The Paris News from Paris, Texas • Page 21

Hightowerasks John Block to slow U.S. farm foreclosures EEL BEHAVIOR The behavior of adult eels still mystifies scientists, who can't figure out how they find their way from North American and Europe to their breeding area in the Sargasso Sea. One theory holds that they may follow electrical charges generated by ocean currents, since it's been proven they can detect weak electrical charges in the water. (Photo copyright 1981 by Hans Reinhard, Bruce Coleman, Inc.) By PHIL States News Service WASHINGTON Rep. Jack Hightower, D-Vernon, urged Agriculture Secretary John Block Wednesday to slow down federal foreclosures farms because 'we are facing a farm depression equal to the early 1930s." The Agriculture Department reports that the Farmers Home Administration foreclosed approximately 260 farms this year.

That is about the same as last year. But 1981 net farm income is down about 22 percent and USDA officials conceded that many farmers next year will simply not have the cash to repay loans. Foreclosures are expected to rise sharply. "A lot of people are deeply in debt," said Marlyn Aycota, USDA spokesman for the FmHA. "If people are getting less money, more people will have problems meeting loans." The USDA estimates there was a $22.5 billion increase in the total farm debt last year.

Moreover, high interest rates coupled with the sagging agriculture market has forced many farmers to sell their farms rather than face foreclosure. "With the current prices and high interest rates, farmers are likely to receive only a portion of the actual value of the land and equipment they'll be forced to sell," Hightower said. "I will not stand by and see the lives of so many good people disrupted and destroyed without a fight." In the telegram to Block, Hightower said the agriculture secretary should use his authority to refinance debts, stretch cut repayment dates and even postpone a year's payment and interest when justified. Texas agriculture officials estimate the foreclosure rate there is about the same as last year when four farms were seized. (They do not have complete data yet for 1981).

But Assistant State FmHA Director John Barnes said there could be a 40-50 percent increase next year in state foreclosures because of the drop in net income. "(Commodity) prices are terrible, horrible," Barnes said. STate officials say that about 32 percent of farmers who have received FmHA loans are at least one payment behind. "If farmers are forced out of business in the blind manner that Farmers Home seems to be proceeding at this time, we are going to lose thousands of farmers and heedlessly jeopardize the investment the taxpayers have in these loans," Hightower wrote. Agriculture exports represent Adult eels'annual meeting place one-third of farm production A HV nnv K-E-wnAi i discovered in Sargasso Sea depths WASHINGTON The eel remains a slippery character, so elusive that many details of its lifestyles are stiJl unknown.

But scientists are catching on. Now zoologists from the University of Maine headed by Dr. James D. McCleave' think they have found the eels' annual mating spot in the Sargasso Sea, a vast body of water in the western North Atlantic. AUTUM WANDERLUST Every fail mature eels get an irresistible urge to leave their freshwater homes in the bays, rivers, and estuaries of North America and Europe and head for the Sargasso, where they mate and spawn.

But until recently no one knew where in the 2-million-square-mile region they gathered. Crisscrossing the Sargasso in a research vessel early this February and March spawning time for the American eel McCleave and his associates, Robert C. Kleckner and Gail S. Wip- pelhauser, found the eels' meeting place. It's an unusual zone of temperate water separating the cold northern mass of the sea from its warmer southern waters.

Using infrared photographed made by sate'JJite, and verifying them with instruments on the ship that monitored water temperatures, the researchers found the thermal front to be an area 600 miles long and 5 to 25 miles wide east of the Bahamas and north of Haiti. Eel larvae found in the area indicated that most of the spawning takes place on the southern part of the thermal front" or in the adjoining warmwaters to the south. "The front probably acts as a signal, telling the eels that they've arrived in the right places and it's time to do their thing," McCleave speculated. NET CAST FOR LARVAE More than 200 eel larvae, some only a day or two old, were collected in a large fine-mesh plankton net. The researchers suspect that some eel embroyos mav be hidden among them, and if so, it would be thp first limp American scientists have succeeded in collecting any.

The project is sponsored by the national Georgraphic Society, the National Science Foundation, and the University of Maine. After mating, adult eels die, leaving the larvae to pull off a feat of migration as awesome as that of their parents. Transparent and shaped like small willow leaves, they hitch a ride on the Gulf Stream to destinationations in the United States and across the North Atlantic to Europe. It takes almost a year for an American eel to lose its needle-like teeth and odd shape and become an elvor ready to enter fresh water. For European eels subjected to an arduous journey covering as many as 3,000 miles, the transformation takes two to three years.

Some eels that make it to the United States end up in Europe anyway. In the first seven months of this year, more than a million pounds of the fish were shipped from this country, -'most destined for Europe, where eels are considered a delicacy. BUI now do the two species get separated in the Sargasso in the first place? McCleave thinks that shifting ocean currents are an important factor. Spawning in April, almost a month after their American counterparts, the European eels may ride a different set of currents to the Gulf Stream. Currents in the region go in all sorts of directions, undoubtedly nudging varying numbers of larvae into the Gulf Stream at different times and places.

