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 It charged $400 a year for the perquisites and the house. That is deducted from their salary, just like so much per month for rent. amortizes the expenditure invested over a period of about 18 years. The houses cost on an average of $3,000. You can see how long it would take to amortize that expenditure in that way. I think it is just a little too early to go into details, because they have not been worked out. This is an initial amount provided for clearing and developing the area. It would make a wonderful cow pasture or farm land. It would have a lot of possibilities from that standpoint. Mr. SANDLIN. We would rather have it cow pasture and not put so many buildings on it. Mr. SHEETS. We need the necessary buildings on it. This land cost $30 an acre. Mr. HART. Where is it located? Mr. SHEETS. About 10 miles from where we are now. Mr. HART. At Beltsville? Mr. SHEETS. Yes. It is on this side of Beltsville. This is the first STATIONS AND PROJECTS DISCONTINUED AND CURTAILED Mr. CANNON. How many stations are you discontinuing this year? Mr. SHEETS. They are projects. You can hardly call them stations, but we are discontinuing about 28 different phases of work and that covers practically all sections of the country. There is a curtailment to the extent of $31,523. Mr. CANNON. In what States are those stations located? Mr. SHEETS. North Dakota, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Virginia. Mr. SINCLAIR. Why do you discontinue them? Mr. SHEETS. We completed the project, for example, in cooperation with the North Dakota station, in the northwest part of the State. M. B. Johnson, the cooperative man in that State, will carry on with another phase of work. We have completed that phase of the work. Mr. SINCLAIR. Where is he located? Mr. SHEETS. He is at Fargo now. The work was completed. It was carried on down in the southwestern corner, in a grazing region. We have been working 6 years on that, and we are getting out a bulletin now. It will be valuable to the ranchmen in the reorganization of their work. That is ranch management work in cooperation with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the State experiment station. Mr. CANNON. How many stations were discontinued? Mr. SHEETS. Stations discontinued and projects curtailed in 11 States. Mr. CANNON. Are those stations that you have been operating in cooperation with the State? Mr. SHEETS. All of them; yes, sir. When we discontinue a station, that does not mean that the work has been stopped in all cases, but it may mean that we have concentrated on it in another place in the State. We discontinued the work at Havre because it was important only to that region, and because we believed that in our curtailment, we had to cut somewhere. We thought that we should cut a project that was not a large regional or national problem. We believe that it is our responsibility to concentrate on the problems that are national in character or on large regional problems. We are still working in cooperation with the Montana experiment station, in close cooperation with them. We believe that we can answer the questions from one central point at the United States Range Livestock Experiment Station at Miles City, to a better advantage, rather than spreading the work out over a large number of places. FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1934. BUREAU OF DAIRY INDUSTRY STATEMENTS OF DR. O. E. REED, CHIEF, BUREAU OF DAIRY INDUSTRY; AND J. M. KEMPER, ASSISTANT TO THE CHIEF SALARIES AND EXPENSES Mr. SANDLIN. We will now take up the item for the Bureau of Dairy Industry. The first item is the introductory paragraph as follows: For carrying out the provisions of the Act approved May 29, 1924 (U.S.C., title 7, secs. 401-404), establishing a Bureau of Dairying, for salaries in the city of Washington and elsewhere, and for all other necessary expenses, as follows: GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES Mr. SANDLIN. The next item is for general administrative expenses: General administrative expenses: For necessary expenses for general administrative purposes, including the salary of the chief of bureau and other personal services in the District of Columbia, $56,514. Your current appropriation for this purpose is $64,265, and your estimate for 1935 is $56,514. Dr. REED. The following statement is presented in explanation of the item for administrative expenses: Increase, Budget 1935, compared with estimated obligations, 1934....... appropriation of $64,265 for 1934 consists of: Impoundment of 6% of 15-percent pay cut- Total.. $69, 580 69, 380 64, 265 53,500 56, 514 3, 014 -$3, 888 -6, 877 +3, 014 -7, 751 WORK DONE UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION The work conducted under this appropriation includes the direction of research, engineering, information, library, and service activities, the administration of fiscal and property work, and general supervision of personnel. DAIRY INVESTIGATIONS Mr. SANDLIN. The next item is for dairy investigations, as follows: Dairy investigations: For conducting investigations, experiments, and demonstrations in dairy industry, cooperative investigations of the dairy industry in the various States, and inspection of renovated-butter factories, including repairs to buildings, not to exceed $5,000 for the construction of buildings, $498,383. Dr. REED. The following justification is submitted for the record: Appropriation: 1932. 1933. 1934. Estimated obligations, 1934. Budget estimate, 1935.. Increase, Budget 1935, compared with estimated obligations, 1934.... $727, 410 648, 068 590, 865 486, 500 498, 383 11, 883 The decrease of $91,518 in the 1935 estimate of $498,383 below the appropriation of $590,865 for 1934 consists of: Impoundment of 6% percent of 15-percent pay cut. Further reduction in working funds for 1935 ($5,037 for dairy-cattle breeding, feeding, and management, and $4,825 for Missouri experiment station). 5-percent salary restoration. Total... - $28, 677 -75.688 -9, 862 +21, 745 - 92, 482 The reduction of $9,862 in working funds for 1935 includes: (a) Curtailment of $5,037 in expenditures for dairy-cattle breeding, feeding, and management investigations; (b) a decrease of $4,825 is due to the discontinuance of Federal cooperation of the Hatch experiment station. This project was established in July 1930 under which investigational work in dairy-cattle breeding, feeding, and management are being conducted in cooperation with the agricultural experiment station, University of Missouri. The Government has no investment at this station in land or buildings. While data accumulated to date is incomplete and probably of no value, due to the relatively short period of time the work has been under way, it will be possible to continue the breeding experiments by transferring the dairy herd to either the Lewisburg, Tenn., or the Jeanerette, La., station, thereby avoiding a complete loss. WORK DONE UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION This appropriation is used for scientific research and experimentation in practically all phases of the dairy industry, under the following projects: (1) Dairy manufacturing investigations and introduction.—The work conducted under this project is designed to ascertain the need for new and/or improved processes of manufacture in order to enlarge the outlets for creamery and cheese factory byproducts; to determine the factors affecting the quality of butter, cheese and other products of dairy manufacturing plants, and to improve the market grades of these products. Other work conducted contemplates the development and introduction of a new process of packaging and ripening cheese, of better methods for making casein and other milk byproducts, and the regulatory work incident to the enforcement of renovated butter act. The application to commercial practices of the results obtained has resulted in increasing the value of Swiss cheese through an improvement in the quality of cheese manufactured. Adoption of approved manufacturing processes by ereameries and cheese factories has resulted in increased returns to dairy farmers, and the prevention of cheese factory failures in certain Southern States. Casein manufacturers using the Bureau's process have made a product that meets the highest requirements for all technical purposes. (2) Dairy herd improvement investigations. Under this project studies are made of feed and milk production records of cows on test in dairy herd-improvement associations to obtain accurate data for the intelligent selection and feeding of dairy cows according to their known producing ability, and of the lactation |
