New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-07
Farm Aid with a punch"

cressivenoss exists. that pioneer OF
railroad and industrial efficiency. the
Baltimore & Ohio. takes steps we'll in
advance of oficialdom to see that seed
goes in and crops come out as they
never did before. Their plans are
broadly practical. This line has well
in running order a Farm Labor Bureau
and Employment Agency. II is already
running smoothly a part Of their ordi-
nary commercial Development work,
ordinary work with teeth put in It to
take good care of an extraordinary
need. They have established a clear
ing house for all available farm labor.
made plans TO shove ahead per acre
yields. and arc engaged upon thor
oughly inclusive census OF farm condi-
tions. storage facilities and efficient
movement of crops.
They have a field. undoubtedly. In
Maryland alone. remember. there are
675 .0OO acres Of land classed by the
state as waste" an area II per cent
Of the whole in state well up above
the average agriculturally. Proposals
to utilize both prison and state hosp
tai labor toward extensive and inten-
sive cultivation are under advisement,
will probably go through, to the end
that there will not only be great crops
grown. but that the harvest cannot fall
down for any lack OF hands. Through
out the region idle lands have been
turned over by real estate men for
public J5c in cropping. borrowed fields
ere being sown by chaps who have the
will but not tho acres. and the local jour
Eals generally are giving prominence
and solid backing 10 the very recently
conceived backyard food garden"
School children. citizenry. Boy Scouts
and the rest arc seeing TO il that ten
acres blossom out this year where half
as many made yield before. The farm
ers, far from being discomposed by the
entrance of 50 numerous a class OF ear
nest rivals. arc themselves making pho
nomenal efforts. As attested by applied
for loans Of S7.000,000 so far sought
from the new Farm Loan Bank in one
Southern district alone.
A Great Industrial Drive
The South is prosperous. Unusual
exertions in this or any other way have
failed TO throw the balance out Of
plumb apparently. Railway earnings,
at least in gross, keep up their record
smashing pace; pig iron prices boom
and coal continues strong; munitions
factories keep on springlng up along
the Southern seaboard and older ones
are closing ample contracts for the in
struments OF war with this and allied
governments; a great industrial drive
is under way all down the line OF
Southern shops and plants and mines;
railroads improve themselves and are
extending terminal facilities for han
ding grain and coal and outward going
products: congestion at local ports has
largely been relieved. with vessels sail
inc much as formerly, most of them
getting through, then coming back for
more. and. most essential. we quote the
fnsncier: THE banks Of the South
have all the money they want TO meet
every requirement of their respective
territories. and do lot have TO do any
borrowing whatever. The deposits Of
the banks are large. and the increas- |
wealth of the South is due. in my opln-
ion. to the fact that farmers have been
weaned away from the one-crop folly"
Stock markets are strong. securities
and prices steady ana very confident in
tone.
Close on the heels Of other move
ments. and almost all Of them impor-
tant If not attention riyeting because
Of late so common. come announce
ments OF a possible S50,000000 steel
mill and shipbuildng plant soon to
grow up beside the Chesapeake, near