You are familiar with the suggestion that the various public agencies now dealing with matters of veterans’ relief be consolidated in one Government department.  Some advantages to this plan seem apparent, especially in the simplification of administration find in the opportunity of bringing about a greater uniformity in the application of veterans’ relief.  I recommend that a survey be made by the proper committees of Congress dealing with this subject, in order to determine whether legislation to secure this consolidation is desirable.

AGRICULTURE

The past year has been marked by notable though not uniform improvement in agriculture.  The general purchasing power of farm products and the volume of production have advanced.  This means not only further progress, in overcoming the price disparity into which agriculture was plunged in 1920-21, but also increased efficiency on the part of farmers and a well-grounded confidence in the future of agriculture.

The livestock industry has attained the best balance for many years and is prospering conspicuously.  Dairymen, beef producers, and poultrymen are receiving substantially larger returns than last year.  Cotton, although lower in price than at this time last year, was produced in greater volume and the prospect for cotton incomes is favorable.  But progress is never uniform in a vast and highly diversified agriculture or industry.  Cash grains, hay, tobacco, and potatoes will bring somewhat smaller returns this year than last.  Present indications are, however, that the gross farm income will be somewhat larger than in the crop year 1927-28, when the total was $12,253,000,000.  The corresponding figure for 1926-27 was $12,127,000,000, and in 1925-26, $12,670,000,000.  Still better results would have been secured this year had there not been an undue increase in the production of certain crops.  This is particularly true of potatoes, which have sold at an unremunerative price, or at a loss, as a direct result of overexpansion of acreage.

The present status of agriculture, although greatly improved over that of a few years ago, bespeaks the need of further improvement which calls for determined effort of farmers themselves, encouraged and assisted by wise public policy.  The Government has been, and must continue to be, alive to the needs of agriculture.

In the past eight years more constructive legislation of direct benefit to agriculture has been adopted than during any other period.  The Department of Agriculture has been broadened and reorganized to insure greater efficiency.  The department is laying greater stress on the economic and business phases of agriculture.  It is lending every possible assistance to cooperative marketing associations.  Regulatory and research work have been segregated in order that each field may be served more effectively.