Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1914-11-26
MARKETING WORLDS
GREATEST PROBLEM
WE ARE LONG ON PRODUCTION,
SHORT ON DISTRIBUTION.
q. DER Raaford
Lecturer NatIonaI tIarmera. Union.


The economic distribution of farm
products is today the worlds greatest
problem and the war, while it has
brought its hardships, has clearly en-
phasized the Importance of distribu-
ton as a factor in American agricul-
ture and promises to give the farm
ers the cooperation of the govern
ment and the business men the
solution of their marketing problem.
This result will, in a measure, COM
pensate us for our war losses, for the
business interests and government
have been in the main assisting al
most exclusively on the production
side of agriculture. While the depart
ment of agriculture has been dumping
tons of literature on the farmer telling
him how to produce, the farmer has
been dumping tons of products in the
nations garbage can for want Of
market.
The World VIII Never starve.
AT no time since Adam and Eve
were driven from the Garden OF Eden
have the inhabitants of this world
suffered from lack of production, but
some people have gone hungry from
the day of creation to this good hour
for the lack of proper distribution
Slight variations in production have
forced a change in diet and one local
ity has felt the pinch of want, while
another surfeited, but the world as q
whole has ever been a land of plenty
We now have less than one-tentG OF
the tillable land of the earth's surface
under cultivation, and we not only
have this surplus area to draw on but
1t is safe to estimate that in case oil
dire necessity one-half the earth's
population could at the present time
knock their living out of the trees
of the forest, gather it from wild
vines and draw 1t from streams. No
one should become alarmed the
world will never starve.
The consumer has always feared
that the producer would not supply
him and his fright has found express
sion on the statute books of our states
and nations and the farmer has been
urged to produce recklessly and with.
out reference to market, and regard.
less of the demands of the consumer,
Back Il, the Soil.
The city people have been urging
each other to move back to the farm,
but very few of them have moved.
We welcome our city cousins back to
81
tains 16,O92.160,000 idle acres Of till.
able land where they can make
living by tickling the earth with a
forl1ed stick, but we do not need them
so far as increasing production is con
cerned; we now have all the producers
we can use The city man has very
erroneous ideas of agricultural condi-
tons. The commonly accepted theory
that we are short on production is all
wrong. Our annual increase in pro-
duction far exceeds that of our in
crease in population.
The World as a Farm.
Taking the world as one big farm,
we find two billion acres of land in
cultivation. OF this amount there is
approximately 750A00,000 acres on the
western and 1890. 100000 acres on the
eastern hemisphere in cultivation.
This estimate, of course, does not in
clude grazing lands. forests, etc,
where large quantities of meat are
produced.
The worlds annual crop approxi-
mates fifteen billion bushels Of re-
ana sixty five millicn tons of meat
The average annual world crop for
the past five years, compared with the
previous five wears is as follows.
Past Halt Previous Half
Crops Decade Decade
Corn (Bu.) 1894, 17400O 3,40s .e55 900
Wheat (Bu.) 1922, 10000 3,257 $4,000
Oats tBu) 4.120017oo0 s.5GS .315Oo0
Cottont Bales) 19,S6s,soO 17,541.2O0
The world shows an average in
crease in cereal production of 10 per
cent during the past decade. compared
with The nrevinns five wears. while the