Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1917-04-27
ENLIST FOR FARM LABOR
That is The One Thing Which
the Country Needs,
County Farmers Meeting ConsId-
ers Pressing Problems.

llBHt Hlel WIN smaller response Una
was hoped for, but the hundred or 3
who were present heard encouraging
news from County Agent Joseph CARR
gan and others to the effect that Mid
dlebury College, the county schools, AM
the villagers were going to do their bes
to help the farmer out this year in tn,
matter Of farm labor.
The speakers were Dean Joseph l.
Hills, of the University of Vermont Ex
tension Service, Representative Ira II
La Fleur Of Mddlebury, President Johr
M, Thomas Of Middebury College, anC
County Agent Carrigan, after which
there was discussion in which Judge
John E. Weeks, A. w. Dickens, Charles
Jewett of Weybridge, and others joined
Dean Hills, who has recently beer
west and in conference with represent
atives of the country's big farm organ.
i2ations, as well as the with Secretary
of Agriculture Houston, brought home
with great force the big facts of the
present food shortage and the worse
condition threatened. There was abso-
utely no danger Of an over-production,
he declared. Even if this war should
end before our harvest, he said, it is
probable that we should rise triumph
ant over our passions and feed Germany
as well as other European countries
which are on the verge of starvation.
He urged Addison County farmers to
consider wheat. With the exception of
Australia the whole world was short on
wheat.
Referring to the labor situation he
said that bad as it was in New England,
it was worst than this in the west. And
in Canada, he declared, some of the
western provinces were Turing American
farm hands across the border by offer
ing the S75 a month and their board. 1t
was undoubted that the farmer was
acting this year under greater handi-
caps than ever before, but the same
was true the country over ut is the
time for US to go back to the eight hour
day Of our forefathers, he said-"the
day of eight hours work in the forenoon
and eight hours in more the afternoon.
1t was the time for every man to extend
himself either in intensive or extensive
farming.
Representative LaFleur also laid the
ghost of over production. Those who
are whispering that fear around" said
he, "are Pro-German in spirit, though
they don't know it,. "Let those who
have such ideas keep them to them
selves, if only in the spirit of patriot
ism, There is no ground for such fear
and it is inimical to the interests of our
country to spread it," Mr.. La Fleur,
who is member of the State Commit
tee of Public Safety, also told of the
work it was doing.
Agent Carrigan said the need of more
acres was no more important, if as
much so, as the need of full standings
of crops on acres already under cultiva-
5ion. He supported Mr.. Hills in urging
wheat sowing. There were great tracts
ot land in Addison County which were
once wheat fields and wheat could be
restored this year at profit. The diff
ticulty of getting the wheat for seed,
obviously was great, but he believed it
could be found. 81 have had from Is
to 20 applications for wheat seed" he
said, "but the sixty bushels | adver-
tised through the Farmers Exchange
was snapped upimmedately. | believe
could sell 200 bushels more if had it,
and it would be a patriotic thing if
farmers who have any seed wheat for
sale would advise me-" There were
at least three mills in Addison County,
ne said, which would be ready to turn
the wheat harvest into flour, and he
hoped for the day when Vermonters
would almost entirely eat bread of
. homegrown wheat.
Fighting potato scab and oat smut
we're just as important as fighting the
Germans. At least S5, bushels of
bats in Addison county were lost last
year, he said, through failure to fight
oat smut, and this could be saved at an
almost insignificant cost. The time has
,ome, he said, when no man can afford
lot to test his seed and fight oat smut.
Back to the winter pork barrel"
vas a slogan he suggested for further
protection. 1--WE raise pork now and
ell it and buy it back at twice the
,rice", he said. True, the problem of
eeding pigs is different than in the old
lays, but he believed that if the prac-
ice of letting pigs forage for them
elves in patch of rape, which could
asily be grown, during June and July,
he raising of pigs could be profitably
xtended.
He told of the effort the school super