Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
FARLEY TO WEIGH
FARM PROSPECTS
National Conference to Get
Data on Price Trends,
Stocks and Demand.
E. the Associated Press.

e. the Associated Press,
Called for January 20 to ~, the ma
tional agricultural outlook conference
for years one of the greatest annual eco
non1ic influences in American agricul-
ture--is considered in Government quar-
ters to be doubly important to 1880
because of recent industrial develop
ments and the progress of the Federal
Farm Board.
H. r. Tolley, assistant chief of the
Bureau of Agricultural Economics, said
yesterday that slight letdown in in
duStrial activity would make 1t neceS-
sary for the conference to weigh that
factors probable influence on the do
nestle market in determining the kind
ana quantity of crops from which the
farmer could make a profit next year.
In the opposite direction. he said, the
conference would have to gauge the boil
steering effects of the Federal Farm
Boards progress in helping finance and
direct cooperative marketing.
Hopes to Issue Reports.
Forty-one State agricultural colleges,
the Federal Farm Board and bureaus OF
the Department OF Agriculture, in addi-
ton to the highly specialized Bureau
of Agricultural Economics, are to take
part in the conference. States not rep
resented include Alabama. Georgia,
Mississippi. Nebraska. Nevada. New
Hampshire and New Mexico. The lead
ers plan to go to those States for con-
fcrences Immediately after the meet
ing, Tolley said. Nearly all States have
planned to issue State and regional out
look reports and to hold farmers out
look meetings following the issuance OF
the national outlook report Commit
tees have been formed to study and
make recommendations on approximate
ly so farm commodities, including all
the principal crops.
"It is the purpose of the conference"
Tolley said. Ito appraise all the infoT-
nation it is able to get concerning the
trend of prices, stocks on hand, intended
production and present and future de-
mand both in this country and abroad.
and decide for each commodity whether
to maintain present levels, reduce or
increase production and in what
amounts.
The conference virtually will take
world inventory of agricultural prospects
the same as business experts sum up
industrial prospects for a manufacture
ing enterprise that wishes to gauge its
production to the prospective demand
for its commodity"
Tolley said the conference would give
particular attention to wheat and cot
ton. the two major surplus-producin
commodities. Russia appeared in the
export market last week for the first
time since the war, sending a cargo
from a Black Sea to a Mediterranean
port. Russian wheat. If produced in
former quantities, would compete with
American wheat. as do now the great
quantities from Argentina, Australia
and Canada.
Production to Be Studied.
For both cotton and wheat, Tolley
said. the conference would study the
probable world production and the
probable demand for American ship
ments in importing countries. Flax and
wool, both on an import basis, repre-
sented the opposite situation. Tolley
added.
The problem there" he said. will
be TO determine how far foreign pro-
duction will supply the domestic de-
mand and recommend TO American
farmers what quantities they likely can
produce at a profit"
Butter offered another important
: study, in that the conference would
have to determine whether present low
price levels were temporary or likely
to continue. Increased production of
butter has placed it near an export
basis
Potatoes. produced on a strictly do
mestic market, was given as another
difficult crop because Of the wide price
fluctuations. An overabundant yield
II 1928 resulted in financial failure for
half of the crop In 1929 production
was curtailed and prices rose. Tolley
said the conference would recommend
a curtailed acreage for 1890, with a
view TO avoiding repetition Of the 1928
market.
For the last several years, he said,
the prices of beef cattle increased as
production decreased. Prices in 1929
showed no increase, and the conference,
he said. would determine whether beef
cattle had reached the low level OF pro-
duction and started back.