The Sidney herald., 1957-01-24
Hooking Ahead"
Address before the Sidney Chamber of Commerce
Annual Meeting Tuesday. January ~

tuesday,. January ~
prevent the SURPRISES from beinl
transferred to some other crop
This latter situation has been {
4 part of the trouble with previou.
programs.
"a Recently the government
has been successful in disposine
# some Of the accumu otiv' sur
! pluses in connection with the re.
! lief and assistance measures de-
signed to help friendly and un-
developed countries. Removal OF
these SURPRISES which now hang
over the market will be of con
siderable help in improving the
status of the farm markets.
Steps which should be taken
and upon which considerable work
can be done locally are as fol-
lows:
In our area Investigation of
crops will be greatly beneficial
to the farmer and to the commun-
tiles. Your own city of Sidney is,
of course, an excellent example.
You are not dependent entirely
upon wheat but have a fine SUI
gar beet industry. AS a by-product
of the sugar industry you secure
large quantities of beet pulp and
residualS useful for animal food.
This has been responsible for the
development of a splendid live
stock industry.
Diversification of crops depends
in this area largely upon irriga-
ton. Here again Sidney has been
very fortunate in that one of the
early irrigation projects was de-
veloped in this Yellowstone River
valley. The construction of that
irrigation project was responsible
for the establishment of the sugar
factory and the development of
the sugar industry.
This entire area in eastern Mon
tana and western North Dakota
is extremely fortunate in having
available an ample water sup
ply in the Yellowstone and Mis-
souri, Rivers. The area is also
fortunate in that the Fort Peck,
Garrison and Oahe Dams have
been or are now being construct
ed. These dams were originally
conceived and constructed primar-
lily for navigation and flood con-
troll. AS a matter of fact the use
Of these dams for the conserva-
ton Of water is their most i'm
portant function and as such will
be of great benefit to succeeding
generations. In order to improve
agriculture and consequently the
well-being of the entire area, ev-
cry effort should be made to uti-
lie as much of the water and as
much of the land as possible for !
the development of irrigation. This
will permit further Investigation
of crops and will lead to the es-
tablishment of additional indus
tries such as your sugar plant and
livestock feeding programs. Such
industries will support an %increas-
ing population and will provide
employment from those who now
migrate elsewhere.
You may we'll ask, in view of
Qur earlier discussion of crop usr-
pluses, why additional irrigation
should be developed. / would like
to quote you from an article which
recently appeared in the newspa-
pers giving the results of a dis
cussion in New York at the Amer
lean Association for the Advance
ment of Science. One of the speak
ers, DR.. Fairfield Osborn, stated
that while we hear of population
exploding in Asia, it is exploding
also in the United States so fast
that he forecast every city in the
States will be almost twice
It's present size in twenty years.
He advised that our rate of pop {;
increase is greater than !;
and that we will probab- |
y have so million more people in j
.wenty years. {
At the same meeting, another ,
scientist, DR.. Harrison Brown, a G
professor of geochemistry at the r
California Institute of Technology {
n discussion stated that we are ;
living in a world where we must .
'un as fast as we can to stay :
the same place. He media the !
tatement that in the future we !
must do one of two things, either l
low down birth rates or speed +
lp the rate of increase of food S
production far above the best we Q
yet achieved. Industrializa- t
ion, he said, can expand produc- t.
ion many times and food tech C
lology can increase food output. t
f these studies and forecasts are Q
light, then our home markets and q
ur future for agriculture seem
r
Of course, one other thing should G
done which would benefit not g
My agriculture but would ben o
fit everyone. That is to attempt II
} avoid further increase in taxes o
nd in the expense of gov O
rnment. Taxes are a heavy bur- e
en- on agriculture as well as on .
ais. For that reason everyone =
Mould work together and attempt -
eliminate from our community u
ate and federal activities, those o
lingS which our forefathers used II
, do for themselves. l believe D
re will all recognize the fact that II
lie tendency in recent years has a
cen to demand more and more il
from u government and al
shift more and more of our A
Imily or business responsibilities T
our schools, to u cities and n,
our state and federal govern ST
lent. If we are to avoid increas- m
G our tax burden, this tendency II
uSt be reversed