The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, July 05, 1961, Page Page 3, Image 3

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Wednesday, July 5, 1961
Summer Nebraskan
Page 3
nni
"""JIB JL
Continued From Page I)
story you aeed go only 50
miles to the south to the
University of Nebraska's Col
lege of Agriculture in Lin
coln. Both the supply and , de
mand for agriculture prod-'
. ucts are what economists
call "inelastic."
According to Dr. Howard
Ottoson, University agricul
tural economist, the p r i c e
elasticity of demand for all
agricultural products has
been, estimated at somewhere
between "-.1 and .2." This
simply means that every
time the price of corn or
sorghum, for example, de
creases one per cent, people
will want to buy only one to
two-tenths of a percent more of
these feed grains. Actually
Americans will eat just so
much of certain types of food
no matter how much the
price of this food rises or
falls. Or as Dr. Ottoson puts
it:
"Inelasticity of d e ra a n d
occurs simply because of the
lack of stretch in the typical
American stomach. When
the price of food goes down,
wt are not apt to eat many
more calories. We are more
apt to think about a new car
or a motor boat, or a trip to
the mountains."
Ag Products Inelastic
The supply of agriculture
products have this same in
elastic quality. During the
year farmers will raise about
the same amount even
though the prices may fall.
According to Ottoson, the
elasticity of supply is less
than .2 for all food products
for the short run (one sea
son). This means that as the
prices go down one per cent,
' farmers will decrease their
production by only two-tenths
of a per cent.
So, when these two eco
nomic freaks . . . inelastic
supply and inelastic demand
.... are put together, they
cause great big fluctuations
in the prices farmers receive
for their products, even
though the difference in sup
ply may not be too great.
Ottoson says that in 1959,
for example, the additional
five per cent of products
that were fed into the mar
ket, caused a 20 per cent
. drop in prices. .Thus agricul
ture's supply and demand
structure is completely oppo
site from most other indus
tries where prices can be
kept relatively stable
through an elastic supply to
Microfilm,
(Continued From Page 1)
cannot be checked out except
by faculty members and occa
sionally student teachers. The
library does provide four sets
of earphones for each record
disk so that 12 students can
listen to records at one time.
A GOOD TEACHERS AGCNTY
DAVIS
School Service
ENROLL NOV.
E$toblihd 1918 Serving the Mi
ouri Volley to the Weit Coost.
529 Stuort Bldg. Lincoln 8, Nebr.
quervtms
V town & campus
1229 R STREET
7th Annual ,
uly
Starts July 5th
DRESSES
COATS
RAINWEAR
SPORTSWEAR
SIZES 6 thru 16
Vo have our famous
"RIDICULOUS RACK"
Unbelievable buys on fashions
from oil parrs of the store.
TAKE A PEEK IN OUR
i V, STORE ANYTIME, WHETHER
YOU BUY
11616
meet the fluctuating demand
of their products.
Stethoscope Tells Story
In 1961 a stethoscope ap
plied to the nation's bread
basket finds these sources for
the surplus headache; more
powerful and efficient ma
chinery, fertilizer, irrigation,
population variations, arfd
changes in eating habits.
They add up to a million-dollar
migraine, even in Dodge
County.
Will today's headache turn
into a cerebral hemorrhage,
or an old-fashioned stomach
ache, so familiar to the pio
neers of Dodge County?
About technocracy, Dodge
County's implement deal
er Froid predicts: "There
will be more automation in
hydraulics in tractors. This
means there will be less fa
tigue, for the operators, and
thus they will be able
to farm more per person."
Hit other predictions t
Wheat farmers will work
only 100 hours per year,
more tractor horsepower,
more conveniences, mere
speeds forward on machines,
and more efficiency.
And the general manager
of a hybrid seed corn plant
in Fremont, W. A. Koepplin,
feels that Dodge County, as
well as the rest of Nebraska,
"hasn't anywhere reached
maximum corn production."
