the use of single-row plantings of other crops, trees, or artificial barriers have been made at several locations in the United States. Over a 3-year period, soybean plant height, dry-matter weight, and grain yields were increased over 20 percent in areas sheltered by windbreaks composed of double rows of corn. This increased soybean yield in the areas protected by the barriers was sufficient to offset the increased cost of the system.

PHREATOPHYTES

Studies are underway into the rates of and conditions controlling the use of water by phreatophytes, notably saltcedar. Particular emphasis is being placed on effect of salinity of the ground water, and depth to the water table. Also, observations of the pick-up of water are being made through dyes; and of the emission of water by sensing from aircraft. In some studies, water budget methods of estimating use on a regional basis are being checked as a method of water conservation through modifying natural vegetation cover. MARKET QUALITY RESEARCH

The goals of this research are to develop meaningful and practical measures of quality, instruments to determine quality and to find ways to reduce spoilage between the time of harvest and delivery to the consumer.

Insect resistant multiwall bags have been developed that prevent insect infestation of the bag contents in storage and in transit. A repellent treatment is applied to the outer surface and improved construction and closure features eliminate openings for insects.

Soft rot of peppers was shown to be increased by bacteria contaminated brushes of the wax applicator. Frequent disinfection of the brushes with chlorine solution reduced decay.

Development of scald on bruised red tart cherries in the soak tanks was greatly reduced by aerating the water to maintain 8.6 p.p.m. level of oxygen. Treating cantaloupes for 30 seconds in water heated to 135° F. prevented development of surface molds at the stem scar.

A quick simple test was developed to detect Salmonella in samples of dried egg. It consists of determining hydrogen sulfide production and mannitol fermentation in conjunction with lactose broth.

A rice meter that combines light reflectance and transmittance principles has been developed to measure degree of boiling, color or general appearance, and degree of milling of milled rice.

CURRENT TRENDS IN BASIC RESEARCH

Future emphasis in stored-products insects control will be on pesticidal control methods that result in a minimum of undesirable residues, and on ecological and physiological studies that may lead to nonpesticidal control. Increased attention will be given to the effects of mechanical harvesting on the quality and shelf life of agricultural products and on methods to decrease any undesirable effects.

RURAL LIVING

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Rural America, with less than a third of the nation's population, has almost half of its poor. Opportunities lag behind those in urban areas-for education, for job training, and for recreation. Housing is poorer. Jobs are fewer. Health and medical facilities are less adequate. As a result, young people and others have sought opportunity in the cities, diminishing the rural tax base for support of education, health and other public services. The poor who have

migrated to the cities have often added to the urban public assistance burden. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, through its rural areas development effort, has been working to make opportunities for rural people equal to those in urban areas. Efforts have gone forward to stem out-migration by making rural communities better places in which to live. Rural leaders, working through existing and new rural development committees, have been assisted in combining local resources with those of Federal and State agencies for projects that improve their communities. Nearly all States have State rural development committees and three-fourths of the nation's rural counties have county committees. Many participate in multi-county committees to attack common problems.

The Congress has provided new legislation needed to overcome some of the problems encountered. Credit has been made available for financing jobcreating industries in rural areas and for building water and waste disposal systems. Educational systems have been strengthened. Hospitals and other health facilities have been expanded. Rural housing loan programs include special help for senior citizens and for migrant-worker families. Job-training has been made available to rural people. Income-producing recreation projects have been developed. Rural cooperatives have been strengthened, and natural resources protected and developed. Many rural communities are being revitalized and the level of family living raised.

Two national committees appointed by the President, one composed of lay leaders and the other of cabinet-level government agency heads, are studying the problems of rural poverty.

Home economists, particularly those in the Cooperative Extension Service, have been active leaders in rural development. They have assisted rural development committees to obtain needed community facilities and health and medical personnel for the community. They have worked with programs for migrant families, organized Head Start child development centers, and many other community enterprises.

POPULATION

RURAL POPULATION

In 1960, rural people comprised about 30 percent of the total population of the United States. Although the total continued to expand from 180.6 million in 1960 to 194.5 million in 1965, the rural population remained almost constant at about 54 million persons.

