Revenues of State experiment stations by sources of income, 1931 to 1934-Contd. Appropriations through Department of Agriculture: 1931, $85,300; 1932, $62,450. Appropriations through Department of Agriculture: 1931, $45,200; 1932, $43,520; 1933, $40,000; 1934, $32,344. 4 90,000 81, 905. 32 13, 580. 25 90,000 90,000 104, 970.00 24, 715.99 90,000 76, 295.95 50, 264.68 24, 011. 87 95, 485.57 24,011. 87 129, 685.99 126, 560. 63 90,000 66, 010. 00 41, 919. 29 107, 929. 29 90,000 344, 252. 85 97, 279.88 90,000 441, 532.73 85,889.85 Revenues of State experiment stations by sources of income, 1931 to 1934-Contd. Appropriations through Department of Agriculture: 1931, $85,300; 1932, $62,450. Appropriations through Department of Agriculture: 1931, $45,200; 1932, $43,520; 1933, $40,000; 1934, $32,344. Revenues of State experiment stations by sources of income, 1931 to 1934-Contd. 3 Appropriations through Department of Agriculture: 1931, $85,300; 1932, $62,450. Appropriations through Department of Agriculture: 1931, $45,200; 1932, $43,520; 1933, $40,000; 1934, $32,344. A MEMORANDUM CONCERNING RESEARCH AT THE LAND GRANT INSTITUTIONS I. THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE The farm business in the United States owes much to agriculutral research. At the time of the American Revolution more than 90 percent of the entire population was supporting itself by farming. In other words, 90 out of every 100 persons produced enough food for themselves and for 10 other persons not engaged in farming. The food lacked in variety and was often of inferior quality. The volume of agricultural exports was small. Today, 25 persons on the farm produce enough food for themselves and for 75 other persons living in towns and cities. The quality and variety of food is better and the volume of exports greater. This simple statement of fact merely hints at fundamental economic and social changes that science and technology have brought into being. Our agricultural experiment stations have played a vital role in the evolution of American agriculture. Their future contributions will be no less significant. But while scientific and technical research have vastly increased our ability to produce they have also created a whole series of problems that can be solved expeditiously only by the most effective use of our fact-finding agencies. II. WHAT HAS AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHED? Our land resources.-Together with the Federal Department of Agriculture the stations have devised methods of soil surveys, soil classification, and mapping. Much of our agricultural land has been surveyed and classified. Methods of soil conservation have been developed. The use of lime, commercial fertilizers, legumes, tillage, drainage, and irrigation has made our farming more efficient. We have discovered the nature of soil deficiencies and have learned to correct them. We can, if we will, produce more on a smaller acreage and at a greater profit. Our crops.-Hay, corn, wheat, and cotton are still our great staples. There are other important crops. But there have been developed by breeding and selection better types of corn, wheat, cotton, tobacco, oats, barley, alfalfa, and a host of other ecenomic crops. Yielding quality, length of cotton staple, color, flavor, hardiness, shipping quality, and various other properties of different crops have been improved. Now crops have been introduced. A better adjustment of plants to their environment has been developed. But Farm animals.-The layman, as well as the farmer, knows that within a period of less than 50 years our beef and dairy animals have undergone an almost startling change. More and better beef, more and better milk, a lesser cost per unit of product-we have accepted it all as a matter of course. what of the study, the research, the skill, and the patience that lie back of these improvements? And this may be said also of our sheep, swine, poultry, horses, and mules. More fertile land, better crops, and superior animals, they are all a part of the same dramatic story of research, but there is much more to be told. Protection and conservation.-Science has helped to make a part of our land more fertile. Ignorance, indifference, and greed have helped to destroy a substanital part of this greatest of our natural resources. A terrible toll has been levied on our soil resources by erosion, leaching, destruction of organic matter, alkali accumulation, increasing acidity, indiscriminate cropping, and other economic sins. But we have also saved much and reclaimed much and we have learned the bitter truth. Henceforth, we shall build more than we shall destroy. Our crops are being constantly attacked by fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and insects. In the domain of plant protection agricultural research has written some glorious chapters. As to fungi and bacteria, let us think of root rots so wide-spread and destructive as to constitute a veritable calamity. Let us think of mosaic and other virus diseases of plants, of rusts, wilts, blights, and other afflictions that destroy a season's growth almost overnight. And what about the