So, in this poultry work, as well as in our performance work with cattle, hogs, and sheep, we are endeavoring to discover the good blood lines, concentrate those blood lines, use them, transmit them before it is too late.

In hatchability studies it is indicated that more frequent turning of hens' eggs, by methods not now ordinarily used, give increased hatchability; and that all-plant diets are not adequate for the production of hatchable eggs for confined birds, but seem reasonably satisfactory when fed to birds on blue grass range.

Feeding studies have shown that vitamin A is of distinct value for maintaining the life of chicks fed diets deficient in protein. Fresh alfalfa, cod-liver oil, and yellow carrots were found to be richer in vitamin A than sun cured alfalfa meal or sun cured alfalfa-leaf meal. That covers in a very brief way some of the various ways of breeding, management, feeding, and equality of products studies that are under way, showing how they touch the practical farm problems that are facing us today.

We have tried to keep pace with the problems as they change from one 10-year period to another 10-year period.

EFFECT OF PRODUCTION ON PRICES

Mr. HART. We will suppose that we can reach the acme of perfection in breeding. Then our surplus problem will be several times worse, will it not?

Mr. SHEETS. No, for the reason that if we will put it on the pastureforage basis, if we will slaughter those calves, it will mean that we will have a few more cattle, but only about 70 percent as much meat, and the same would be true with milk production.

While that does not come on my list, I am satisfied that by putting the milk cow more nearly on a pasture or forage basis, we will not only cut the cost of milk production, but we will also cut the total milk production.

In

Mr. HART. As you cut the production or increase it, your rise or fall is not in direct proportion, but in almost geometrical ratio. other words, when you go from a normal supply to a surplus, your change in price is not in direct relation to the change in quantity, but the moment you get into surplus, your drop is out of all proportion to the increase in the product.

Mr. SHEETS. Well, for instance, if we needed more beef, what would our system be? It would mean that we would let those calves go until they had a yearling or a 2-year old frame, to put about 300 to 400 pounds more meat on. That is what it would mean. The same would be true with your cow. If you needed a greater quantity of milk, regardless of price, increase the grain in her ration.

Mr. SINCLAIR. Of course, it costs a great deal more to finish for market a 2-year-old or a 3-year-old than it does a yearling.

Mr. SHEETS. It does, and when they talk about low costs of production, that is why pasture and forage is your only salvation. It is the only possible chance you have of low-cost production. It is the thing that we have most of, which is surplus acres.

Mr. SINCLAIR. Of course, there is truth in Mr. Hart's statement, that when you do pass the surplus point, you have a sharp break in your prices, an even greater break than the amount of the surplus

would seem to warrant. It may be over but very little, but the break in price comes very rapidly.

Mr. SHEETS. That is true in egg production as much as in the production of meat and milk, which we are talking about.

Mr. HART. It is true in all farm products.

Mr. SINCLAIR. It is true of all farm products; you can go right down the line and name every farm product.

Mr. HART. That is correct. Price does not decrease in proportion to the amount of the surplus merely, but decreases almost geometrically. The same is true of the rise. You get a shortage of eggs, and we will say that they are running along at 12 cents a dozen, and they will jump to 25 cents. Even if there is just a little bit less than the demand.

Mr. SANDLIN. You take 15 million bales of cotton that may be selling at 12 cents a pound, if you have 3 million more bales, the price goes down to 6 cents, perhaps.

Mr. SINCLAIR. Only a few years ago everybody was saying that you could not reach the saturation point in dairy products. We seem to have reached it. There are 100 million pounds of butter in storage somewhere.

VALUE OF POULTRY AND LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY

Mr. SANDLIN. What is the value of the poultry business in the United States?

Mr. SHEETS. The poultry business could be valued at nearly 2 billion dollars. The whole livestock industry here represents approximately 6 billion dollars in turnover.

Mr. SINCLAIR. Annually?

Mr. SHEETS. Beef, cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, poultry, and wool. Mr. SINCLAIR. An annual turnover of 6 billion dollars?

Mr. SHEETS. Yes. It depends on whether you take 1931 figures or 1933.

Mr. SINCLAIR. That is more than I thought it was.

