Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-06-27

, snip IN Inc corn oeit. SIX miles square,
or So square miles, IA lS0-acre farms
! II will have $50 votes, counting in
one village and including hired men
! and farmers sons, a total population
OF, say $500 people. Now cut off the
fertilizer supply, take the best horses
and take out Of that township $50 OF
the best young men for the army.
Take out 100 men for war work OF
enc sort or another. take out 80
women for munitfon factories, and
hospitals, Let this condition last for
three years. What are the crop pros
poets?
Before this war began the world
seemed to be having its hands full T.
get along. 1t is row estimated that
SO million people are busy with tn"
war, and though our agricultural ex
ports for a dozen years have declined
sharply because our population has
increased and the good land has not
We are now called upon for time to
feed the world as never before.
The Call to the Farmer
Verify this necessity is the mos:
extreme call that ever came to the
American farmer. This year and next
we must produce esvery possible edi-
Bile thing. Even il the war should stop
now, which it cannot, we shall need a
maximum production next year. foe
the world has eaten its usual surplus
stocks of food, of which it ordinarily
carries several months supply.
when the war euds the people OF
Europe will need months Of rest. They
will need months to demobilize. They
won't dare fully demobiliZe anyhow,
and the amount Of undone work thai
will face them is almost beyond be-
lief. There will be some years OF
feverish shipbuilding even in times of
peace to get US ready to carry the
worlds normal commerce again.
There have been no repairs in
Europe for three years. Railroads are
unballasted; bridges are rusty; rails
are wearing out; cars are dilapidated;
plaster is falling off the houses,
plumbing is going b rack; farm wa
CONS have worn out; harness is re
duced to strings; people are barefoot
ed and half naked; and when the wa"
does stop, all Germany is going to
hunger and clamor for a dish of Am
erican ham and bacon and skillets full
of lard for frying.
Hence Mr.. Hoover's urgent cry:
The food situation is one of the ut
most gravity, which, unless it is solved.
may. possibly result in the collapse Of
everything we hold dear in civilization
This means that every man, wo-
man and child must forego at Least
one loaf Of wheat bread per week and
eat something else or less generously.
We must also Plant everything and
everywhere it will grow, or this time
next year the food problem will be
absolutely unsoIvable and the world
viii face absolute starvation.
Demands for Meat
Look lat the price OF pork and
beef and you will realize that the
world needs meat. Therefore, breed
every fertile beast, especially the
mare, the SOW and the old hen-the
mare because hungry people in Europe
are eating horses today. and the roar
ing cannon have been eating them ever
since that early day IN September,
1914, when one British officer count
ed 10000 dead horses on one small
section of the battle line in northern
| France.
I'VE shall need to export hundreds
of thousands OF horses before we cali
raise them, and in this year of stress
II you can choose between horses and
mules, by all means breed mules, be-
cause they can GO to work sooner
than horses, and they eat less.
Breed the sow, the most fecund Of
all our four-footed farm beasts. She
bringeth forth quickly and many, and
they are soon good to eat. In Deem
Der we may be glad to eat September
or October pigs il we cannot carry
them through the winter.
Set the hens, persuade them to
steal their nests, for poultry is the
quickest of all meat Even June anc
July chickens are big enough to go
into the cold-storage plant with the be-
ginning Of winter, and they can pick
up most Of their living catching
worms, insects and scattered grain
Probably they will be the cheapest
meat that Is produced in America.
I'VE must plan. We should have
been at it long ago. Farming is mat
ter of plan, and remember that next
year Is quite sure to be as bad as this,
and maybe much worse. Start in to
get ready for it now.
ITO supply more grain we may have
to feed less stock. That may require
reduction in the number of animals.
If that is necessary, it should if pos
sibIe be beef cattle advanced in years.
XIII off few of the old fellows, go
more to baby beef and to the more
prolific hog.
In any event, I beseech you this
year to get far, far away from that
compIacent notion still held by some
that mans farming is his own bust
ness only. If it were as easy to con-
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