The weekly soliphone., 1917-06-21
Mobilize Your Machine
(By Frederic j. Haskin. }

which interests almost every owner OF machine IN Am
erica Already is being taken of automobiles
and their owners that when these needed tn gov
lnment can obtain them with the least possible delay
There 100000 autos in the country, According
to Howard E. Coffin This is certainly tremendous
transportation force And it's value is increased by the
fact that very large part Of these owned only
for pleasure and so are not essential to present in
dustria organization Furthermore, the ownership of an
automobile is usually indication of intelligence and
Of the possession of certain amount Of property We
have then certainly million cars, serving no es
sental purpose except the amusement OF their owners
These men and women Of better than aver
age ability, who can afford to devote time and money
to the service Of their country and it may be safely
sumed that large percentage of them would like to
render that service
Under these circumstances some immediate for
the nations pleasure automobiles should be found To
list them for the emergency of sudden troop movements
is not enough There is much work to be done The
most pressing work is the solution of our food prob
lem, and it is largely problem Of transportation,
the officials of the Department Of Agriculture well
Short though many of crops will be this year.
many thousands of tons of food likely to rot the
ground for lack of freight cars to carry them to market
Another immense wastage is due to the fact that the
farmer who produces of any vegetable fruit than
he at home, but not enough to make wagon
load load generally cannot proftably bring it to
market We therefore have great waste of food for
lack of transportation and great transportation power
going to waste, so far as any lndustlally useful pur
pose is concerned These two wastes should be combined
to form great saving.
Not long ago practical farmer and an editor in
certain town were discussing the food problem, and
rived at the above conclusion. They also evolved plan
which will probably be put into operation, but has not
yet been tried 1t is offered here merely suggestion
and for whatever it may be worth Should anyone make
of it. the writer of this article would like very much
to hear of the experiment and will publish the details
In this way workable plan for using motor
save food wastage may gradually be evolved
The plan discussed was to save as much as possible
of the food which would otherwise be wasted by form
ing volunteer organization of automobiles to go about
and gather it up lnasmuch both the food and the
omobiles undoubtedly available in most sections of
the country the plan should be workable but there
various practical difficulties which will be outlined here
and ways of obviatfng them suggested.
The food supply gathered in this way would consist
chiefly of the surplus production Of fruits and vegetables
upon farms and suburban places. This surplus produc
on which is generally either wasted fed to stock, is
much greater than most persons realize 1t is due to the
simple and inevitable circumstance that farmer can
accurately predict how much of given truck fruit
crop his garden or orchard will yield in given year.
For example, farmer who consulted with regard
to this plan, said that several tons of good food
wasted upon his place every year. because he produced
than he could in fruits and vegetables, but sell
dom had enough at time to make profitable to haul
the stun TO market Ihus IN good year Tor tomatoes
six vines will supply his family with all the tomatoes he
USE but in bad year for tomatoes sixty vines would
hardly yield enough He plants about forty vines and if
the crop is heavy large proportion OF 1t is allowed to
rot the ground In the way last year all Of the
watermelon vines he planted did not give him two really
good melons, but this year he may feed waermelons to
his hogs Every small mixed orchard in the country rep
resens tons Of waste If it is good year for peaches
then peaches are wasted, while apples may be scarce
and the next year the order may be reversed.
Now the total Of foed wasted in this way within
radius Of fifty miles of town in any good farming sec
ton is If this great quantity of food could be
brought to town. the cost of living would be greatly re-
duced And if all the automobiles in that town de-
voted for day week to the gathering of this food