DROUGHT AREAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22466, 9 July 1936, Page 13

DROUGHT AREAS

AMERICAN STATES MEASURES FOR RELIEF lIEAT WAVE CONTINUES 20 DEATHS REPORTED Hy Telegraph—Fress Association —Copyright (Received July 8, r>.'jr> p.m.) WASHINGTON July 7 President Roosevelt to-day set in motion a comprehensive programme to give work or relief to 100,000 drought-stricken families. He told journalists there would be no national food shortage soon and any curtailment would be due to the drought, not to crop restrictions as in 1934. The plantings of wheat and maize, said the President, were 10 per cent more than in 1933 and he estimated a wheat crop of 600,000,000 bushels, which, with a carry-over of 150,000,000 bushels, would give America 125,000,000 bushels more than the average annual consumption. High temperatures continued to-day. The maximum was 120 degrees in North Dakota. Twenty deaths from heat are reported. The Weather Bureau foresees no rain for .'JG hours. The Department of Agriculture has named 97 emergency drought counties, thus enabling the railway companies to reduce freight rates to those districts. Mr. Roosevelt outlined a plan for grass growing and tree planting to forestall recurrent droughts. He said the Government's main thought was to change the country's economy. Droughts had cost the Government 300,000,000 dollars in less than four years. CROP RESTRICTION TERMINATION DEMANDED FARMERS THREATEN ACTION (Received July 8. 5.25 p.m.) CHICAGO. July 7 Mr. John Bosch, head of the Farmers' National Holiday Association, telegraphed to Mr. Roosevelt and to the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. H. A. Wallace, asking them to end crop restriction and announcing that his organisation, which sponsored the farm strikes in 1932 and 1933, would hold mass meetings to discuss stopping the repayment of loans advanced for feed and seed by the Government and would suspend the payment by destitute farmers of their rent. Prices of wheat, maize and oats rose to nearly the maximum permissible limits to-day in all the North American markets but later eased on profittaking. CANADA'S WHEAT REDUCTION OF SURPLUS EXTENSION OF DROUGHT (Received July 8, 5.5 p.m.) MONTREAL, July 7 Canada's surplus wheat problem has practically disappeared. An official report, which does not estimate the total damage but confirms a Winnipeg estimate, shows a crop of 250,000,000 bushels instead of the expected 375,000,000. The carry-over probably will be 50.000,000 bushels or less. The new Canadian Wheat Board, on December 7, 1935, took over 298,000,000 bushels of cash and future wheat and by the end of the following January had sold 76,000,000 bushels and acquired 15,000,000 more. It has been selling actively since then, but at a price entailing a loss. The Government may recoup itself if dollar wheat returns but also it must spend on relief. Reports indicate that the drought extends westward over a wide area from the south-east of Manitoba to the southern foothills in Alberta. Feed and seed will be a problem unless heavy rain falls soon.