tion's indispensable good lands." The Board recommended coordinated action by individual land owners and the Federal and State Governments in attacking the problem, pointing out that: "Safeguards for the sustained utility of the land for this and future generations require action by the State or National Government where economic pressure under self-interest of the landowner imposes those uses of the soil that are destructive of its future utility." Farmers, engaged in unrestricted competition with each other, have not been able or willing to forego immediate return from exploiting their fields, in favor of preserving its productivity. The National Resources Board suggested a program for dealing with drought problems. At all points, the soil-conservation program of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration furthers the methods. recommended by the National Resources Board. Such methods included the encouragement of a less intensive system of farming with crop rotations and the planting of soil-conserving crops, use of forests as windbreaks and to protect watersheds, and restoration or at least conservation of native range grasses. Farmers, under the 1936 agricultural conservation program, have been assisted with benefit payments to adopt these methods on their own farms. In its report the National Resources Board emphasized the interrelation of floods, silting, and erosion control, and urged that landmanagement policies be coordinated with engineering works in attacking the flood-control problem that starts in fields and uplands where water is allowed, unchecked, to swell flooded rivers far below. IMPROPER FARMING METHODS MUST BE PREVENTED The entire region of the Great Plains is marked by low annual rainfall, often concentrated in storms of short duration and great intensity, by wide fluctuations of temperature, and by very strong prevailing winds. Its natural cover, consisting of various grasses and some trees, has been destroyed over millions of acres, by overgrazing or by excessive plowing. The Great Plains Drought Area Committee appointed by the President reported to him on August 27, 1936, that: "The basic cause of the present Great Plains situation is an attempt to impose upon a region a system of agriculture to which the plains are not adapted-to bring into a semiarid region methods which, on the whole, are suitable only for a humid region." Recommendations of the Great Plains Drought Area Committee supported those of the National Resources Board, as indicated in the following paragraph: "The agricultural economy of the Great Plains will become increasingly unstable and unsafe, in view of the impossibility of permanent increase in the amount of rainfall, unless overcropping, overgrazing, and improper farm methods are prevented. There is no reason to believe that the primary factors of climate, temperature, precipitation, and winds in the Great Plains region have undergone any fundamental change. The future of the region must depend, therefore, on the degree to which farming practices conform to natural conditions. Because the situation has now passed out of the individual farmer's control, the reorganization of farming practices demands the cooperation of many agencies, including the local, State, and Federal Governments." CONSERVATION PROGRAM MEETS COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS The recommendations of the Great Plains Drought Area Committee, like those of the National Resources Board, covered practices and changes which farmers, through the soil-conservation program of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, are enabled to adopt. Economic as well as physical questions and factors enter into the problem of offsetting the consequences of droughts. It has been pointed out that economic pressure through unrestricted competition renders the individual farmer helpless in the face of the problem on his own farm. Stabilizing the production of farm products in areas where drought. is a menace stabilizes the income of farmers and enables them to remain on their farms and maintain their productive plant, even through a drought period. Grasses, legumes, and forage crops of the type which actually conserve soil also make the best use of the moisture that does occur and produce a maximum amount of livestock feed when clean-tilled crops would yield little or nothing. Farming of the more extensive type, insofar as livestock is concerned, can be carried on with lower production costs than are involved in intensive cultivated farming. SOIL MUST BE USED TO PRODUCE Economic considerations dictate the extent to which farming can be carried on with soil-resource conservation as the principal objective. The Nation's farm plant operated solely for the purpose of conservation, would not fulfill the obligation of agriculture to produce adequately for all demands. Forest cover is probably the most effective means of conserving soil resources and preventing floods, but since the soil is needed to produce food and fiber for the Nation, it cannot all be left in trees. To feed and clothe the Nation, farmers must till the soil, but it is possible to cultivate and conserve at the same time. Both crops and cropping practices can be adapted to the process of conservation. The agricultural conservation program encourages the production of such thick-growing crops as hold the soil, resisting wind and water erosion, and do not rapidly deplete the plant nutrients; it seeks to establish an economic balance between the production of these crops and the production of the soil-depleting crops which are required by con sumers. Furthermore, strip-cropping, contour farming, terracing, gully control, construction of dams, and other methods of holding water on the land until it is absorbed and stored are all contemplated in the agricultural conservation program and farmers are enabled to adopt such practices through that program. IV. EMERGENCY MEASURES MAY BE DEMANDED AGAIN All these measures tend to diminish the impact of drought on actual production, on ability to keep on producing, and on the economic situation of farmers and consumers alike. In 1934 and 1936 emergency measures were required to meet a most drastic situation, and the experience gained in those years will enable the country as a whole to face and conquer such situations in the future. The special activities of relief may again be demanded but the necessity for these activities can be lessened if the farming system is adjusted to a balance which makes it more droughtresistant and less vulnerable than the system which has prevailed in the past. CROP INSURANCE AND STORAGE OF RESERVES Consideration has been given throughout 1936 to the possibility of establishing a crop-insurance plan coordinated with the conservation program and with a system of storing commodity reserves. plan should level out in part the economic consequences of wide fluctuations in production and in price. It should assure a stable supply of farm products for consumers, and a stable income for farmers, both in good years when crops are large and prices tend to drop, and in bad years when prices are high but supplies are limited. Combined with such a plan, agricultural conservation principles offer a long-time defense against drought consequences (1) to the farmer, whose producing ability and income are sustained, and (2) to the producer, whose supplies of food and fiber are conserved and protected. CHAPTER 6 THE SUGAR PROGRAM SALIENT FACTS ABOUT THE SUGAR PROGRAM 1. Balance due to producers under sugar-production adjustment contracts as of January 1, 1936___. 2. Disbursements on invalidated contracts during calendar year 3. Initial consumption quota for United States for calendar year Short tons, raw value__ 5. Differential between United States price of raw sugar, duty paid, $33, 586, 606 $28, 000, 130 6, 434, 088 6,812, 687 and world price: The sugar program for the Continental United States and the offshore areas producing sugar for the United States, established under the Jones-Costigan legislation of 1934, provided for adjusting sugar supplies to consumption requirements by establishing quotas; adjusting sugar production in the various areas within the quotas; and financing this program through a processing tax on sugar of one-half cent a pound. The production-adjustment and processing-tax phases of this program were terminated as a result of the Supreme Court decision on January 6, 1936, in the Hoosac-Mills case. However, the quota provisions of the Jones-Costigan Act were unaffected by the decision and Congress ratified them by Public Resolution No. 109, Seventyfourth Congress. During 1936, the sugar program activities consisted chiefly of liquidating commitments to sugar producers under the programs terminated by the Supreme Court decision; adapting the 1936 soil program to the needs of sugar producers; assisting in developing more satisfactory beet-purchase contracts for 1937-38; and administering the quota provisions which remained in effect. I. LIQUIDATION OF SUGAR PRODUCTION-ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS At the beginning of 1936 when the Supreme Court decision invalidated the adjustment programs, $33,586,606 due to sugar producers under their adjustment contracts for compliance with contracts and programs in effect, remained unpaid. During 1936, payments disbursed to liquidate these claims totaled $28,000,130, leaving $5,586,476 remaining unpaid at the close of the year. |