Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-12-24
Carl Vrooman, Assistant Secretary Of
Agriculture, Makes an Address
to the County Agent.
Leaders.
FOOD PRODUCING ARMY HEADS
Puts it up to County Agents to Push
Production Of Foods to
Limit.

At recent meeting of county
agent leaders in Chicago Carl Vroo-
man, assistant secretary OF agricul-
ture, presented the case of the coun-
ty agent work, which must bring
about an increased food production
so clearly and strongly that wide
publicity has been asked for it ir
local papers throughout the country
Extracts of the address follow:
There is no body of men in the
United States to whom l would
rather speak than to county agents
the men who were the captains Of
the army of food producers in fight
the like of which was never made
before. / want to ask you to take
back to the men in the burrows an
expression of their government
gratitude for an essential service
faithfully done. Will you say
further, Your country needs your
services a little longer. Not only
your country, but humanity, requires
for it's salvation that you plant and
plow, SOW and save and send forth
to the needs of the nations for anot-
her season, even as you have for the
season that is past
Position Important.
"You county agents out in the
counties of every state have rendered
and still have to render, a service to
your country the Importance OF
which can not be estimated. You are
holding a salient almost as impor-
tant as Verdun, for except as you
continue to hold it, the forces OF
democracy must fail.
"Your government has not to real
ize that important fact. 1t has out
lined very definite program for the
development of county agent work
by the end of this fiscal year that, in
the ordinary course of things, would
have required six years. For that
purpose, congress has placed at the
disposal of the department of agri-
culture millions of dollars.
This wide and rapid development
is a military necessity because OF
war conditions. We need and must
have county agent in every agri-
cultural county in the United States
by the beginning of next planting
season and that means Feb. /, so that
they will be on the ground to direct
the efforts of the farmers even be-
fore the actual planting begins.
Agent Directing Genius.
For the county agent is the
directing genius in the agricultural
industry of his county. There has
rested on him always a very great
personal responsibility. There rests
upon him now more imperative pub
lie responsibility that he must dis
charge, as a part of his duty to his
country in time of war. 1t is no
small task. 1t will require ability of
the highest order and application Of
the closest kind.
1--WE must procure the planting Of
large crops to be sure, but we must
take particular care that the individ-
ual farmer does not become bank
rupt because of his patriotic efforts,
that fertility is not drained for this
years crop at the expense of crops
that must be grown in other years
for it is to be remembered that the
army in the burrows must hold its
lines till the war is won, and that
even when the soldiers of the trench
es are mustered out and sent to their
homes, our food products must still
flow across the seas to feed the peo-
pies of desolated lands.
NAnt bigger increase.
"The corn acreage, stupendous as
it was this time, can be still further
increased. And to me, our corn crop
is one of the most grandiose of the
powers that have been loosed in the
prosecution Of this war. Not our
own splendid navy, nor the great
army we are building up, nor yet the
of men that our allies have
poured into the trenches, nor even
the grand fleet of Britain keeping
watch and ward in its nameless
coastal fastnesses-not one of these
is any more thrilling to me than is
this illimitable sea of whispering
corn.
''All the power of blood and iron OF
which the Prussian has made his
boast, all of his great ordnance and
the forces of Essen, all his forty
years C. plotting and planning to
take the world unawares and sub