The composition of the rural population, however, has changed substantially. Since World War II the number of nonfarm people has increased from 31.4 million in 1950 to 38.4 million in 1960 (latest figures available). More rural people work in industry and more rural women are being employed in industry and business. This means that the farm population has been steadily declining.

FARM POPULATION

By 1965 the farm population has declined to 12.3 million and comprised only 6.4 percent of the total population of the United States. The rapidly expanding state of agricultural technology is largely responsible for this small proportion of the population employed on farms. As in many other parts of the economy, machinery is taking the place of human labor. Farms are being consolidated into large units so that the number, also, is declining. The net out-migration from farms averaged 794,000 persons annually from 1960 to 1965. This represents an absolute decline compared to the 1,013,000 average of the 1950-60 percentage decade, but the annual migration rate was actually a bit higher during the 1960-65 period (5.7% as compared to 5.4%).

In most rural areas the nonfarm rural population greatly exceeds the farm population. The estimates for 1960 indicated there were 38.4 million rural nonfarm people compared with 15.6 million farm residents. Some rural nonfarm residents living in small towns and the open country are employed in agriculture as hired workers. The majority, however, work in nonagricultural industries.

The composition of the nation's population varies substantially by regions. The trend toward urbanization has occurred in all regions but at different rates. For example, the North East has been predominantly urban since 1880 and the North Central and Western regions since 1920. The South did not become predominantly urban until 1960 following the decrease of 40 percent in its farm population during the 1950-60 decade.

EMPLOYMENT

The rural labor force (persons 14 years old or over working or actively looking for work) is estimated to be about 20 million persons. This estimate is based on a slight increase over the 1960 level of approximately 19 million. This is about one-fourth of the 78.5 million persons in the labor force during 1965. Workers living on farms were about 7 percent of the total labor force and those living in nonfarm rural areas about 18 percent. In 1960 about 51 percent of the rural population was in the labor force compared with 57 percent of the urban population. This difference is due largely to the fact that fewer rural women have paid employment. This ratio is increasing, however, and women comprise 26 percent of the rural labor force in 1960 compared to only 16 percent in 1940.

The industrial structure of the labor force is very different for farm residents and for rural nonfarm residents. The work of farm residents is still largely agricultural-six out of ten farm residents worked in agriculture in 1960. The next most important industries employing farm residents are manufacturing and service industries which employ about one-fourth of all farm residents. In contrast, the industrial composition of nonfarm rural workers is similar to that of urban workers.

HIRED FARM LABOR

About 71 percent of the farm working force who did some work for wages were men or boys. There are 2.6 million households in the United States having one or more persons who do farm work for wages or salaries. The total population of the household is around 11 million persons. This represents about 6 percent of the total U.S. population who have some direct dependency on hired farm workers for their support.

Hired farm workers are concentrated on a small portion of the farms in the United States and in certain types of farm work, yet they are widely dispersed throughout the country. În 1964 more than one-half of all hired farm workers lived and worked in the South-about one-tenth in the Northeast States and the remainder were about equally located in the North Central and Western States.

Seasonality in agricultural employment seems to be increasing as mechanization and specialization expands. Regular and year-round workers comprised about one-fifth of the hired working force and did about two-thirds of the man-days of the hired farm work in 1964. Casual workers do about 80 percent of their work during the summer harvest months.

Migratory labor has been an important source of seasonal farm labor in many areas of the country. They are still important in the specialized fruit and vegetable areas. Domestic migratory workers have totaled about 380,000 in recent years or about 10 percent of the total hired farm work force. Foreign

migratory workers were an important source of seasonal farm labor until 1960. Since that time decreasing numbers have been hired and most of these are now supplied from Mexico.

Increasing attention has been given to the problems of migratory farm workers by both Federal and State governments. Under provisions of the Migrant Health Act of 1962, grants are made to public and volunteer nonprofit organizations to pay part of the costs of family health services, clinics and other types of projects designed to improve the health and living conditions of migratory farm workers.

WAGES

Wages paid to farm workers historically have been low. This is still generally true. In July 1965, the farm wage rate per hour for workers who did not receive board or room averaged $1.14. The rate paid in this category ranged from 65 cents per hour to more than $1.40. Generally, wage rates are lowest in the South where about one-half of all farm wage workers live. In contrast, production workers in manufacturing industries earned an average of about $2.61.

