The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-05-18
OLD FAX AND FIGGERS" GIVES
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS

To the Editor Ocala Banner;
! Florida is great state!
, To that statement who can say me
nay?
Yet Florida is not raising enough
fOodstuffs to feed herself, and GER
tainly our state can do it if we try
Our boys and girls are being educat-
ed away from the farm, from the land
that gives us all that builds and sup
ports the cities and their great indus
tries We must make farming more
attractive and remunerative. We
must have a marketing system, and
we should advertise our advantages
in a cooperative way. by the state
and counties, and all bear a share Of
the cost.
We boast that America can feed the
world One only needs to scan the
tables issued by the government show
ing exports and ipmorts and we find
the notes of warning sent out by the
president and economists that the sit
uation with us is not comforting In
looking over reports by the federal de-
partments of agriculture and of COM
merce the other day, with friend
who has a fondness for facts and fig
ures, we found comparisons that gave
/ interest and value to the mass Of fig
ures. We found Florida at the bot
tom of the list of states in the acre
age, production and value of hay in
1915. California exceeded us in value
over fifty times This in face of the
fact that in forage and fodder growth
sorghum and canes for the silO,
where is there a state to beat us?
Since the war started we have
bought over $5,000,000 worth Of on
ions, some of them coming from the
far-off island continent of Australia.
Canned fish has come to us from ia
pan, and since the war over $4,000
600 worth of eggs have reached Ameri-
can ports from China, and that coun
try, too, has sent us over 100000
pounds OF cotton--do you get that?
And the same country. with Japan,
has sent us $2,000,000 worth of pea
nuts, not to speak of soy beans and
soy bean oil, worth millions of dol
lars Iceland, in the arctic north. has
sent us already this year several thou
sand pounds of wool.
Australia exceeds US in the produc-
ton of wool, and Argentina has sec
ond place. The imports and exports
of some of the foreign countries are
enormous Little Switzerland had a
combined business of $675,000,000 the
year before the war. Florida has over
! four times the area of Switzerland, a
country broken up with snow and
peaked mountains, and surrounded by
envious and now warning nations. 1t
is the oldest republic of Europe, and
except in the countries bordering the
| North Sea is there more cooperation
among the people, In Switzerland
| soil is carried up from the valleys
and spread over shelving rocks, and
gardens made. Italy, a country like
Florida, in large part is a PENINSULA,
and had as last report combined i'm
ports and exports of nearly a billion
dollars. Her part of the world had a
finer command of the sea, with rich
| tributary countries to be reached by
water.
Since the war started we have
bought $2,000,000 worth of indigo from
India, and the raising of indigo was
one of the first great industries of
Florida. Last year we imported $13,-
100000 worth of goat skins from
Asian countries, and a million dollars
worth of Angora hair from South At
RIGA And where can goats thrive
better than in Florida? They are
scrub feeders.
Last year we imported over four
billion pounds of sugar from various
countries, and Cuba sent us $4,000
pounds of honey. Japan produces six
teen times as much rice as the United
States
The American republic has more
cattle than any other country except |
India, and yet last year we imported |
S12,000,000 worth of dairy products, |
including condensed milk from Italy |
and Switzerland, butter from Den |
mark and New Zealand, and cheese !
from many countries, and large guam
titles Of milk and cream came in from |
Canada. We have only named things |
We can produce in Florida. The
country imported many other things,
including $250,000 worth of human
hair from China E0n nna ,.x-.4r