The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-13
ALABAMA SHOULD G|VEATTENH0NT ID
 BREAD AND MEAT Production of Corn Chief Patriotic Duty, Says
 Field Agent Gist MUST BE CAREFUL
 OR ALL GO HUNGRY Interesting Data Presented on What the State Has Done and What It's Possibilities Are in
 Producing Food

"Bread and meato are chief factors for Alabamfans to consider in raising food crops this year. according to F. W. Gist. field agent of the department of agriculture, stationed at Auburn.
 These are the basic things needed ton must be devoted to them, he says. Corn Is the main thing to which Ala bama should give attention, with care full conservation of the supply of cat- tie and hogs.
 Alabama Must Feed Herself,' was adopted in 1914 after the disastrous break 1n cotton prices, as the slogan of di- versifcation; today it is the bald state- ment of recognized fact" said Mr. Gist The declaration of war, with it's at- tendant stock-taking, only emphasized ( what was already well known to the stu dent of agricultural statistics; and it is now realized that the supply of food and feed in this country is very short.
 Discussing this shortage in it's local aspects and what is means to Alabama at this time is very important, and should b. done fairly and calmly, though with due regard to actual facts.
 LITTLE ATTENTION IN PAST
 For more years than many of us may count Alabama has paid little attention to the production of food or it's distribu- tion except as a local enterprise This has been a food buying state and we have cared very little where it grew or what it cost, so long as it grew and the railroads brought it to us We are now confronted with two facts which must be faced and faced now. One is that the food supply is very short in this country and shorter in the world at large; the other is that transporta tion facilities must be divided among three notwithstanding supplies to other coun- tries, moving them to us and moving the army. The latter fact, with the ever in creasing outside demand for the products of the food growing sections, places Ala bama in the probable attitude of having to yield her share of the food she has formerly bought to other countries and also of not being able to have delivered to her doors what little may be left of that share.
 Alabama, therefore, finds herself face to face with the problem of feeding her. self or going hungry.
 < z .The human food supply may be mainly measured in terms of meat and bread. Minor articles of food are grown on small acreages, and in the present crisis can only be recommended to each farmer as his inclination, soil and market pros poets dictate. Meat must be produced and bread grown on the main soil areas of the farm, and as they are the principal and necessary items of food so must they engage the chief attention of the producer.
 FOOD ANIMALS PER CAPITA
 "On January of this year there were in Alabama about two head of meat cat- tie of all ages per farm, equivalent to one beef animal to every six persons of the population of the state A consider able portion of theses have since been marketed, so that at present there are not in the state more than one beef animal to each 10 persons
 There were on the same date one head of sheep to each two farms, or one to each 35 persons.
 "Of hogs there were less than seven per farm, or less than one per person. Many of these have been killed and sold since that date.
 following for the breeding stock of these animals, the supply is seen to be wholly inadequate for local consumption. Increase of these numbers is so depend ent upon the ability to buy and feed that Alabama's prospect of feeding herself with meat is gloomy.
 Tn the matter of bread Alabamas one hope is corn. The state produced about third of bushel of wheat per capita last year. and only 31,OO0 bushels of that were in the hands of the producers on March 1. Only 118,000 acres were sown \ in Alabama last fall, and the present 1. rordition is P points or "A per cent below the 1O-year average That leaves wheat practically out of the calculation so far