P.W.A. AND C.W.A. FUNDS AVAILABLE

Mr. SANDLIN. I see that you are spending the $1,520,835 which has been allotted to you through the National Industrial Recovery Administration.

Mr. SHEETS. That is for equipment in those States; it is largely for the purpose of making repairs and improvements which have been needed for a period of years; the drainage of land, the clearing of land, the construction of buildings, the painting of buildings, fire protections, and so forth.

Mr. SINCLAIR. The largest amount is at Beltsville?

Mr. SHEETS. That is where we have our largest station, our main farm and laboratories.

The CHAIRMAN. How much land is involved?

Mr. SHEETS. About 4,200 acres at an average price of less than $40 an acre.

Mr. SANDLIN. Do you know what the assessed value of that land was?

Mr. SHEETS. Well, it was from $20 to $60 an acre. We paid $40,000 for one tract, 989 acres, the assessed value of which was about $60,000; another tract of 761 acres for $30 an acre, and so on.

Mr. SANDLIN. I suppose you are in the process of spending this money now; this has not all been spent?

Mr. SHEETS. Approximately half of it is either spent or obligated. Take that item for Louisiana. I think that the drainage and repairs to buildings, and painting, water system, and so forth, is about one half completed.

EXPERIMENTS IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION IN SOUTHERN UNITED STATES

Mr. SANDLIN. The next item has to do with experiments in livestock production in southern United States. For this purpose there is estimated $37,036 for 1935 as against a current appropriation of $39,560. The item is as follows:

To enable the Secretary of Agriculture, in cooperation with the authorities of the States concerned, or with individuals, to make such investigations and demonstrations as may be necessary in connection with the development of livestock production in the cane sugar and cotton districts of the United States, $37,036.

Mr. SHEETS. The following statement is presented:

Increase, Budget 1935, compared with Estimated Obligations,
1934.

1, 432

The reduction of $2,524 in the estimate of $37,036 for 1935 below the appropriation of $39,560 for 1934 consists of:

This is a regional station located at Jeanerette, near New Iberia, La., to determine the proper feeding, breeding, and handling of dairy and beef cattle and pigs in the Gulf Coast country. The byproducts of cotton, rice, and sugar are tried out as animal feeds with a view of encouraging diversified farming by the raising of more livestock. Investigations are made also in the establishment, improvement, and utilization of pastures. The Bureau of Animal Industry is cooperating with the Louisiana Experiment Station, the Bureau of Dairy Industry, and Plant Industry in this work. Experiments with horses have the object of determining the comparative usefulness of mules and horses for the farm work of the region.

P.W.A AND C.W.A. FUNDS APPLICABLE UNDER THIS HEADING

Allotments under the National Industrial Recovery Act aggregating $117,425 including Public Works Administration funds of $67,425 and Civil Works Administration funds of $50,000, have been made as follows:

$67,425 for physical improvements at the station, as drainage, fences, repairs, and painting buildings, roads, water system, laboratories, etc.

$50,000 for the clearing and drainage of land and road construction on the same premises.

Mr. SANDLIN. Tell us what you are doing under this item.

Mr. SHEETS. There has been no change in that work at Jeanerette. This station is located between Jeanerette and New Iberia. The

purpose is to determine the proper breeding, feeding, and handling of dairy and beef cattle and hogs in the Gulf Coast region. The by-products of cotton, rice, and sugar are used as sources of animal feeds, along with pasture and other forage crops, with a view of encouraging diversified farming by the raising of more livestock particularly for home use.

Mr. SANDLIN. Cottonseed?

Mr. SHEETS. A little cottonseed, yes.

The work during the past year has been to establish in cooperation with the Louisiana Experiment Station and other Bureaus of the Department with the sugar cane and rice interests grazing work whereby livestock may graze an area 1 year out of 4. For example, with rice it is grazed every other year. In other words, you have the pasture following the rice for controlling the wild rice and other weeds.

Mr. SANDLIN. Are the farmers in that section taking very much interest in that station?

