The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1917-05-25
SERIOUS CONDITION OF
WORLDS AGRICULTURE

Agriculture and food supply is the
subject of an important statement is
sued by Senator Duncan U. Fletcher,
President of the Southern CONNER
cial Congress Senator Fletcher
speaks with authority on this subject
in which he nas taken a leading part
in the past few years. He served as
Chairman of the United States Com
mission, appointed by President Will
son, and as President of the Amer
can Commission, an agricultural or
ganization that made Investigations
in Europe, resulting in the Federal
Farm Loan act.
an normal times" said Senator
Fletcher, England does not produce
enough food stuffs in a year to last
her six weeks. In France millions Of
men have been withdrawn from the
fields, thousands have left their
farms in Canada for the army
Thousands of farm WORKERS have gone
from the United States into Canada
where special inducements are offered
Thousands of yong men have tenn
.orarily passed from the farms in the
United States to the factories where
higher wages are paid. At the same
time we can easily produce feed
enough for ourselves and all Europe.
We have the soil and the climate
when, while labor is essential to pro-
duction, production is a sure reward
of labor.
When we consider that Germany is
not as large as Texas by an area as
big as Alabama and she must feed
some fifty-eight million people, we
should be ashamed, with all our ter
ritory, fertile lands, splendid and
mild climate, to own to any uncer-
tainty about our ability to feed the
word. Yes, and clothe it, too. Fol
some years l have been convinced that
what we need to be exercised about
was, not production, but a proper sys
tenn of distribution.
For some time past | have thoguht
and some of our advanced agricultural
colleges have insisted, that what WI
most needed was scientific market
ing methods rather than increased
production. That need is empha
sized by existing conditions. w
have laid stress on scientific farm
ng to the neglect of the equally i'm
portant matter of scientific market
ing There's no use to produce gralr
vegetables, fruit, cattle, and the INK
, If the cost Of production 10 to DO e1
; ceeded by freights, commissions an
: charges here and there, delays an
3 waste.
Our people engaged in agricultur
can readily furnish all the food proc
: ucts required at home and by gu
!, friends. What is needed is a plan,
: method, system for economical
getting the products where and vine
r they are wanted and disposlng
= them to the best advantage to bot
p producer and consumer. There shou
5 be a mobilization of this producer
: power with proper agencies for dl
t tribution.
Another thing is most importan
some fruits and vegetables matu
and must be marketed within fe
months or they are lost. In that WI
re the markets are glutted. They ca
n not be consumed before that tim
The demand ceases. They rot in t
,r field or reach the market in b
n, order. The remedy is to conser
st these products; in some instances
r canning or preserving, and in 9th
S, cases by resorting to the rather G
Of pensive alternative, cold storage.
Provision should be made to ia
o, care of the surplus production, a
Ia have it in another but wholesale a
n useful form to feed out when
fresh supply is exhausted. do
IL mean to say, however, but that
time is here for every farmer to
hit his best. He can render the count
n no higher service than to make I
blades of grass grow where one or
rs, before"
le-