Word: soils
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...rich, black loam of Italy's Po River Valley is fertile soil for the seeds of discontent. There, in a densely overpopulated farmland whose every square mile must support 470 people, 80,000 field hands seek work on a puny 132,000 acres of farmland, get their wages-if any-in the wheat and sugar-beet yield of the land itself. With holdings averaging 20 acres or less apiece, the farmers are themselves poor, bitter, hard pressed. For years the richest harvest reaped in the Valley has been one of violence, distrust and hatred...
...wheat production would be far higher, especially with rains in the old dust-bowl area. But the truth is that any surplus production avoided in wheat is turning up in rye, oats, grain sorghums or other crops, as farmers put their idle acreage into uncontrolled crops. One thing the soil bank once more proved was that, barring police-state controls, farmers will always outsmart bureaucrats. This year, for example, most farmers gave the soil bank their poorest acres, keeping their best for their price-supported crops. This was legal, if the payment reflected the poor quality of the land. Often...
Much of the opposition to the soil bank is based on the charge that it is highly partial in whom it helps. Apart from the relatively unimportant conservation-reserve phase, the benefits are confined to producers of the five price-supported crops-wheat, corn, cotton, rice and tobacco. Such crops account for only 23% of total farm income-leaving the producers of the other 77% totally outside the benefits of the price support or soil-bank pro grams. The soil bank has turned out to be a money bank for the corn belt and Great Plains wheat states, plus...
...basic argument against the soil bank is that it is failing to reduce production. By pouring on the fertilizer, planting the rows closer together and cultivating more intensively, farmers are producing almost as much as before. For 1957, the U.S. signed up 233,453 farmers to take 12,784,968 acres of wheat out of production in return for $230,974,475 in payments. This should have cut output 20%, but the now ripening winter-seeded wheat crop (the bulk of the crop) is expected to be 703 million bu., only 4% under the 1956 total of 734 million. Moreover...
Last week there were still some Agriculture Department officials and Congressmen who said that if its operation could be improved the soil bank might yet do some good. Secretary Benson himself argued that the bank should be allowed to operate for at least one full year in order to have a fair trial. But unless it was cleaned up soon, the bank was fast joining the list of discredited agricultural panaceas. For political reasons the Senate is almost certain to restore most of the cuts. The House will probably go along at some compromise figure, if for no other reason...