QUAIL HUNTING

The FFA Creed

l believe in the future offarming, with afaith horn not _of

words

but of

deeds—

achievements

won

bythe present

and

pastgenerations offarmers; inthe promise _of better days through better ways, even as the better things

we now

enjoy have

come up

to us

from

the struggles of former years.

L

i

V

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A_i

S3R

⁵

* ^{;t»< -:: , *}

tf^jt'^f^iP.

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43

/ believe that to live

and work on

a

good farm

^{is pleasant} as well as challenging; for ¹

know

the joys

and

discomforts of farm

life

and

bold an inborn fondness for those associations which, even inhours _of discouragement, 1 cannot deny.

I believe in leadership

from

^ourselves

and

respect

from

others.

Ibelievein

my own

ability to

work

efficiently

and

thinkclearly,with such

knowledge and

skill as I can secure,

and

in the ability of organized farmers to serve our

own and

the public interest in marketing theproduct _of our toil. I believe

we

can safeguard those rights against practices

and

policies that are unfair.

44

/ believe in less dependence

on

begging

and more power

in bargaining; in the _life

abundant and enough

honest wealth to help

make

it so

—

for others as well as myself; in less need for charity

and more

_of it

when

needed; in being

happy

myself

and

playing squarewiththose

whose

happiness

depends upon

me.

f^^'

^rh

*%4E

^c-

- »***

/ believe that rural

America

can

and

will hold true to the best traditions in our national _life

and

that 1 can exert an influence in

my home and community which

will standsolidfor

my

^partin-tbat

inspiring task.

45

T#£ £tfi Pi ATE

By BILL PRINCE

This is a story of people and land and food.

Our

population is growing at the rate of about two million per- sons a year.

The number

of our pro- ductive acres to feed these people is

not keeping pace with this growth!

The number

ofpeople in theUnited Statesisincreasingattheaveragerate of 6,000 persons a day. That's 250 people an hour, or 4 per minute. This

is a net increase!

That is allveryinteresting,

you

say, but

what

does ^it have to do with

me?

It

means

simplythis:

By

1975 there will be at least 190 million people in the United States

—

^{for every four}

people

who

sit

down

to a meal today, there will be five sitting at that

same

table in 23 years.

And

the 5th plate has to be filled.

Let's talk about

what

^this

means

to

you

for just the next 25 years.

46

According to the estimate of the

Bureau

of the Census,

made

in 1950, at the present rate of increase, the United States population will exceed 200 million by 1975.

There were

152 million in 1950.

Thus we

see

we

are getting

more consumers

of food, even with a con- servativeestimate of 190 million

—

^yet,

at the

same

time,

we

are not getting

more

producers of jood.

The number

of people on farms is declining steadily. That is

why

these facts can

mean

so

much

to the Future

Farmers

of America.

Take

a look at

how much more

meat, milk,

and

eggs willbe needed to

supply the

oncoming

population with about the

same amounts

as

we have

hadin recentyears. (Bearin

mind

the fact that nutritionalstandards are still too low for good health for a large

percent of our population.)

In order to feed 190 million people the

same amount

of

meat

each of us eat now,

we would

need an additional 5Vz ^billion

pounds

annually. This

means

about 10million

more

cattle, 20 million

more

hogs,

and

3V3 million

more

sheep

would

have to be slaugh- tered each year.

Now,

in order to support this slaughter,

we would

need 100 million

more

cattle, 121 million

more

hogs, and 30 million

more

sheep. Naturally,

all this increase in livestock

would

automatically

demand more

feed.

We

^are

now

producing about a quart of milk a

day

for each person

in the United States. Production

would

have to be 10 billion quarts to give each person a quart a

day

in 1975.

To

produce this

much

milk

we

would

need either six million

more

milk cows, or anadditional 615 quarts each year from each cow. Actually, of course, the increase will have to

come

from both sources. Again, this

means improved

hay

and

pasture lands,

and more

forage

and

grain.

We

have been producing about 395 eggs a year for each person, but in order ^to feed 190 million people this

same number,

production

would have

to be increased 1V\ billion dozen an- nually. This

would

require either 87 million

more

layers

—

^{or anincrease in}

the layingaverage of 43 eggs per hen.

This average

was

167 in 1950,

and

actually has increased rapidly in re- cent years.

As

in thecaseofmilk, however, the increase will

have

to

come

from both sources

—

^{from a larger laying} flock and an increase in productionper hen.

And,

here again,

we

need

more

feed, grain,

and

protein.

We

^are producing all farm

com-

modities at record levels now.

But

if

we want

to supply 38 million

more

peopleaswellas

we

aresupplied now, production will have to

move

on

up

at least a fifth above 1950.

We

could get this production if

we

could find another 100 million acresof crop land.

For nearly 400 years

we have

been able to take care of the increase in population by

moving

west

and

open- ing

up new

land. This is no longer- possible.

Only

a fraction oftheneeded increase in production can

come

from

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this source.

Most

of the additional production

must

and will

come from

building

up

present acres

—

^{through a}

vertical rather than horizontal in- crease.

That is

where you come

in

—

^the

challenge is before you. In short,

we must

produce on four acres

what we

are

now

producing on five. It can be

done.

The

Future

Farmers

of

America

can do it!

(Editor's Note: Thisisthefirst of

two

articles concerning your future in

farming by Mr. Prince,from material

and

illustrations furnished by the

USDA. The

second, which will give information on filling the 5th plate, ivill appear in the Spring issue.)

m ^{aim, mm and t6G xw/mem} st/AWAR/ztD

to supply each person as much as in /950 we ^{would need-'}

. .