Historic, archived document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. January 1947 Consumers' guide LIBRARY CURRENT SERIAL RECORD °1 * JAN 9 1947 # U. 3. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE — VOLUME XIII • NUMBER 1 • JANUARY 1947 of products needed for the war effort, may mark another permanent trend in outlook In this issue: service. The production goals are based Outlook, 1947 2 Farmers' goals for 1947 11 on the expected demand for farm products Home on the farm 3 The world's menu 13 in the United States, the needs for New equipment is on the way 6 Close up on the News 15 exports, What are you worth? 9 Guide posts 16 adequate reserves, and a stock pile for postwar rehabilitation. The estimated ILLUSTRATIONS: Cover, Richard Lahey; p. 3, USDA; p. 4, AAA; p. 5, left, AAA, right, Consumers' Guide' needs are expressed in pounds and acreages pp. 6,7,8, drawings, Howard Chapman; p. 8, labels, BHN&HE; p. 10, left, Charles Phelps Gushing; right, Ewing for each commodity. Goals are allocated Galloway; p. 11, AAA; p. 13, FAO; p. 14, Adapted fiom FAO material by BHN&HE; p. 16, drawings, Katherine Johnson. by States. And the problems of individual farmers in each region and area are taken into consideration. State and local com- mittees familiar with the local problems Outlook, 1947 are called on, so far as possible, to deter- mine the fairness and adequacy of the goals Addressed to his Excellency, Abraham consumer cannot be fed, clothed, or in terms of the individual farmer. Lincoln, President of the United States, housed without the products of the farm Through proper dissemination of infor- was the report of the first Commissioner of and the farmer's only source of income is mation the farmers who voluntarily sub- Agriculture, Isaac Newton, dated Depart- from the consumer. It is probably be- scribed to the goals are made aware of the ment of Agriculture, Washington, January cause their mutual welfare is so tied up reasons, pro and con, and for attempting 1, 1863- The report begins with an Act to together that the Congress of 1862 issued to meet them. establish the Department of Agriculture a mandate that the Department shall The Bureau of Agricultural Economics, approved May 15, 1862. The opening acquire and diffuse among the people of the Extension Service, and the Production section reads: the United States useful information on and Marketing Administration cooperated the "Be it enacted by Senate and House of subjects connected with agriculture. in directing its own information which the United States Representatives of of America Agriculture, so ordered, has done its fills in the pattern for the year. Subject in assembled, there is Congress That hereby part toward acquiring the information material is primarily economic. The established at the seat of government of the and setting it out. Farmers, being good Extension Service and other agencies act to United States a Department of Agriculture, farmers, must look ahead a year and must bring the information to the farmer in time the general designs and duties of which choose what seed they will plant, plan to make it useful to him in planning his shall be to acquire and to diffuse among the what soil the seed shall grow in, and year's work. people of the United States useful informa- foresee the market which will use the •Many discussions are necessarily general. tion on subjects connected with agriculture crop produced. Sowing poor seed is These in themselves, properly broken down in the most general and comprehensive worthless effort. Good seed on the wrong and presented, are used by farmers as sense of that word, and to procure, propa- soil can either yield no crop or an abun- factors in their decisions. gate, and distribute among the people new dant crop which will be paid for later by Broadening the market for farm products valuable plants." depleted land. Or, the crop can plant- and seeds and be was discussed by economists and agricul- This New Year's issue of the Consumers' ed in highest anticipation of success and tural and industrial chemical engineers, and Guide includes summaries of the Twenty- the yield can accrue but there will be no better nutrition and better uses of farm Fourth Outlook Conference as well as the market for it. The farmer must think of products for consumers, by authorities of crop goals for 1947. The problems and all of these things. If he does not, he has the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home attainments of agriculture touched on here no cash income and the consumer has no Economics. Commodities were discussed stand out in sharp contrast to some of the food. leading authorities in each crop, and problems and attainments recorded in that So it was that in 1923 the first National by first report to Mr. Lincoln. But though Outlook Conference, designed to look over the best in how-to-do information as re- the backgrounds of the times are different, past performances and weigh them in the lated to the current needs and best returns the aims of agriculture and the broad light of apparent probable factors, was for the coming year is given. Definite outline along which it works to attain called. They were designed to be useful forecasts seldom possible are seldom made. these aims remains in essence the same. to the individual farmer as a guide in The best information for making the year the Con- planning production and marketing for the Looking ahead to the new wisest decisions is set forth. ference viewed from material available maximum returns. the outlook for the coming year. The establishment of production goals Here some of this data is addressed to during the war, which worked so effec- both farmers and consumers because the tively in obtaining the amounts and kinds consumers' guide is printed with the approval of the Bureau of the Budget as CONSUMERS' GUIDE Issued Monthly required by Rule 42 of the Joint Committee on Printing. Official free distribution A Publication of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, is limited. Additional copies may be obtained from the Superintendent of Docu- ments, Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C, 5 cents a copy, or by Washington, D. C. subscription, 50 cents a year, domestic; 70 cents a year, foreign. Postage stamp* Editor, Ben James; associate editors, Acne Carter, Elizabeth Spence; art, Howard E. will not be accepted in payment. Chapman. 2 Consumers' guide Home on the farm • Life on the farm isn't as simple as it dwellings with electricity increased from difference in the savings which the two seems in a pastoral movie, complete with a 32 percent in 1940 to 52 percent in 1945- groups have been able to pile up is to be cozy farmhouse, and a husky, apple- Even after allowance for advancing food expected. Sure enough, on January 1, cheeked family eating from an overloaded costs, farm families spent more on food, 1946, 10 percent of the farm operators held table to the tune of cowbells tinkling on judging from groups reporting their ex- 75 percent of all farmer-owned savings the sound track. penditures to colleges in several States. bonds and one-half had none. This was brought out at sessions of the This, coupled with the fact that home pro- While some families have been paying Agricultural Outlook Conference for 1947 duction of food increased, points to better off old debts, recently the trend of farm which considered trends in farm family eating on the farm. Also expenditures of mortgage debt has started going up again living and what to do to improve living health and medical care increased greatly. and the size of the mortgages is increasing. conditions on the farm. Dark Side of the Picture In the event of a drop in farm prices, this On the bright side, the record gives Though the average farm income and could mean serious financial trouble for a evidence of substantial improvement in a savings have risen dramatically above pre- considerable group of families. number of situations affecting farm living. war lows, many farm families still have Crowded housing is associated in most Net farm incomes have risen sharply so low incomes. True, the average income people's minds with city slums. Unhap- that in 1946 they averaged 3 times the per farm in the United States was $2,250. pily, the country has its slum conditions earnings of farm operators during the But that wasn't much comfort to the aver- too. In 1939 less than half the homes 1935-39 period. With higher incomes, age West Virginia farm family which occupied by farm operators were "accept- farm families have increased their bond netted only $896 in return for all thei*- hard able" while about a third were in a " holdings from $249 million on January 1, work in the fields. Nor was it much help nonrepayable' ' condition. Though some 1940, to $5,028 million on January 1, 1946. to the farmers in a Georgia county where progress in rural housing has been noted During the same period they whittled about a third of the white families and a since that time, there is still great need down the old mortgage by nearly a fourth half of the Negro families received incomes for improvement. and built up their bank accounts threefold. under $500. Chief barriers to such improvement- are These larger savings mean a greater margin While it's true that a large number of low income and tenancy. In 1939 only a of security against crop failures or price families supplement their farm earnings by million and a half of the Nation's farrrrs drops than farmers had after World War I.