 

 it took a long hard fight to get laws on 

 the books to protect farmers, and the 

 farmers will fight to keep them on the 

 books as long as there are others on 

 the statutes for the benefit and pro- 

 tection of other groups. 



N. E. Dodd, Under Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, told Farm Bureau delegates that 

 farmers should prepare their produc- 



N. E. Dodd 



W. L. Therp 



tion plans for the time when exports 

 to foreign countries begin to taper off. 

 Willard L. Thorp, Assistant Secretary 

 of State for Economic Affairs, said to- 

 day there is no escaping the fact that it 

 is a small world, and that the American 

 people are very thoroughly involved in 

 its problems and happenings. He 

 stressed the fact that international re- 

 sponsibility on our part is just as es- 

 sential in economic affairs as it is in 

 political affairs. 



Gov. Earl Warren of California told 

 the Farm Bureau audience that the 

 country must recognize that the wel- 

 fare of our families both on the farm 

 and in the city depends upon a sustained 

 high level of production and employ- 

 ment. 



J. W. Burch, director of extension, 

 University of Missouri, described a sort 

 of revolution in farming practices, 

 known as "balanced farming" that is 

 sweeping Missouri. 



Balanced farming, as outlined by Di- 

 rector Burch, is the operation of an in- 

 dividual farm by a careful planned sys- 

 tem, which starts with the family itself 

 and takes into consideration the entire 

 farm unit. It ties the individual enter- 

 prises and practices together in the 

 right balance to improve the soil and 

 at the same time obtain progressively 

 greater returns year after year in terms 

 of net family income. 



The AFBF's gold medal awards for 

 Distinguished Service to Agriculture 

 were presented to three farm leaders 



by President O'Neal. They were Con- 

 gressman Hope, H. E. Babcock, chair- 

 man, board of trustees, Cornell Uni- 

 versity board of trustees, and J. F. Por- 

 ter, for 25 years president of "Tennessee 

 Farm Bureau Federation. 



In the election of directors whose 

 terms expired. President Charles B. Shu- 

 man of the Illinois Agricultural Associ- 

 ation was re-elected for a two-year term. 

 President Shuman was first elected to 

 the AFBF board in 1945 when he was 

 named to complete one year of the un- 

 expired term of Allen Kline, president 

 of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, 

 who had been elected vice-president of 

 the AFBF. Other midwest directors up 

 for re-election included Frank W. 

 White, president of the Minnesota 

 Farm Bureau Federation, who was re- 

 elected for a two-year term. 



Mrs. Roy C. F. Weagly, Hagerstown, 

 Md., and Mrs. Raymond Sayre, Ack- 

 worth, la., were re-elected president 

 and vice-president, respectively, of the 

 Associated Women of the AFBF. 



Winner of the National Rural Youth 

 Talkfest was Lawrence Whaley, 19, Le- 

 roy, Ind. When the winner and two 

 alternates of Indiana were unable to 

 attend the convention, Whaley, who 

 had competed in the Indiana Talkmeet, 

 was drafted to represent the Hoosier 

 state and promptly walked off with the 

 national honor. 



Records Show Farm 

 Efficiency Pays Off 



PROOF that careful feeding and mar- 

 keting of livestock can pay an annual 

 premium of |2,850 a year is revealed in 

 the records of the top 35 cooperators en- 

 rolled in the Blackhawk Farm Bureau 

 Farm Management Service. 



These farms averaged 210 acres in 

 size and earning ranged from $3,450 for 

 the low 35 members to $6,300 for the 

 high 35 cooperators. 



A study of these farm accounts, made 

 by M. L. Mosher of the College of Agri- 

 culture at Urbana, showed that this $2,- 

 850 spread in net income was due large- 

 ly to efficiency in handling livestock and 

 only a small part to crop yield, and labor 

 and machinery costs. 



Most of this efficiency, Mosher said, 

 is due to a few simple and well-known 

 practices. These he listed as feeding only 

 good quality livestock and keeping the 

 animals hedthy, full use of high-pro- 

 tein hay and jjasture, enough high-pro- 

 tein concentrates to balance grain ra- 

 tions, and timing production to get stock 

 and livestock products on the best mar- 

 kets. 



JANUARY. 1947 



