Conservation Of Wild Life (mt)

1942: Conservation If "defense" was the slogan for 1941, "conservation" superseded it in 1942. The American public has been asked to conserve everything from paper to coffee, and from rubber to manpower. Much of the program of conservation has become involuntary through the actual exhaustion of supplies or through anticipated shortage which have led to the priorities system of distribution and use. And in recent weeks some of it has become compulsory through the medium of rationing

• The outstanding development in the Work Projects Administration program during 1940 was the provision made for more extensive use of its organization and personnel in strengthening the defenses of the Nation. Legislation passed by Congress facilitated the cooperation of the WPA in the defense program and at the same time provided for continuance of its operation of the principal program of supplying jobs for unemployed persons in need. Concentration on defense work was encouraged by exempting projects that are certified by the Secretary of War or the Secretary

• The production of food and fibers throughout the world, though greater in 1948 than in any of the preceding postwar years, was still considerably below the prewar level, while the world's population was about 9.4 per cent greater. Only forest products showed an increase over prewar production.

• Agricultural reports to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations discouraged the hope that the food emergency would soon be over. These reports agreed that even the physical damage left by the war had been greatly underestimated, not to mention the less tangible but graver injury inflicted on the cooperative world economy. With few exceptions, the agricultural areas of the world lacked machinery, fertilizer, insecticides, and occasionally even seeds. They also had poor transportation facilities

• World food supplies for the 1948-1949 consumption year will be larger than in any of the preceding postwar years. Marked agricultural recovery in Europe, larger crops in Canada, and record United States crop output in 1948 increased world supplies of food considerably, particularly supplies of bread grains and feed grains. Surplus producing areas of Eastern Europe and Russia probably will send as much food to Western Europe as they did in 1947-1948. Production of main food crops in the rest of the world may be about the same as in the previous year.

• World exports of grain and grain products, exclusive of rice, for the year ended June 30, 1948, totaled 34,600,000 long tons, nearly all of which was for direct human consumption. This compared with 28,500,000 tons exported a year earlier, the prewar (1934-1938) average of 28,200,000 tons, and the all-time record of 40,600,000 tons in 1928-1929. Approximately 90 per cent of the 1947-1948 exports were supplied by four countries — the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Australia.

• When World War II ended, the world's most urgent food problem was production, which had declined disastrously in most countries. Famine threatened whole continents. Only the countries of North America had been able during the war to increase their agricultural output significantly. Food production was far below the prewar level in most of continental Europe and in North Africa. It was only slightly above the prewar level in South America, where extensive droughts occurred in 1944 and 1945.

• Africa. • Many territories in sparsely populated Africa came out of the war with expanded farming and with new industries and mines. Nevertheless, African dietary standards averaged low. Agriculture faced the double problem of increasing its production for domestic consumption and providing more for export to pay for equipment and consumers' goods

• In the war years French North Africa changed from a food-surplus to a food-deficit area, and meanwhile its population increased. After the war, it suffered from droughts. In 1947 its wheat production was only two-thirds of the prewar average; production of olive oil in Tunisia was much below average. Citrus production and other fruits expanded, but livestock numbers and production dropped.

• British East Africa expanded its farm production during and after the war. Export crops included sisal, coffee, pyrethrum, tea, tobacco, oils, and spices. Food-processing developed in the area. An extensive peanut program developed to cultivate considerable land formerly almost uninhabited

• Australia continued to produce both grain and livestock products and also sugar for export. Its wheat crop in 1947-1948 was a record — 6,000,000 metric tons as compared with a prewar average of 4,000,000. Barley and oats crops were large. Meat production and sugar were below the prewar level. Peanut production increased in previously undeveloped areas as part of a plan to diversify the country's agriculture.

• France and the Netherlands stiffened food controls in the 1947-1948 consumption year. France reduced its bread consumption, increased the flour extraction rate, and obliged bakers to mix coarse grain liberally with wheat. The Netherlands reduced its bread, milk, and cheese rations; but increased the meat ration. Some European countries increased their food consumption. Belgium meat, as did Switzerland.

• Prices rose sharply during 1947-1948 in most European countries, agricultural prices more than other prices, though they were subject extensively to government controls. Livestock products were commonly three times the prewar average price

• Food production and nutrition levels in Latin America in 1947-1948 were above the prewar average. Eight Latin-American countries showed an increase of 200 over the prewar level in average calories available per person per day. These countries were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. The increase was general for all the countries represented.

• . • The assets of agriculture viewed as a single industry increased during 1947 from $110,000,000,000 to $122,000,000,000. Farm real estate increased in valuation from $59,000,000,000 to $63,000,000,000; other physical assets from $31,000,000,000 to $37,000,000,000. As in other recent years, these changes were caused mostly by higher prices.

• In December the Department of Agriculture assembled the year's agricultural facts. With the prices of many farm products declining, farmers' cash receipts from marketing were below those of a year earlier. Receipts from marketing from January 1 through November 30 were 2 per cent above those of the first eleven months of 1947. Farm costs, however, showed a still greater increase. • .

• The Agricultural Act of 1948 extends pricesupport provisions similar to those now in effect to basic commodities marketed before June 30, 1950, and to commodities marketed before Jan. 1, 1950. After these dates it provides a new method of calculating parity prices for all commodities and a new schedule of support prices for the basic commodities. After Jan. 1, 1950, price support activities for except potatoes, are discretionary.

• Congress has authorized large loan funds each year since the war; yet the backlog of loan applications continues to grow. In 1945, R.E.A. had a backlog of $225,000,000 in loan applications on hand or being processed in the field. Although loans totaling $816,491,077 were approved during this three-year period, the backlog on June 30, 1948, had swollen to $363,031,485. Funds available to meet these unfilled requests and others likely to be made during fiscal 1949 approximated $500,000,000. • .

• Floods in the Columbia River basin and other events in 1948 gave new emphasis to watershed protection. A survey by Forest Service technicians during and after the floods in the Pacific Northwest indicated that watershed conditions contributed to flood peaks. Extraordinary weather conditions and quick snow melt were immediate causes of the flood, but the technicians found ample evidence that considerable water would have been held back if millions of headwater acres had not previously been deprived of their forest cover, mainly by forest fires. • .

• Watershed protection is vital in the management of western national forest areas used for livestock grazing. Some 80,000,000 acres of forest and intermingled range land within the national forests are suitable for grazing, and much of this land is important as a source of water for irrigation, power, and domestic supplies. Nearly 9,000,000 animals use these national forest ranges