The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-07-21
FOOD DEMAND VS.. FOOD SUPPLY

An incentive for the farmer to en-
ploy all of his skill in his calling is
found in the fact that while the popu-
lation of the country is rapidly in
creasing, the production of food sup
plies is not keeping pace with the
steadily growing demand. AS the
population must keep on increasing,
time ultimately will come when the
home supply of wheat, corn, pork,
beef and other foods will be barely
sufficient for home consumption.
Then it will be necessary to begin
importing some of our food supplies,
as Great Britain has been doing for
more than two-thirds of a century,
although the time is not likely to
come in great many years when we
will have to import such a large pro-
portion of our foodstuffs as England
has been doing in recent times.
We see in our tables Of exports ev-
OAS gCdA dA CN4OCLGS vi Tic lCldLlFC
gain of manufactures in this country
as compared with agriculture. Fifty
years ago agriculture furnished the
bulk of our merchandise exports. For
the fiscal year of 1910 manufactures
in the aggregate, caught up with
farm products in the export trade,
and it is evident that within a few
years manufactures will contribute a
much larger share than agriculture to
the total exports.
The home market, which is the
profitable market for tn eproducts of
the farm, is increasing much faster
than are the products. There is a
limit to the acreage of farm lands.
That limit has not yet been reached,
but it inevitably must be in the
course of time Irrigation is begin
ming to make the desert bloom, but a
country which increases its popula-
ton by 100000 in a decade must
eventually people all the reclaimed
acres which irrigation furnishes. AS
large proportion of the newcomers
drift into the factories instead of 60
ing to the farms, the result of the in
| fux of new citizens will be to in
! crease the demand for food faster
than the supply grows. All the re-
sources of scientific cultivation of the
soil, therefore, must be brought into
requisition by the American farmer
of the future if he is to continue to
supply the American consumer with
out calling in outside aid.
The desert lands are being irrigat-
ed and the swamps are being drain
ed, and thus hundreds of millions of
acres will be added to the area sus-
ceptible of high cultivation. But the
gain from these sources will have to
be rapid if it is to keep pace with the
growth of consumption The output
of the factories is increasing much
faster than is that of the farms, and
factory operatives, like the rest of the
Americans, are large consumers of
food BY one means and another the
manufacturers are enlarging their
markets abroad. Thus they are ena-
bled to keep on increasing the num-
Der of their workers and are bringing
a growing pressure upon the re-
| sources of the agricultural regions.
The census OF 1929 will doubtless
show a much greater decennial ex-
pansion in population. particularly in
the west and south, than that which
the 1910 census revealed. Thus from
all quarters the products of the farm
are being drawn upon at a rate never
seen before, and the rewards of the
industrious and intelligent farmer
are consequently increasing in magni-
tude