McCleave also has been trying to determine how adult eels find their way to the Sargasso. Last year he attended tiny ultrasonic transmitters to some adult eels that ho thought were ready to migrate from rivers in England, and released them in the North Sea 15 to 20 miles off the coast. LARVA Shaped like a delicate willow Jeaf a one-week-old eel larva, center, was collected from the Sargasso Sea by University of Maine scientists who found the place where adult eels spawn. The magnified larva, only about one-quarter-inch long is surrounded by even smaller pJankton on a container marked with grids to help in identification. (Photo courtesy National Geographic Society) By DON KENDALL AP Farm Writer WASHINGTON (AP) Not only have U.S.

agricultural exports shown a steady overall increase for more than a decade, they now represent almost a third of total production by the nation's farmers. According to a recent Agriculture Department analysis, 30.2 percent of the total value of commodities marketed by farmers in 1980 was exported. That compared to 14.4 percent in 1970, says the department's Economic Research Service. The agency's report showed that 5.6 percent of the value of livestock marketings was exported in 1980, compared to 2.9 percent in 1970. Exports of crops amounted to 54.3 percent of 1980 marketings, compared to 30.5 percent a decade earlier.

"It became apparent in the early '70s that production in many areas of the world, particularly in less-developed countries, would not be able to keep pace with population growth, 1 the report said "m'aikfiliort, growth Spa significant tra'de-" policy Changes increased effective, demand for agricultural products. The N0.7 ROAST ARM ROAST VINE RIPE United States responded by removing production control programs in 1980." Because of the greater demand, particularly for grain and oilseeds, 40 percent 163 million metric tons of the world agricultural trade volume in 1980 came from the United States, compared to 25 percent in 1970. "Food grains (wheat and rice) are produced primarily for exports, while two-thirds of the feed grain production is retained in the United States to support the livestock and poultry industries," the report said "About 55 percent of U.S. soybeans are exported either as beans or meal." The report showed that last year 65 percent of the wheat crop and 68 percent of the rice was exported. "Only a small percentage of U.S.

livestock and poultry meat is exported," it said Per capita meat consumption by Americans is among the highest in the world. "However, we export nearly two-thirds of the cattle hides produced to leather goods industries worldwide, particularly shoe Nearly half of our inedible tallow goes overseas to be processed into soap and other products." Analysts said textile producers in China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand increasingly are relying on U.S. cotton to meet their needs. "Unmanufactured tobacco (leaf) exports have remained rather stable over the last 10 to 15 years, giving way to cigarette exports which have grown at an annual rate of 11 percent in the past decade," the report said. And you shouldn't take a chance eithe.

a product that is so important to your health as milk. Nelson's All-Jersey Milk actually arrives at your favorite grocer faster and why fiddle around? Don't 6e disappointed! for Nelson's (irst always! NELSON'S JERSEY FARM TOMATOES FRESH GROUND MEAT FAMILY PACK PORK CHOPS CARL'S SAUSAGE 2 Ib. roll KRAFT 320, OnC SHURFINE ORANGE JUICE 89 COFFEE-. US with '10 purchase PORK RIBS 5 LB. BAG ORANGES DUNCAN MINES CAKE MIX 18.5 oz.

MARKET SLAUGHTERHOUSE Hwy 271 North (We accept USDA food stamps) 732-3955 CUSTOM SLAUGHTERING AND PROCESSING HOGS ON TUESDAY) Vz CORN FED BEEF This bMii on com 100 They draw oul 150 to 300 tot. lo halt. $-115 1 Lb. BEEFHWDQUARTERS $-125 1 Lb. BEEFFOREQUARTER $-105 1 Lb.

7 BONE CHUCK 2g .1 ARM ROAST 29 ROUND on STEAK TwtdtriMfll FfM 20 Lbs. LEAN HAMBURGER QQc "-b. In 1 Ib. 30 Ibs 89- Ib. 10 Lb.

LEAN HAMBURGER $-109 1 Lb. Wrapped Ipl Ibpkgt. 10 Lb. PORK SAUSAGE $-119 1 Lb. 20 LBS.

PORK SAUSAGE HOMO MILK 99 9-llon 20 Lbs. LEAN GROUND CHUCK $-129 Wrapped In lib. pkgt. I Lb. 10 Lbs.

LEAN GROUND CHUCK $139 Wrapped In 1 Ib. pkgi. Lb. 5 Lbs. T-Bone 20 Ibs.

5 Lbs. Sirloin 9 9 10 Lbs. Hmbgr. 1 CORN FED HOG UNPROCESSED Lb PROCESSED RQ clh (50 To 100 Lb. Avg.) LD 10 Lbs.

PORK $-119 Steak 1 Lb. 10 LBS. PORK CHOPS Wrapped 4 To Pkg. 39 1 Lb, 10 Lbs. Pigs Feet Ham Hocks And $O99 Pork Neck Bones FREEZER PACK: 5 Lb.

Club Steak Pork Chops 30 L.DS. 5 Lb. Chuck Steak or Roast ONLY 5 Lb. Arm Steak or Roast Lb. Stew Meat or Hamburger A ift 9 5 Lb.

Fryers JJ 5 Lb. Hamburaer 5 DOZ. GRADE A LARGE EGGS 3 49 CHUCK BLADE WRIGHTS SLICED ROAST SLAB BACON KLEENEX FACIAL TISSUE NICE-N-SOFT TOILET TISSUE 4ro SHURFINE PINTO BEANS SHURFINE GRAPEFRUIT JUICE PARKAY MARGARINE SHURFINE BROCCOLI SPEARS RANCH STYLE BEANS 15 Uni 2 RANCH STYLE PUII I 19 oz Limit 2 COKE UK SPRITE 2 Liter WE GLADLY FOOD STAMPS THRIFT KING BLEACH Limit i wtth '10 Purchase Ford's AG KCOD STORES Food Center 2454 Bonham OPOT Monday THru 8 00 i 800pm Ph. 784-7773 SPILLMATE JUMBO TOWELS.