Ho   114 March 1, 193S
INDIANA
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
DIVISION OF CROP AND LIVESTOCK ESTIMATES
CO-OPERATING WITH 
PURDUE UNIVERSITY 
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION  
DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
WEST LAFAYETTE. IN&JANA
INDIANA
On reporters' farms 68.1 percent of the cows we^behigl milked on the first
of March. The production per cow milked was 17.4"~pbuhds compared with
17.0 last month and 16.9 a year ago.
On farms reporting less than 400 hens and pullets 40.0 percent of the hens
were laying compared with 23.6 percent last month and 32.4 a year ago. The
average number of hens and pullets of laying age was 105 this month, 108
last month and 117 a year ago.
UNITED STATES
Record acreages of grain sorghums and soybeans, fairly large acreages of
beans and peanuts, about the usual acreages of potatoes, sweet-potatoes,
oats, barley and rye, and moderate or below average acreages of most other
field crops are indicated for this season by the March 1 reports which the
Crop Reporting Board has received from 46,000 farmers in all parts of the
country.
Empty barns and corn cribs and the sharp increases in the prices of crops
as compared with those of one and two years ago would ordinarily stimulate
plantings but the reports received show rather moderate acreages expected
for harvest in most parts of the country. Unless the weather from now on is
less favorable than usual, however, the acreage of main crops harvested
should be considerably greater than in either of the last two seasons when
drought caused heavy abandonment of planted acreage. The acreage finally
harvested is still quite largely dependent on the rainfall in the Great Plains
area where there is a serious and widespread shortage of subsoil moisture.
Assuming that most of that area will have sufficient rain to permit about
the usual proportion of the planted acreage to be harvested, the national
total of 18 important crops (including winter grains but excluding cotton)
is expected to be somewhere around 285,775,000 acres this season compared
with the greatly reduced totals of 244,486,000 acres harvested last season
and 277,890,000 acres in 1933. In 1932, when weather conditions were more
favorable some 302,137,000 acres of these crops were harvested.
The prospective reduction in acreage below the level of 1932 appears to
be due to several factors, including the crop control program, the unfavorable conditions for seeding in the plains region, local shortages of seed, the
high cost of seed in comparison with present expectation of crop prices at
harvest time, the reduction in feed requirements due to liquidation of livestock, and the financial difficulties of some farmers in the drought area.
The indicated shifts between crops likewise reflect the influence of various
factors. The record acreages of grain sorghum and soybeans in prospect and
the expansion of the bean acreage in the Southern Plains area appear to be
due to substitution of those crops for others limited by contract, to the proven
usefulness of those crops under recent drought conditions and, in the case of
soybeans, to the fear of chinch bug damage to small grains and to the extensive loss of new grass seedings.The acreage of potatoes is expected to be about
one percent below that finally harvested last year and about 5 percent below
the acreage planted last year, the reduction being due chiefly to low prices
being received in the principal shipping areas, and to poor prospects for favorable returns in the very early States. The reported acreages of corn,
spring wheat, rice, peanuts, and tobacco, all show the effects of the control
programs in operation, although each of these crops is expected to be harvested from an acreage substantially above the very low acreage harvested
last season. For example, reports on the acreage of corn intended indicate about 95,692,000 acres for harvest. Last year only 87,486,000 acres
were harvested for any purpose out of the 95,319,000 acres planted, but during the preceding 10 years the acreage at harvest averaged 101,666,000 acres.
On the whole the acreage of feed crops seems likely to be rather large in
comparison with the reduced numbers of livestock, but probably reflects
farmers' desires to replenish the greatly depleted farm reserves of these
crops.