Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1957)
Whats AJh.ea.dL qui e:ri c a's IFajraei By 1977 they'll he feeding 50 million by Jack Ely an more Americans y'i:i-yrf:r :':-yy Cloud seeding Is still experimental, but some claim it can bring rain, stop hail. rp 1 HE FARMER OF TODAY shrugs into a jacket and calls to his wife, hard at work in the kitchen, "I'm going to take a look at the south forty. I'll be right back." That "look" sounds deceptively simple. Often it means hard hours replanting, cultivating, and fertiliz ing his acreage, or, far worse, a hopeless battle against soil ravaged by drought, insects, or disease. Tomorrow's look will be far dif ferent, according to agricultural re searchers. Some believe the farmer won't even go to his land it will come to him on conveyor belts! And if it needs fertilizer, a push of a but ton will release the proper amount from overhead storage bins. Drought? That, too, will succumb to the push-button age. Moisture, tapped from faraway reservoirs and carried by nuclear power, will be sprinkled in precise amounts from an automatic watering system. Plas tic roofs over the crop assembly line will protect the soil from too much natural rain. Yes, that's the long-range forecast for tomorrow's "farm factory." Most crystal-ball gazers, while agreed that important changes are on the way, describe our future agriculture in more conservative terms. They foresee changes that will bring greater efficiency and less risk to the fanner and, in turn, assure him adequate profits each year. These changes will make it possible to feed 220 million Americans in 1977 some 30 percent more than now without any increase in farm land or manpower. In addition, the same acreage and labor force will supply our burgeoning industry with tremendous amounts of raw mate rials, some virtually unknown today. If successful, industrialized farm ing would not only stabilize agricul ture, a bulwark of our enonomy, but would hold food prices at reason able levels. Of course, turning theory into reality won't be an easy job for the farmer. Researchers believe he can come close to the ideal only ' by streamlining his business and mar keting techniques and improving crops, animals, and machinery. The first step will be to reduce the gambles he must take on prices, weather, crop and animal diseases, and other variables that cause heavy losses and waste. As one business consultant says, "If big business took the blind risks our farmers do, the increase in ulcers alone would cripple our economy." rpoMORROw's farmer will play the - "sure thing" as much as possible. As an opening step, he will keep special reports on such items as soil, yield, expenses, capitalization. Be fore planting any crop, he will bring this data to an accounting office; it may be a private business, part of a farmer's cooperative, or a division of a giant farm corporation. Electronic computers will balance the farmer's report against market prospects, costs, transportation. The result will be a fairly accurate an alysis of what crops should be plant ed to assure the best return and help avoid surpluses and shortages. But even an electronic brain is worthless when its computations de pend on fickle Nature. Storms, in sects, disease, and related hazards lay waste to 120 million acres a year acres in which the nation has in- t Family Weekly, July 21, 1957