Mr. SHEETS. Yes; I think they are taking more interest every year. One of the happy solutions to the problem from the Department's standpoint was that the Louisiana Experiment Station has made this a branch station and they have one man located there to assist with that work and are concentrating their efforts at this station, particularly with reference to beef cattle and hogs.

The annual field day is one of the test cases there, when two or three thousand people will assemple to get the results of the year, it shows the interest of the local farmers.

County agents from Louisiana and adjoining States are using it throughout the Gulf coast region.

The State of Louisiana made an additional contribution of about 600 acres of that good farm land there which provides excellent facilities for all the work with both beef cattle and dairy cattle, hogs, and mules, and particularly for the pasture and feed production projects.

Mr. SANDLIN. When was this done?

Mr. SHEETS. This was done a little over a year ago. We just got started on that. That is what some of this C.W.A. and Public Works money is for, to fence and to utilize that part of the old Sandiger place across the Spanish Trail for the hog and beef cattle and the pasture and sugarcane and rice projects. That was without cost to the Department in any way. The State of Louisiana made available a 600acre tract adjacent to this station which they had already provided without any cost to the Government. It shows the right kind of cooperation. It is a pooling of the resources they had with the little funds that we had, and then the experiment station contributed $10,000, and by all working together we have a nice set-up there that I think will help solve the problem of putting livestock into their 1-crop system of farming; that is, rice, cane, cotton, or tobacco.

FORAGE DRYING WORK

That is very excellent soil down there. We have just one little piece of work there that is of quite a little value in our forage-drying work. We have, in cooperation with the Bureau of Agricultural Engineering and the Bureau of Plant Industry artificial drying machines. The region is usually one of rather heavy rainfall and heavy

dew, and when you raise a big crop of alfalfa or cow peas or soy beans or other hay crops, the problem is to get it properly cured. So we are working that with artificial drying.

We have found some very definite practices that must be followed in drying an alfalfa crop. You may not get it on top of this little knoll at all and you come right over here and by a system of season of planting or a method of cutting, harvesting, or the fertilizer that you use, you may get an excellent crop.

So that we need to work that into a system of hay and grain production in order to work out a successful practice that can be followed by your livestock man.

The question of whether it should be artificially cured or sun-cured is being tried out by feeding it to the cows and to the growing and fattening steers, and we are finding that the artificially cured in considerably more palatable.

Mr. HART. That is alfalfa?

Mr. SHEETS. Alfalfa, soybeans, and white clover. There is not so much difference in grasses, but there is more in the legumes.

Mr. CANNON. There is no difference in the amount of nutrition? Mr. SHEETS. No, only that we have gotten slightly better results from the artificially dried on account of the greater percentage of leaves. Of course, the matter of cost is just being worked out. It will cost from $2 to $3 a ton to dry that feed. The oil burners which seem to give us the lowest cost per ton, we have found are the best. That cost is between $2.50 and $3; it depends on the labor cost.

P.W.A. AND C.W.A. FUNDS FOR SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS

Mr. SANDLIN. Tell us about these subsistence emergency funds. Mr. SHEETS. That was allotted after this other item. It is right adjacent to the station at Beltsville, Md.

Mr. SANDLIN. The 1,500 acres belong to the farm and you say here that you are going to seed approximately 1,500 acres of a 3,000acre tract in a subsistence homestead project. Are you going to buy that land?

Mr. SHEETS. That is the subsistence homesteads.

Mr. SANDLIN. They own the land?

Mr. SHEETS. Yes. There are 531 acres that are being cleared out of this amount and then the subsistence homesteads are expecting to add to that to make approximately 3,000 acres. These are Civil

Works funds that are being used to clear the land, develop the roadways, and make it available for going on with that project when it has reached the proper stage.

Mr. SANDLIN. How many houses are you going to build there, do you know?

Mr. SHEETS. That matter has not been determined. I hope it will be sufficient to take care of the technical and other workers in that vicinity, the vicinity of all the stations, and some in addition.

Mr. SANDLIN. Under that plan each person will be given so many acres apiece?

Mr. SHEETS. That has not been determined, but that is the policy that is being followed wherever it has been worked out. The way it would work for any of the employees, would be just like the folks who live on the station at Jeanerette or Beltsville, for example. They are