. Cranberries; : the national cranberry magazine. Cranberries. tion. Secondly, this increasing prod- uctivity per acre meant that farmers could sell units of their produce for less because of larger volume. Difficult as it may be for the American to realize it, his food costs him on average less than one-fifth of his after-tax income (and this includes the cost of his restaurant and hotel dining). No other people in the world can boast that such a small percentage of expendable income goes for food. In England and western Europe it takes 25 to 35 per cent of expendable income to buy food, and
. Cranberries; : the national cranberry magazine. Cranberries. tion. Secondly, this increasing prod- uctivity per acre meant that farmers could sell units of their produce for less because of larger volume. Difficult as it may be for the American to realize it, his food costs him on average less than one-fifth of his after-tax income (and this includes the cost of his restaurant and hotel dining). No other people in the world can boast that such a small percentage of expendable income goes for food. In England and western Europe it takes 25 to 35 per cent of expendable income to buy food, and in the and its satellites the percentage rises toward and beyond 50. This great achievement in the efficiency of American food pro- duction was reached through many technologic improvements. We have learned to replace the plant nutri- ents lost in the raising of each crop so that soils remain fertile and productive. In cranberries and many other crops we have curtailed frost losses with sprinkler systems which in replacing flood frost controls have conserved enormous quantities of water. But probably the greatest curtailment of losses has come from the discovery of controls for crop-plant diseases, weeds, insect pests, mites, etc. The authors of this article can recall the devastation of a crop by insect hordes when there were no controls available. In recent years we have seen vast acreages of forests defol- iated by gypsy moths and tussock moths. When this occurs in mid- growing season wild-life disappears because food supply and shelter has gone with the foliage. Though hardwood trees usually survive such defoliation for a year or more, their growth is severely limited and their resistance to disease so reduced they become vulnerable to the attack of fungus pathogens. The damage caused by defoliating pests on pine, fir and spruce forests is more deadly because evergreens frequently die as a result of a single defoliation. Contrary to many stories in the public press
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