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<br />DON C. McCAIN <br /> <br />reached Yuma, enjoyed a $.40 per pound picture. <br /> <br />Standing mature alfalfa seed fields subjected to Katrina were almost totaUy destroyed - - we <br />normaUy get a tropical storm one year in seven. <br /> <br />We love to farm along the Colorado River - - we must for the rumuneration wasn't there in the <br />Year 1967. The soil and what it grew was the daily bread of our mental weU being. <br /> <br />Cropping patterns changed drasticaUy with us in 1967 and the search is on for better crops to <br />economicaUy grow in 1968. We can grow with our double ~rop season, ample water, fertile soils and <br />farming know-how, more kinds of crops than any other farnjing region in the world. <br /> <br />The finest farmers, with impeccable production records, tried 16,000 more acres of Safflower <br />this year than last - - results: good yields that because of high production costs made very little pro- <br />fits. Next year safflower acreage will be nil, as contracts for seed have dropped $20 per ton on Frio <br />and Gila and dropped from $112 per ton delivered on Saffola 161, a high oil content hybrid, to an <br />$81 per ton floor for 1968. <br /> <br />It seems our Russian friends broke the world market demand on oilseeds with their heavy Sun- <br />flower oil shipments to Japan and elsewhere. <br /> <br />Guess who is taking care of their wheat needs as to subsidies on both price and credit? <br /> <br />Cantaloupe acreage was down 7,000 acres in '67. Labor costs, both in the field and, especiaUy, <br />in the Union sheds, has so raised the costs of a produced crate of melons that it takes a high yield per <br />acre plus an average sale price of $ 5 .00 per crate to come out -- it no longer justifies the gamble. <br /> <br />FaU maize plantings were mostly affected by Sorghum root rot and were disced up. Spring <br />plantings, however, were a bright spot; especiaUy, those grown fullseason, as they yielded in the 4 to <br />5 ton per acre range. FaU maize is dead for next year, so what to double crop plant with barley and <br />wheat? <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />Both barley and wheat yielded weU in 1967 but brought only $48 and $49 per ton respective- <br />ly. In past years we have sold them in the $55 to $60 per, ton range. Next year, I and others, plan to <br />plant Sonora 64, a Mexican dwarf wheat, produced by the RockefeUer Foundation in Mexico. It has <br />a 40% yield increase potential over Ramona 50. <br /> <br />Skip row cotton will be widely grown in 1968 on aJ2 x I pattern, this will take up more cheap <br />acres costing more to grow the crop but it will result in more cotton produced per aUoted acre of a <br />quality. Supply and demand and too many "points on" cau~ed this relaxation in the cotton bill. <br /> <br />, <br />We have a "stoop labor" economy and since the ,loss of the bracero, we have suffered; not <br />just because wages have gone up, but because labor needs ,are not being taken care of by reliable la- <br />bor force on a timely basis. <br /> <br />The domestic crew that picked (butchered) my lemons in 1965 consisted of winos, dingbats, <br />snowbirds, wonderful people, and other urban and social rejects. They left my grove in a shambles -- <br />broken branches, shiners (missed fruit), wine and meUwqod bourbon bottles were aU over. One of <br />them even backed his truck into my home power pole knpcking out the transformer. <br /> <br />This year the first picking (ring picking) was done by a green-card crew, they did a very accept- <br />able job. If I ever get a crew back in to strip them, I sure hope it isn't a domestic one. <br /> <br />The green-carder is under the Union's gun - - he must be retained at aU costs or aU vegetable <br />and horticultural crops will ultimately be lost to Mexico and the teamster and Packinghouse Union la- <br />bor can grace the unemployment roles permanently. ' <br /> <br />-22- <br />