Milford chronicle., 1956-04-13

aJIVo ana aInDILlOn OF the 1nQlVlQual been
given such free reign as in the United States.
Millions of Americans who travel abroad this
summer will become aware of this fact.
@%@&@
AN ANCIENT LESSON
Sometimes 10th century man gets cocky
about his vast achievements. He builds
mighty dams, and towers that challenge the
skies; he spreads network of roads across
the face of the earth; he sails upon the SEAS
and beneath the seas, and his winged ships
roar swiftly through the air. He makes the
fertile land to yield more abundantly thar
ever before
Modern man is justly proud of what he
has done. But now and then history teaches
him lesson of humility by showing him that
ancient man, too, was capable of great ac
complishment
One such lesson comes from the Negev
resoate region in Israel south of the Dead
Sea. The kingdom of the Nabataeans, a
powerful Arab people, lay in this desert more
than 1000 years ago. And there, in barren
land with average rainfall of only four
inches, they practiced agriculture on large
scale.
How they did it-that is the lesson for
our time. They did it by making the most of
that scant rainfall, by building an intricate
system of stone walls and terraces to catch
the soil-laden water as it rushed down nor
NAL dry watercourses.
NOW LuOS0 SuT0Wu, ScleQIlHc meLnOQS
worked out more than 20 centuries ago are
being used by Israeli farm exper-S 10 make
the desert bloom again The ancient Naba
taeans have something to teach us, and in
this case, at least, modern man is making the
most of it.
TOO HIGH A PRICE
The Herald, of Brownsville. Texas. has
printed thoughtful editorial on the farm
problem and its political repercussions. |.
touches on the situation facing livestock pro
ducers and other farmers, and on the varied
stratagenns with which the major political
parties are seeking to gaii. the farm vote
Then it says: Certainly we would like to
see some system which will insulate agricul-
ture against catastrophe drops in net in.
come. Above that however, our farmers
generally feel that our best bet lies in free
and untrammeled production. We know
that any government program which at
tempts to maintain prices through artificial
Juggling of the laws of supply and demand
and lnterlocking price relationships newt
ably brings with it some type of production
or marketing controls.
This In turn hamstrngs the productive
genius of our farmers and removes the priv
lleges OF adapting our production and dis
trlbutlOn methods to the demands of the
market place. This is too high a price to
pay IN order to assure the prosperity of
some farmers.
1t could be added that the kind of pros
perity' that government aid and controls
produces is frail reed indeed, subject as il
IS to the ever-changing political winds. And
It is certainly evident that the taxpayers of
the country cannot forever subsidize farm
production which goes into storage, not CON
sumption. The bill for that now has run
far into the billions and the whole surplus
problem is extremely critical
x.k4s A.
lem will be found within, not without, the
world OF agriculture itself. Political "solu-
tions' usually just made bad matters worse.
BUSY YOUNG FARMERS
Farm young folks know a lot more than
they used to- They show more initiative and
more ability to take charge of things than
their fathers and grandfathers at the same
age, according to All expert.
T. A. Erickson, who has written eMy Six
ty Years With Rural Youth describes a
time when "a boy rarely had the opportun-
ity to Cwn his own animals or grow his own
crops because his father ran the farm with
a dictatorial hand"
Today, he says, "a boy of Is who has
just started high school knows more about
farming and the world around him than
many graduates of 80 years ago.,
Any Ali congress or any state fair gives
ample evidence that the young people on
farms have great ability to carry out their
own pr0jects-and that they get tremend-
GUS kick out of doing a good job along with
their parents and big brothers