St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1917-04-18
FARMING AS PATRIOTIC DUTY.
How Those Who Do not Fight May
Serve Their Country.

We are at war with q great power.
We are preparing an army and train
ing navy to comba that power. But
the work of preparation and defence is
not to the army and navy alone.
Our people can not all be fighters.
We must have in addition to our
armies of fighters, armies of produc-
ers, to sustain those who struggle and
to maintain those for whom they
struggle.
Men in close touch with the food
supply of this country predict that if
the present decrease in production
keeps up for another year, we will
face a serious food famine. And as
our country is the chief food produc-
ing country of the world, that state
mcnt means that the entire world will
face the same terrible consequence.
To avoid this shortage of food, our
country must develop it's patriots who
pillow, Just as it develops it's patriots
who shoot. For the man who shoots
can not long exist without the active
support of the man who plows.
Two hundred and forty million acres
of unallotted public land in the West
ern States await the coming of the
farmer and the herdsman. Millions
| Of acres of fine farm lands in the East
ern States lie idle through lack of
mon to work them. Forty-tWo mil
| lions of our population stihe on
crowded cities and complain of the
/ high cost of living.
In time of peace the interior de-
/ partment and other branches of the
| government offer tremendous oppor-
I tunities to those who want to farm.
/ HON estead rights, expert advice and
! free seed, rural credits are all at the
disposal of any man who wishes to
start a farm or a stock ranch.
In this emergency a solemn duty, q
! call as compelling as the call to arms
confronts every man in the United
States who does not fight, and who
knows how to grow the crops that are
/ the life Of this nation
Any citizen of the United States who
has not already located a homestead,
may apply for as many acres of
straight farming land as he wants up
to 1G0 acres in the restricted sections,
and up to 800 acres in the unreclaimed
sections. Straight grazing land may
be had to the extent of $40 acres.
| During the first two months of this
year applications for Is, 355, 900 acres
of stock grazing land alone were filed
From Alabama to Alaska land is wait
ing to be taken up. The products Of
Alaska have astonished5 the whole
world into realization of it's farming
posi- bilities The resources of the
Eastern and Western States have lone
been known. So
And with all these resources we face
an actual food famine How often we
T have paused over our morning coffee
and read with horror of people starv-
ing in China, for want of food, plain
everyday food. that we can step dowr
to the corner grocery and buy. Do VIZ
! realize today, that the time may come
! when We will not be able to step dowr
| to the corner grocery and carry home
a loaf of bread, and a quart of pota
toes? Who said potatoes, you ask
e If we reach that point we will def
nitely take our place among the peopl,
:. who cannot see beyond the next LAM
post
a Several hundred million acres O
l farm land in this country can be &C
y quired under very reasonable condi
: lions for cultivation.
! Thousands of people who know hoy
d to run farms live in our cities. many O
d them under very unfortunate condi
n lions.
r. Besides the individual personal goo
e it would do these people to get out G
> the city and into the country, til
support of the army and the well