Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-09-14
Optimism Shown Over Bumper Crop Conditions
As Government Makes Final Survey for 1q45
Wheat Leads Off With
Largest Harvest Ever
Grown in the Country

Americas 1945 farm outlook gives
promise of total production higher
than for any year on record except
the bumper seasons of 1912 and 1914.
Some $4,000, 900 acres are due to
be harvested, with record or near
record productions indicated for a
number of crops. Many above aver
age acre yields are anticipated, with
a record yield of 147.7 bushels per
acre expected for potatoes, near
record for rice and an exceptionally
high yield for oats, over Z bushels
above the 10-year average and close
to the 1912 record. Above average
yields are expected for barley, rye,
wheat, corn, sugar beets, sugar
cane, dry peas, tobacco, sweet pota-
toes, and number of the vegetable
crops. Milk production may total as
much as two to two and half bill
lion pounds more than in 1914 for a
new record.
N. E. Dodd, chief of the Agricul-
tural adjustment agency which has
the job of helping U. S. farmers
work out acreage goals, reports that
1945 goals appear to have been met
or exceeded for wheat, oats, rice,
dry peas, tobacco and peanuts and
that both flaxseed and sugar beets,
while not reaching hoped-for goals,
are well above the 1914 acreages.
Preserving the Land.
Despite the hard use to which the
land has had to be subjected during
the war years, it is still going
strong, Dodd said, one of the main
reasons being the influence of in
creased use of soil building and soil
and water conserving practices. A
considerable part of this years ex-
pected harvest, he emphasized, can
be traced directly to improved meth
DDS Of handling soil.
Last year set new records, for ex-
ample, for acreage under contour
cultivation and that planted to green
manure and cover crops. Acreage
of small grains and other drilled
crops grown on the contour more
than doubled over 1913, and still fur
Their increases are seen for 1945.
Lime and superphosphate being used
to establish soil improving crops are
showing rapid increases and would
be far greater, according to Dodd, if
larger quantities of these vital ma
terials were available. As it is, 81
per cent more superphosphate was
used on legumes and grasses in 1914
under the AAA program than the
average for 1939-43, and nine times
as much as in 1886.
Terracing, strip-cropping, irriga-
ton, weed control and many other
improved farming practices are also
doing their part in holding the fer
ing moisture.
Crop Prospects Reported.
Naturally, farm production cannot
be calculated as accurately as in
dustrial production. Even if factors
such as labor, machinery, storage
and marketing, repair parts, fertili-
ger, and soil conditions are favor
able, the farmer cannot be sure that
the weather won't upset his we'll
laid plans. The present harvest is
late in. some sections due to I'M
seasonable spring weather that in
terfered with planting schedules
and in some cases necessitated last
minute crop shifts. Drouth, floods
and inroads by insects and pests of
various kinds can still throw the
farmers entire production schedule
out of line. But here's what this
years outlook on individual crops
is:
Wheat - Largest crop of record,
and the third U. S. billion-bushel
crop. Estimated at LILAC, 1000, 900
bushels, this years indicated wheat
harvest is 100000 bushels above