The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1914-09-29
Less Cotton; More Food
Atlanta Journal.

W
will follow the European war and
which, indeed, is already manifest.
the Canadian government is urging
farmers to SOW wheat on every avail
able acre, "as matter of good busi-
ness and good patriotism" 1t is
expected that later the government
will give aid toward plowing and
planting, and, perhaps, advance
seed to those who may require such
assistance. Kindred appeals are
being made to farmers throughout
the British empire
The good business and good
patriotism" of food production are
no less evident in the United States,
especially in the South. The extra
ordinary conditions brought on by
the world war must be met with
extraordinary means and methods.
Where one blade of wheat has grown
before, two must be made to grow
now. A vast portion OF the earth's
productive energy has been diverted
to battlefields Processes of crea-
tion have been broken athwart by
pell-mell destruction. Thousands of
fields are left unharvested and un-
TILED, and hundreds of thousands
of workers have been called from
ploughshares to swords
1t is estimated, indeed, that the
number OF men engaged, one way or
another, in the European war is
nearly twice as great as the aggre-
gate number Of men, women and
children engaged in agriculture in
the United States. "In our whole
country" says an authority on this
subject, 1--WE have some twelve and
a half million people at work on
farms, producing an output of about
ten billion dollars a year, while Eu-
rope has twenty million men under
arms, destroying wealth and killing
their fellow men," The economic
aftermath of this situation will be a
problem such as the world has sell
dom, II ever, known.
The foreign demand for American
with peace and fertility. this country
will continue to yield bounteous har-
vests; but its utmost energy and
fruitfulness will be taxed to fill the
great gap in the worlds production.
Inevitably, there will be food short
age. What an opportunity, what a
necessity for a larger measure of
food production in the South!
The Southern states dare not trust
mainly to cotton another year; they
dare not neglect the crops for which
demand will be greatest and prices
highest. Every acre OF cotton that
is planted in 1915 will be planted at
the growers risk, but every acre of
foodstuffs will have the assurance
OF a ready and profitable market.
There are good omens rnat we shall
emerge safely from the present cot
ton crisis. Thanks to the loyalty OF
the Southern people, aided by gen.
erous friends in other sections, hun
dreds Of thousands OF bales Of dis
tressed cotton are being retired from
the market at ten cents a pound; and
as this patriotic movement advances
the situation will become more aad
more secure. But it is essential that
next years crop be held to the low
est possible minimum, if we are to
escape in 1915 the same emergency
through which we are now strug-
Cling.
Less cotton, more food-that
must be the watchword of Southern
farmers. There will be no hardship
or difficulty in carrying. this wise
policy into effect; certainly there will
be none in Georgia, where soil and
climate are suited to the production
of virtually everything needed for
mans subsistence. The raising of
corn, wheat, oats, truck products,
forage and live stock is not expert
mental in Georgia. nfact, those
counties which have gone most ex-
tensively into diversified farming are
the most substantial and most pros
porous in the state
1t should be noted, however, that
In recent years Georgia's production
OF food supplies has grown wonder
fully; we have been moving steadily |
In this direction, so that today we
are we'll prepared for the radical |
change which must be made. We |
are prepared to abandon the hazard |
Gus One-crop system In wreat onr