supply adequate diet and to supplement the farm income of the region. The following is a group of fields of research work now needed or greatly expanded to furnish information relative to the development of alternate and supplementary enterprises to cotton.

Turning now to research on alternate and supplementary enterprises for the South. Crop improvement other than cotton; additional research on genetics and crop breeding approached from a local and regional basis for crop improvement; disease resistance in forage and pasture crops, small grains, corn, and other supplementary crops; seed production.

Cultural practices, including mechanization and harvesting; special equipment for special crops, for example, peanuts, sweetpotatoes, sorghum, rice, forage crops, grass seed; drying and preservation of crops; improved harvesting equipment; improved land preparation, planting, cultivation; machines designed for small farms, on a local and regional basis.

Diseases of crops other than cotton: Corn diseases, peanut diseases, small grain diseases, fundamental studies on disease organisms responsible for diseases of southern crops, leaf spot and soil borne diseases approached from a local and regional basis..

Horticulture: Fruits-soil and plant nutrition as related to more efficient and higher-quality production, disease resistance and control, insect control, and the development of varieties and methods of producing for home use. Vegetables-improved varieties through breeding for adaptability, disease resistance, better quality, soil and plant nutrition for more efficient and higher quality production.

Forestry Efficient production from farm woodlands offers the farmers of the Cotton Belt supplementary income, research on more efficient production and harvesting, management and stand establishment from the farm forestry standpoint is badly needed.

Market outlets and marketing facilities and methods for southern farm products other than cotton; work on four large groups has been suggested, livestock products; fruits and vegetables; dairy products; poultry and eggs; various so-called specialty crops.

Insects affecting enterprises alternate and supplementary to cotton-cereal forage and pasture crop insects; truck crop insects; storage insects and insect enemies of livestock and man.

Noxious weeds: Many farmers and farm organizations have requested information and a research program on noxious weed control and eradication.

Pasture and range: Pasture and forage crops are essential to provide necessary livestock feed and soil cover together with the green manure crops required to build up and maintain southern soils, plant varieties, plant combination, fertilization palatability, seasonal grazing and many other factors need intensive study.

Animal industry: The developments and testing of cattle for the South; utilization of pasture and forage crops; winter grazing; supplementary feeding; utilization of home-grown feed by beef cattle, swine, and poultry; control of insects, internal and external parasites and diseases need continuous study. These problems will become more intense as the livestock population increases.

Dairy industry: Feeding, grazing, disease control; nutrition; milk producing; value of adapted crops; economics of dairying, particu

larly the cost of production under different farm-management practices.

Nutrition: Research into the problems of human nutrition and the nutritive value of agricultural commodities. The gains or losses in nutritive value that may take place in the production, distribution, processing, and preparation of food for use by the consumer.

Mr. Chairman, I have listed many of the problems that urgently need research at this time. No doubt many additional problems will arise from time to time. I do not wish to leave the impression that none of these problems is being worked on now, but those that are being attacked need a greatly intensified program.

This proposed legislation provides for work on the problems of agriculture on the local, regional, and national level; it provides for research to adopt the principles worked out on the regional level to local problems; it provides for a cooperative and coordinated research program within the States, within regions, and within the Nation.

The Southern States working with different organizations and the Department in the development of the program submitted, feel that it is of utmost importance to agriculture, and as representatives of the States we sincerely hope to see the proposed legislation, H. R. 6545, passed by Congress.

I wish to thank the committee for the opportunity of appearing here and presenting my views and the views of the other directors in this regard.

The CHAIRMAN. We thank you for your statement. Are there any questions? If not, we will proceed to the next witness. I should like to finish the testimony of the experimental stations today.

The next witness we have is Dr. W. B. Kemp, director of the experiment station at the station in Maryland. I understand he speaks for the directors of all the experimental stations in the northeast region.

STATEMENT OF DR. W. B. KEMP, MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, ON BEHALF OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS IN THE NORTHEAST REGION

Dr. KEMP. The directors of the agricultural experiment stations in the 12 Northeastern States favor passage of bill H. R. 6548 as a means for more effectively meeting the demands for increased agricultural research.

There have been numerous demonstrations in recent years that research is capable of solving many of the problems of our farm people. Its results have been carried to the individual farms through resident teaching and the cooperative extension activities of land-grant colleges and the Federal Government. Many farm people, therefore, are aware of the importance of both scientific research and experimentation to agriculture. As a consequence, experiment stations are being called upon by a large number of individuals, by commodity groups and by other farmers organizations for research on problems that cannot now be attacked effectively because of inadequate personnel and facilities.

For instance, in the State of Pennsylvania within the past year at least three different commodity associations and the society of Farm Women of that State have sent to the agricultural experiment station formal resolutions urging either inauguration or expansion of specific

lines of research. These associations are the Potato Seed Improvement Committee of the Crop Improvement Association; a committee representing the State Association of Artificial Breeding Cooperatives; and the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association.

As an illustration of this demand in the State of New York, a mimeographed report of the Temporary Commission on Agriculture presents a list of 16 fields of work in which farmers make specific requests for research. This list begins with, "breeding to obtain varieties of crops that will yield well, are nutritious, resistant to disease and adapted to New York soil and climatic conditions," and it ends with, "labor simplification and efficiency."

