Montana farmer-stockman. [volume], May 15, 1950, Page 9, Image 9

About Montana farmer-stockman. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1947-1993

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
The Editor's Page
Exploring Underground Water
I N SOME regions of the United States un
derground water supplies have been
seriously depleted by over-use. Wells have
been dug and water pumped for irrigation
and other purposes with little consideration
water table at a satisfactory level. It has
been assumed that underground supplies
given to the importance of maintaining the
were inexhaustible.
But with greatly increased pumping the
sub-surface pools and currents have di
minished,or have disappeared altogether. It
has been necessary to drive the wells deep
er and deeper with accompanying increases
in pumping costs. In some areas many wells
have gone completely dry.
While pumping has thus been over
done in some states, too little use has been
made of underground water in Montana
and northern Wyoming. It is true that in
some districts water suitable for irrigation
or domestic use lies too far beneath the sur
face for practical utilization. In many areas
too little is known about the underground
water situation to estimate the possibilities,
Due to variations in geological formation a
water supply might be tapped at a pump
able level at one point, while a well drilled
a comparatively short distance away might
prove to be a dry hole.
Valuable studies have been made in
some counties under the auspices of the
New Farm Programs in Spotlight
T HERE are going to be some important
changes in the federal farm program,
Probably not this year but almost certainly
in 1951. That is the opinion of responsible
congressional agriculture committee lead
ers.
It is generally agreed that a new ap
proach is needed in price supports for per
ishable products. The experience with pota
toes and eggs has demonstrated that the
present program is unworkable, at least
without tight marketing quotas.
While the support program as now set
up functions much better with basic com
modities like wheat, cotton, corn, tobacco
and other storables it is vulnerable in some
respects even with those products. Acreage
controls are hard to administer and tend to
block desirable adjustments in farming
programs. And the whole system invites
political attack because of the large appro
priations required to finance it.
Legislators are
will require fewer annoying restrictions on
producers, permit greater flexibility in
cropping programs, and operate to some de
gree as crop insurance. Active consideration
is being given to a number of proposals de
signed to place the whole price support pro
gram upon a stronger foundation.
The basic elements of one price insur
ance plan that is being given serious con
sideration are as follows; Farmer would pay
a premium of about 5 percent of gross re
ceipts from price-supported commodities.
Price of storable crops would be supported
through loans and storage as at present. In
the case of perishables government pur
chases would be made only to supply ex
port demand, school lunch programs and
other similar outlets. In addition to that,
vation service, the bureau of reclamation,
the geological survey and perhaps other
agencies. An understandable presentation
of the information already secured and
completion of such surveys so as to provide
a thorough inventory of underground water
resources would be of great value.
If such information were available the
Montana School of Mines, the soil conser
people of Montana and Wyoming would be
in a much better position to make use of
this water. In the meantime, an individual
farmer or rancher, or a community, will
continue to operate in the dark in finding
an d developing such supplies without the
ground water survey participated in by all
interested agencies and handled in a co
expert advice of water geologists. Such as
sistance is relatively expensive and often
inadequate when handled on an individual
basis. Surveys of this kind should be on an
area-wide scale.
What is needed is an organized, under
ordinated way. Perhaps there could be a
pooling of available funds from state and
federal agencies that are properly con
cerned with this problem. If that should
prove impossible then some other solution
must be found. This important question of
the location and availability of under
ground water supplies should not go unan
swered any longer.
payments amounting to the difference be
tween national average price and support
price would be made to the producer. In
order to be eligible for crop loans on stor
ables, and payments on perishables, grow
ers would be required to pay insurance pre
miums, keep within acreage allotments and
maintain minimum soil conservation pro
gram agreed upon by local committee. Pre
miums would be paid in form of note pay
able at the end of. marketing season.
There is also a growing interest in two
price plans particularly with respect to such
basic commodities as wheat and cotton. The
state department at Washington has strong
ly opposed two-price programs in the past
because of the fear that they would disturb
trade relations with other countries. This
attitude appears to have changed some
what in line with the changing export trade
situation and it is now understood that the
state department will not object to some of
the two-price plans that have been pro
April 15 issue. Other plans of a similar na
ture have been suggested. Most of them
posed.
The income certificate plan designed for
wheat was summarized on this page in the
are designed to enable the producer to
share in the domestic market on a parity or
similar basis, and accept a world price for
the balance of his production. They would
be self-supporting to a substantial degree
and would not depend upon congressional
appropriations. Some would be coupled
with acreage control. Others would do away
with acreage control and rely upon a mar
keting quota system,
be held during the coming months to study
these and other proposals for strengthening
Congressional committee hearings will
the farm support system. Those that stand
the test of close scrutiny will come up for
legislative attention in 1951.
Only one-third of the world's people get
enough of the right kind of food. That third
consumes three-fourths of the world's food
supply. Half of the human race actually
goes hungry. Famine and starvation still
plague large areas of the earth as they did
in ancient times despite the tremendous
progress in production methods and tech
niques in some regions. World populations
continue to grow at a rate of about 20,000,
000 a year, keeping ahead of the world food
supply. In food scarcity countries, increased
production, coupled with encouragement of
birth control, offer the principal hope of
improvement,
Latest USDA production and demand
estimates indicate that the wheat carry
over a year from now will be at least 50,
000,000 bushels less than the present esti
mated reserve of 450,000,000. If the crop
outlook in important producing regions con
tinues to deteriorate the reduction might be
much greater. While surplus control, or
some effective substitute, will probably
continue to be necessary in the years ahead,
the people of the United States should insist
that a reserve supply of at least 500,000,000
bushels be maintained as permanent nation
al insurance against food shortage. That
carryover would be none too large if a war
emergency and short crops should coincide.
Price support problems in American ag
riculture are not innovations of the 20th
century. Back in 1670 a tobacco surplus de
veloped in the Maryland and Virginia col
onies. Growers tried to make voluntary
production control work without success.
Finally bands of producers roamed over the
countryside burning tobacco stocks to force
prices up. Present-day attempts at produc
tion control while far from perfect are at
least better than mob action.
Western markets are becoming more
and more important in their effect on prices
paid western livestock producers. This is
true of hogs as well as cattle and sheep.
West coast packers are buying hogs as far
east as the western part of the cornbelt.
There is a greater opportunity for livestock
feeders in Montana, Wyoming and other
western states than ever before. The big
west coast demand is for slaughter animals.
Growers in the deep south are going for
beef cattle in a big way. Income from this
source in Alabama, for instance, increased
from $6,000,000 to $60,000,000 in the last 15
years.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "The
human race is divided into two classifica
tions—those who go ahead and do some
thing, and those who sit and inquire why it
wasn't done the other way."
Montana Farmer-Stockman
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OFFICE: 121 4th St. N.. Great Falls. Montana.
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DON R. BOSLEY
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Vol. 30, No. 18