National Affairs: Again, Plenty

U.S. farmers who strained their backs to raise wartime bumper crops when help was scarce went on to bigger & better yields when the help came back. In 1946, crop production broke all records, topping the wartime 1942 peak by 2%, and soaring 26% over the 1923-32 (pre-drought) average.

Corn was king, with 3.3 billion bushels (against a 2.6 billion average). Wheat hit 1.16 billion bushels, 37% above average. The nation's farmers also set new highs in rice, soybeans, cherries, potatoes, tobacco, peaches, pears, plums and truck crops. Only in cotton and rye was the yield down by wide margins.

But the U.S. had not yet made up its mind how it would share this bounty with the rest of the world. UNRRA was dying and new plans were not yet born. Meanwhile hungering millions everywhere were moving nearer to famine. They could only hope and wait.