He says:
"Yields could improve an
other 50 per cent on the av
erage with fertilizer and irri
gation. "Production will be .in
creased 10 to 15 per cent by
insect control, and from 15
to 25 per cent by the use of
herbicides.
"Farmers will use 500
times as much fertilizer as
they use now."
More predictions can be had
at the University Agriculture
College. Prof. Lloyd W. Hurl
but, president of the Ameri
can Society of . Agricultural
Engineers, the chairman of
the department of agricultur
al engineering at the Univer
sity of Nebraska, says that
patterns of specialization
are already appearing.
He said that a company
was formed in western Ne
braska for the purpose of
feeding 50,000 beef cattle a
year. The company plans to ,
employ 50 people, including
a bookkeeper, several secre
taries, a veterinarian, and
a feed technologist. The long
Microcards, Records at Love Library
Miss Moore said that on
their heaviest day about 60
students patronized the de
partment. Most users of the
facilities are music and grad
uate students, she said.
Another service . of the
j library is the making of re
! productions of reading matter
and occasional pnotograpns.
Copies made by a heat proc
ess, Thermofax are avail
able for 15 cents each.
Verifax copies, which are
more permanent cost 25 cents.
The library has another ma-
Sale
9:00 a.m.
Reduced
25
TO
50
I
OR NOT.
Cure
term plans include slaughter-,
Ing facilities. . .
What is going to happen
to future population? In the
nation's capital, the
USDA says there will be 210
to 215 million people in the
United States by 1975 and
370 million by 2010. In other
words, there will be a little
over 2.2 times as many peo
ple in the United States 50
years from now as there
were in 1956. This means
that if Dodge County keeps
up with the national average
it will have over 70,000 peo
ple in the year 2010.
And will American's eating
habits continue to change?
The USDA says people will
be eating higher-cost foods
such as meats, milk,
and certain fruits and veget
ables that tend to upgrade
the diet but add nothing to
the number of pounds of food
or number of calories that
will be consumed per person.
The per person use of farm
products will rise only one
tenth.
Will there be a shortage
of food as the population ex
plodes? While there will be a pop
ulation increase of 43 per
cent by 1975, the acres under -cultivation
can be increased
by 37 percent, according to
Howard W. Ottoson, chair
man of the University of Ne
braska agricultural econom
ics department. He said that
it has also been shown that
if farmers pushed fertilizer
to optimum levels of use,
there would be a need for
one million fewer acres of
corn by 1975.
And the possibility of fu
ture crop yields?
The USDA predicts that
corn will yield 57 bushels
per acre in 1975, and 85 bush
els per acre" by 2010. This
compares to 47.1 bushels per
acre in 1957. Wheat also will
increase from" the present
21.7 to 34 bushels per acre
50 years from now.
Can Dodge County farmers
and their grain belt counter
parts feed the exploding pop
ulation, at least in the 20th
century?
Yes, many experts agree.
There's land and fertilizer
aplenty and technocracy is
on the march.
But what about that mi
graine of the moment?
Kennedy Remedy?
What has the Kennedy ad
ministration proposed as a
remedy for the headache?
L - V . $ U Fur- 1
.1 i i
- It !S
At. ZZ..
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m ':
. l.
WHITMAN RARITIES Charles E. Fein
berg of Detroit presented two rare proof
sheets of writings of Walt Whitman to the
University of Nebraska Libraries. Shown
chine which makes copies
from microfilm. These copies
also cost 15 cents each.
Get First Chance
Farley said that these facil
ities are available to all, but
Need Extra
Nebraskan
Want Ads
S cents a word: $1.00 mini
mum. Ads to be printed in
the classified section of the
Summer Nebraskan must be
accompanied by the name
of the person placinr said
ad and brourht to room 311,
Burnett.