In 1964 hired farm workers as a group earned about $7.15 a day in cash wages and for about 80 days of farm work earned a total of $578. In contrast, workers who were employed in both farm and nonfarm wage work in 1964 earned total wages of $1,379. Workers who devoted most of their time to nonfarm work earned a total of $2,641.

Contributing to the low annual income of many farm workers is the large measure of unemployment they experience. It is estimated that of the 4.4 million persons who did some hired farm work in 1964 about 700,000 had some unemployment during_the_year. Low levels of education among hired farm workers place severe handicaps on their ability to increase their level of earnings.

In addition to receiving lower wages, hired farm workers generally receive fewer fringe benefits than do nonagricultural workers. A substantial proportion do receive some perquisites such as room and board, housing, meals, transportation and the use of garden space. But in general the value of these items does not equal that of health and medical insurance, paid vacations and other benefits received by nonfarm workers. Moreover, the quality of housing, sanitary facilities and other equipment provided to farm wage earners is often below normal standards.

STANDARD OF LIVING

The levels of living among rural people have improved in recent decades and have become more similar to those of urban residents. Improved transportation, communications, and electrification have brought many of the amenities of urban life to the country and the gap between the level of living in urban and most rural areas is narrowing rapidly. At the same time, it is estimated that rural and urban areas share the poverty of the nation about equally. This is illustrated by the fact that rural families comprise nearly one-half of all families receiving incomes of less than $3,000.

The level-of-living index developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture indicates that farm operators and their families advanced their level of living substantially from 1950 to 1959. This index is based on the extent to which farm operator families have telephones, home freezers, automobiles, and the value of farm real estate and the value of farm products sold. On the average, farm operator families in the United States had a level-of-living index of 100 compared with an average of 59 ten years earlier. Based on the above factors,

the level of living varies rather widely, being highest in the Western States and lowest in the Southern.

The quality of living of rural people has been enhanced in almost all phases of community life. Electric power, telephone services, public roads, schools, library services, recreation facilities and many other services and conveniences are now available to most rural families. A single index which illustrates widespread contact with the outside world is the fact that 98 percent of the rural population enjoys the use of radio, and from 80 to 90 percent of all rural families have TV sets. These media alone provide expanding educational services to the vast majority of rural people. Especially designed programs for rural audiences are expanding rapidly.

HEALTH SERVICES

Generally, farm and other rural people have not enjoyed the quality of health services that have historically been available to urban and town families. Physicians, dentists, and medical services have normally been less available in rural areas and costs have been relatively high in terms of available income. Numerous Federal programs have been provided during the past decade to increase the quality of health to all rural as well as urban families.

Substantial Federal funds are being provided to expand the construction of hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and other health facilities. In recent years substantial funds have been provided for improving the health and welfare of migrants employed in agriculture. Programs to benefit the mentally retarded and rehabilitation services have been expanded in all phases of American life. And the coverage of various hospitalization and medical insurance programs have been extended through all major sources of employment.

Perhaps the "Medicare" program for the aged is the outstanding accomplishment of recent years insofar as health is concerned. This program provides hospital and medical insurance to persons over 65 years of age through the national Social Security program. Hospital insurance is automatically available to those covered by the Social Security program and medical insurance is available with the payment of a small monthly premium.

EDUCATION

The 1960 census of population indicated that the average farm resident 25 years old and over had completed only 8.8 years of formal education. This compared with an average of 11.1 years of school completed by urban residents. As in most other phases of the community life, the quality and the availability of education to all rural children has been enchanced during the past decade. The elimination of most rural one-room schools and the construction of consolidated schools at both the elementary and secondary levels are providing modern, high-quality education to all except the most isolated communities. The expansion of Federal aid to education has been substantial with passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and numerous other additional Federal grant and loan programs for education. Substantial Federal grants are now available for school construction and other educational facilities.

The most innovative effort to advance the education of children in low income families was provided under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. (See Chapter on "Special Programs and Services”).

Another outstanding educational program was provided under the Manpower Development Training Act. This activity is designed to train and retrain adults to fit them for modern employment. In addition to funds for the selection and training of low income people, subsistence payments are provided