Among the many requests within the year in my own State of Maryland at least six commodity groups have asked for new or expanded research. Among the most insistent have been the tobacco growers of southern Maryland and the vegetable growers of the southearn Eastern Shore.

As a result of these urgent requests from the public in the various States, the directions in the northeastern region are able to classify various types of work in order of their apparent importance. First on the list is food composition, preservation, quick freezing and processing. As you all know, the Northeast has a heavy consumer population and one of the main objects of these lines of research is to gain the information that will permit the various food products to reach these consumers with appearance, palatability, and nutritional qualities relatively unimpaired. You all know how rapidly sweet corn deteriorates after it is pulled for market. Last year I tasted sweet corn 6 days after pulling that showed less deterioration in sweetness and flavor than usually occurs within 6 hours after pulling on a hot day. We are oйly beginning to learn how the high qualities of fresh vegetables can be retained from the farm field to the city table. All phases of marketing and distribution of agricultural commodities stand high on the list of needs in the notheastern region. However, the second class of problems on the list is housing, including the home and other farm buildings. Also demands for solution of the problems of both dairymen and poultrymen occupy an important position.

Many of these expressed needs for the country as a whole have been presented to you by Dr. Baver. Therefore, it does not seem necessary to go into great detail for the one region except to present the reminder that its agriculture is highly diverse and, hence, presents many problems for solution all the way from those of seeding mixtures for hay and improved machinery and methods for its harvest and curing to those of mushrooms and orchids.

The problems on which information is asked are doubly complicated because of varying conditions even within a single State. In one as small as Maryland with less than 10,000 square miles of land area there are 4 different geological zones with more than 300 distinct soil types and classes named to date, with mean precipitation varying from 20 to 30 inches during the growing season and with the period between killing frost varying from 120 days in one section to 210 days in another. No one fertilizer practice; no one seeding mixture; no one set of variety recommendations can apply over such a range of conditions. At the old plant research farm on the campus barely regularly produced more digestible nutrients per acre for livestock

feed than wheat. At the new farm only 8 miles distant from the old one, what usually produces nearly twice as much digestible nutrients as barley.

In many cases the fundamental principles which underlie solution of any one problem may be determined at a central laboratory, but details of application still must be learned on the spot.

While some of the problems can be solved only within a restricted region of a single State, others can be solved only by effective cooperation between States. I present for the record a survey of cooperative research then in progress among the 12 States in the Northeast as summarized by Director F. F. Lininger, of the Pennsylvania station, in May 1945. It will be noted that all lines are presented under 37 different heads and that the number of States cooperating on any one line varies from 2 to 10. Also, I present for the record a list of 15 agricultural problems which the station directors in the Northeastern States have agreed should be studied on a regional basis. Various additional ones remain for consideration. As illustration of effective interstate cooperation reference is made to the coordinated fruit research program of the Cumberland-Shenandoah area which has operated for many years as a means of presenting a unified attack upon the problems of the orchardists in a relatively homogeneous zone extending through parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. There is a similar procedure in the Hudson Valley fruit area, which includes parts of New York and New England. Another illustration is the coordinated approach by plant pathologists of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia to plant disease problems of the Jersey, Delmarva Peninsula vegetable area.

The results of agricultural research everywhere are cumulative. While the problems to be solved typically are local ones, any fundamental principles which are uncovered in their solution may contribute to the solution of others in many lines of study.

If this bill can become law it will react to the benefit not only of our farmers and their families but of all citizens who are consumers of products of the farm.

(The table referred to follows:)

SURVEY OF COOPERATIVE RESEARCH BETWEEN THE 12 STATES IN THE NORTHEAST

(Summarized by F. F. Lininger, May 1945)

Thirty-seven different areas of cooperative endeavor were reported by the 12 States. Some of these were covered by formal agreements; others were informal. The list includes investigation of soils, vegetables, fruits, insects, and diseases, animals, farm improvements, human nutrition, and wearing apparel.

In addition, there exist various types of cooperative effort with Federal research agencies and with other than Northeastern States:

Dr. KEMP. I should like to make a brief comment on the matter of farmers' requests for research. This is a list of some 16 requests taken from hearings of the New York State Temporary Commission on Agriculture under date of May 28, 1946, and with your permission, Mr. Chairman, I shall read them. They are brief, and I do not think it will take very long.

The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, Doctor.

Dr. KEMP. First, breeding to obtain varieties of crops that will yield well, are nutritious, resistant to diseasee, and adapted to New York soil and climatic conditions.

Second, developing new insecticides and fungicides and appropriate mechanical devices for proper application.

Third, developing means of weed control that will require a minimum of hand labor,

Fourth, cultural, variety, disease, and management problems of

nurserymen.

Fifth, special research on cultural problems, disease, and insect problems of flower growers.

Sixth, the effect of various merchandising methods and practices on the ultimate quality of perishable produce.

Seventh, determine the most favorable conditions for the production of fruits and vegetables of high nutritive value.

Eighth, develop varieties or strains of pasture grasses that will withstand the dry, hot weather of July and August.