spoilage of grain, fruits, and vegetables in handling, transportation, and storage? The layman does not yet understand that the conservation of crop products against fungi and bacteria is equivalent to increased yields per acre. Thus selecting and breeding for disease resistance, the use of fungicides, soil disinfection, and improved methods of transportation and storage have meant further achievement for agricultural research and more wealth for the Nation. A similar story may be told about the war on insects and nematodes. We need not go far afield for illustrations. It will suffice to mention the chinch bug and Hessian fly, the bollweevil, cornstalk borer and corn-ear worm, scale insects and plant lice, codling moth, glossy moth and Japanese beetle, grasshoppers and leaf hoppers, and no end of other insect plagues. Here again research has taught us to fight and win. Larvicides, ovicides, insecticides, cold and heat, radio waves, insect parasites, fumigants, and various other expedients have strengthened our hands in dealing with insects inimical to growing crops, stored grain, wearing apparel, and domestic animals. Research has given us many tools for fighting insect vectors of animal and human diseases and for protecting them against pathogenic organisms and parasites. Processing. In dealing with the subject of conservation, agricultural research has successfully explored many fields. Let us think of lactic acid fermentation as applied to silage and dairy products. We may think, likewise, of alcohol, vinegar, citric and tartaric acids, or the development of "Duco paint." We may think of the canning of meats, fish, fruits, and vegetables, the milling of cereals, the ginning of cotton, the fermentation of tobacco, quick-freezing dehydration, and many other processing methods. "Food processed is food saved", would represent a paraphrase of an old saying. Nutrition. In recent years research has uncovered a host of basic facts as related to growth, reproduction, and the well-being of plants and animals. We have all heard of hormones, vitamins, and of deficiency diseases of plants and animals. Lack of iodine in the soil may be responsible for goiter. Animals may be stunted for lack of phosphorus, and plants may languish and die for lack of manganese, copper, zinc, boron, magnesium, or sulphur. This field of study is full of absorbing information and of findings that seem almost fantastic. In exploring this field we see ahead of us finer plants, finer animals, and finer men. Economics and sociology.-Agricultural research has ventured into the newer fields of economics and sociology and has already given us much light on production economics, rural taxation,_farm credits, cooperation, marketing, and many other important questions. Farm economy is a part of our national economy, and rural wealth and well-being soon find expression in national well-being. III. NEW PROBLEMS FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH Our future agriculture.-American agriculture is facing the future with confidence. We shall expect our land-grant institutions and other colleges and universities to train the leaders of this great industry. We shall expect our extension personnel to show the way toward more efficient production and toward a better-ordered rural economy. But in order to make this possible, agricultural research will need to make further advances toward more fertile fields, more perfect plants and animals, more effective methods of protection and conservation, and toward higher standards of living. Our research machinery will need to reckon with a host of problems brought forward by land-use policies, part-time farming, forestation, game propagation and fish culture, recreation plans and programs, the shift in production areas, the use of agricultural raw materials in our industries, and an almost endless number of questions arising out of social and economic adjustments that we are compelled to face. This, in brief, must justify the request for the more adequate financing of agricultural research. Senator BANKHEAD. We will now hear Dr. Pearson. STATEMENT OF RAYMOND A. PEARSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND Mr. PEARSON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, my name is Raymond A. Pearson, president of the University of Maryland for the past 8 years. Prior to that I was president of the Iowa State College Land Grant Institution for 14 years, and for 15 years I have been chairman of the executive committee of the Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities. Now, gentlemen, I think you have heard about enough, and I am going to be very brief. I have a letter which came this morning from President Frank L. McVey of the University of Kentucky, who happens to be president of the Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities He wrote to me saying he thought that I might use something here from an address he had just given, and if you will give me your permission I would like to extract that and send it to the clerk of the committee to be incorporated in the record. Senator BANKHEAD Very well (The matter referred to follows:) |