Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-07-27

are happy while others are not-and
great stores of quickly perishable veg
etables ard fruits are turned back to
the soil. Read the following from
Boston paper Of Wednesday:
| There are 1880 head Of cabbage out OF
| 1900 to be narrowed down and plowed
under on a single Arlington farm. not to
speak of acres of onions and beets ana
celery. evidently destined to the Same
end. l was told today by man CONVEX
/ SAINT with conditions and in constant
touch with the State Food Committee In
session daily at the State House.
| Appalling as this statement sounds. In.
vestigation proved that this was so, and
also that these gardens are in the neigh.
| borhood of Lake street, within an hours
| walk, altogether. Farmers contend that
this is owing to 'glut' In the market
Queer that barely covered the cost OF
handling for market, leaving nothing over
! toward the cost Of planting and cultiva-
| ton or toward profits.
But more serious even than this condt-
tion-which is serious enough, with food
prices the highest in history and the pur-
chasing power Of dollar only about 80
/ hold the land so stripped in idleness in
stead Of planting it to late crops.
And then read this one:
facts and the gardeners conclusions
about the influence that the food produc-
ton campaign has had on the situation,
but the growers are subject to numerous
heavy losses under the present conditions
of farming and distributing.
/ Some of the gardeners are actually on
the shoals, being unable to meet their eX-
penses. This. with the encouragement
that il produces and the resentment of
some growers toward the assault that
they think has been made on their bust
ness. whether intentional or otherwise,
is likely to result in Withdrawing valua-
bic land from cultivation, regardless of
/ the continuing need for heavy food
supply.
! Wages play very important part in
the cause of the troubles, according to
One Arlington farmer said
Our weekly payroll is $50 instead of
the 800 that it used to be. Wages for
our steady help. paid by the month, have
also gone up. How could we sell now at
the rate Of former years and make
money? Actually. we are often paid less
Another big expense this year was the
, seed Take spinach, which is another
crop on which gardeners suffered heavy
loss this year. I, cost US $3.50 hundred
pound bag formerly. This spring we paid
$50 pound.
Then we were offered from 60 to Is
cents a barrel take it or leave IT, for
choice spinach. The slat barrel costs us
Is cents. and our net price would be from
40 TO bo cents Of course, spinach was
turned in. There isn't crop we raise
that it has not been the same with
Then read what this near Boston
truck gardener says concerning an acre
Of onions:
Wed be glad to Sell that for what It
cost US to prepare and plant the lands:
he said. There Is little chance Of our
being able to harvest the crop without
a further loss"
If they could sell 1t for the cost of pre-
pairing and seeding. they declared. they
would still be out all the heavy expense
of cultivation, SIPS for manure. taxes at
the rate of eight cents square foot
amounting to about s2ll an acre. and in
terest on their cash investment in land
and equipment.
Another garden farmer who has II
acres In cultivation, told much the same
story. He was just footing up his sales
for the week, amounting to about $50
His weeks payroll alone was moro than
He had taken 800 cabbages to market
that day. At the rate he received they
averaged him about four cents the head
two cents pound, he declared, he was
losing money.
The same prospects confront Names
storage for the unusual crops they now
expect-small demand because Of fall
and early winter supply in hands Of
food gardeners. 1t is now apparent
that the shipments that usually go
from the field to shipping stations, thus
saving heavy expense in handling and
sllrinkage, must be stored. If farmers
cannot store them then spectators get
the potatoes at prices that robs the
farmer of all profit and in many cases
his summers work and outlay in seed,
fertilizer and use of land.
In other words. the plant garden"
hoorah without the shadow of a doubt
farmers, and has cinched the easy
snap of the food spectators next win
ter The thing could not have been
better conceived by the most un-
scrupluos food pirate in the country.
The silly estimate" sent out from
Washington that the food gardens"
had saved the nation s35o.Ooo,oo0 Is
accepted in grim silence by the aver
age farmer. He can see a hole in a
ladder, and he knows the sophistry and
pretense in that claim. He knows
what that $3.50. 100000 Gf it were true)
has cost, and he knows that more than
that sum has been taken out Of the
farmers, while Congress has permitted
the food pirates to throttle and rob the
consumers. and the booze trust to
waste all that the people can save"
The first effect of the fool garden
idea is loss Of the respect and conf
dence of the farmer in government
common sense and justice. but worse
effect is sure to be the attitude Of the
food producers next year when they
are called upon to do their bit" They
have not only been lied to and cheat
ed, they have been robbed and be-
trayed. partly through ignorance and
blind, unreasoning enthusiasm, and
partly through pure cussedness ON the
part of men elected for public service
selling themselves soul and body to
selfish interests. namely: food specu-
J,to