Money?
or
s'
It" iTt
I
13
TALL CORN MORE SURPLUS The
Midwest's excellent , growing conditions
and technocracy in the form of better
fertilizers, irrigation, and superiod hybrid
Only a short time ago the
Emergency Feed Grain Pro-
gram was enacted to- tem-
porarily ease the paimof the
surplus headache.
According to Ralph Cole,
the new program will not
only stop future pile-up of
surpluses, but will also elimi-
'A if i:i-.4"V- .
rpppivin thpm
if n v-
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Lundy, director of Libraries; Karl Sha
piro; Mr. Feinberg; and Dr. James Mil
ler, Jr.. (U. of N. Photo.)
that University of Nebraska
students and faculty are the
first users.
"Our students get the first
call on all materials," he said.
"We're here to serve them."
After the approximately 8,000
students and faculty mem
bers, come about 300 city bor
rowers. These are doctors,
lawyers, and teachers w.ho
need the library for their pro
fessional work.
How's your average?
We're talking about your bat
ling average. Viant to find
out?
Come our to . . .
LITTLE AMERICA
baseball
batting
RANGE
NORTH
Oiily
a
'5',
0
seeds have combined to produce this lush
stand of corn which seems well on its way
to adding to the already bulging storage
bins.
nate some of the present feed
grain surpluses.
Cole is a member of the
Feed Grains Study Commit-
tee after .whose recommen-
dations the Emergency Feed
Grain Program was pat-
terned.
He explained that under
ir
are: (from left) Frank
Students from other colleges
cannot have Love Library
cards, but through a system
of inter-library loan, a student
from Wesleyan or Union col
lege could have his library
borrow the book for him from
Love Library. The inter
library loan system enables
the University to have access
to all major newspapers and
to books in other libraries in
the United States.
Golf. Driving
Range '
Shufflsboard
Courts
3 if
0 i
Snack Bar
;. Ice Cream
27TH ST.
ID
rainKiiier
the program, farmers will
cut back on the amount of
feed grains that they pro-
duce by retiring up to a
maximum amount of 40 per-
cent of their crop. This
amount will be based on
their past two-year average
acreage. The , land retire-
1 ytaE
MAN
A W
W
If
L U KM'
IMS
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN
1127 "R" Street Phone HE 2-2042 4
?
ment will in turn decrease
the supply of certain feed
grain crops, primarily corn
and sorghum.
To make sure production
on the remaining unretired
acres isn't increased above
normal by the addition of
fertilizer or other factors,
payments will be made OiJy
for the past average yields
per acre.
According to Cole, the
present surpluses can also
be decreased through payment-in-kind.
The farmers
can receive part or all of
their payment for retiring
their acres in surplus corn
or sorghum. This will be
done by issuing certificates
which in turn can be re
deemed at the Agriculture s
Stabilization and Conserva
tion office for corn and sor
ghum. .
The, new program, it it
hoped, will stabilize the sup
ply of feed grains for the
coning year so that it will
meet demand and thus re
duce fluctuating prices.
Permanent Remedy?
And what about a more
permanent remedy? In a
speech before Congress on
March 16th, President John
Kennedy said that agricul
ture "needs a commodity
by-commodity approach, fit
ting each program to the
pertinent problems."
To do so, Mr. Kennedy
said, "I am therefore ask
ing the Congress to enact
legislation to be submitted
shortly and to be known as
the Agricultural Enabling
Amendments Act of 1961. . ."
The act was recently killed
in committee. However,
Washington observers ex
pect at least parts of it to
be revived into some kind of
a farm program.
As for the permanent
remedy, President Kennedy
concluded in his speech be
fore Congress:
"We cannot expect to
solve the farm problem in
a day or in a year, or per
haps even in this adminis
tration. But we can and must
adopt a new approach based
on a clear recognition of the
goals we seek, a realistic
appraisal of the problems
involved, and a firm deter
mination to solve these prob
lems and attain these goals."
And in Dodge County, Ne
braska, the Midwest?
The headache throbs, now
to the rythm of combines as
the wheat harvest commences.
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