The St. Mary banner., 1915-01-16
MARKETING WORLDS
! GREATEST PROBLEM
WE ARE LONG ON .PRODUC'
TON, SHORT ON D1STR1-
/ BUTTON.
BY Peter Radford
lAc4uYVr National FATmerf' Onion

while it has brought its hardships,
has clearly emphasized the i'm
portAnce of distribution as fact
or in American agriculture and
promises to give the farmers the
cooperation of the government
and the business men the solution
Of their marketing problem.
This result will, in a measure,
compensate Us for our war losses,
for the business interests and
government have been in the
main assisting almost exclusively
on the production side of agricul-
ture. While the department 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 a market.
The World Will 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 Gre
ation to this good hour for the
lack Of proper distribution. Slight
variations in production have
forced 4 change in diet and one
locality has felt the pinch of want
while another surfeited, but the
world as a whole has ever been
Z land of plenty. o
We now have less than one
tenth Of the tillab1e land of the
sarth's surface under cultivation,
and we not only have this sur
pAs area to draw on but it is safe
- estimate that in case of dire ne
eessity one-haN the earth's popu-
lation could knock their living out
Of the trees Of the forests, gather
it from wild vines and draw it
from streams. No one should be,
come alarmed; the world viii
never starve.
The consumer has always feared
that the producer would not sup
ply him and his fright has found
expression on the statute books
Of our states and nations, and the
farmer has been urged to produce
recklessly and without reference
70 , market, and regardless of the
demands Of the consumer.
Back to the Soil.
The city people have been urg-
ing each other to move back to
the farm, but very few of them
have moved. We welcome our
city cousins back to the soil and
this earth's surface contains Is:
0gz, 10000 idle acres Of .til1able
land where they can make a liv-
ing by tickling the earth with .
iorked stick, but we do not need
them 50 far as increasing produc-
don is concerned. The city man
has very erroneous ideas Of agri-
cultural conditions. The common
y accepted theory that we are
short on production is all wrong.
Our annual increase in produc-
iior far exceeds thSt OF our In
eTe8se in population
/ The World Is q Farm. i
Taking the world as one big
farm, we find two billion acres o]
land ineultivation. Ofthis amount
there IS approximately $50 .O0O, 600
acres on the western and l,2O,-
600, GOO acres on the eastern hem
isphere, inftultivation. This esti-
mate does not include grazing
lands, forests, ETC., where large
quantities OF meat are produced.
The worlds annual crop ap-
prcximates fifteen billion bushel.
a cereals, thirteen billion pound.
I0f fibre and sixty-fve million
tons 81 meat. d
The world shows an average
inerease in CEREAL production oj
Is per fknt during the past de-l
eades NomOSfkd with the preyious
ave ysStsyWhile the worlds pop
ulation shows Al increase Of oniy
3 per cent.
The gain in production far ex-
eeeds that Of our increase in pop
ulation, and it is safe to estimate
Al.af fhe farmer can easilu ;n.