Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-06-12

ITASHINGTON, May S1.-These are the factors
wv in the production and of food, and our
w food administration will attempt to in
the efficiency of all four. 1t is now pos
sibe to set forth in a general way how this will
be done.
Price fixing will affect all of these factors, and
because it is large little understood subject,
will be discussed separately in the next article
To stimulate production is the first necessity.
Besides assuring the farmer good price for his
products, the government will attempt to help him
by teaching him better methods through the coun-
try agents of the department of agriculture, the
number of which will be greatly increased; and it
will assure him of an adequate supply of seed at
a reasonable price.
Labor is the great problem in production, not
only in the United States, but all the world.
Even Germany has more land than she can cultf-
vate The department of agriculture expects to
solve this problem largely by making survey Of
farm labor, and facilitating its distribution. The
department is placing man in each state to work
in cooperation with a state central board to this
end Farmers will be encouraged to cooperate
with each other, to share their labor and to buy
labor-saving machinery comparatively. Efforts
will be made to facilitate the seasonal distribution
of labor to see that the men who moved the
Kansas wheat crop in June will go north in time
to pick apples.
-.'.
Numerous other ways of solving the labor ques-
ton have been suggested. Steps have been taken
toward organizing boy scouts, school children, and
chief trouble with all of these movements is that
the farmers do not want boys or inexperienced
labor of any other sort. One suggestion made be-
fore the house committee agriculture was that
we should import million German prisoners and
put them to work on the farms
In the manufacture of foods, the milling of
larger percentage of flour is a measure that will
probably be used to make our grain go farther.
Alcohol is now being successfully made from saw
dust in this country, and this will make possible
the saving of certain amount Of grain now used
for that purpose whether or not part of that now
used for beverages is kept for bread in the future
The drying of fresh vegetables so that they
may be kept more easily, and will be much lighter
for shipment, is another means that will probably
be used to increase the winter supply of veger-
tables. In Germany, portable drying machines,
many of them mounted on railway cars, go among
the farmers, who come on certain days to have
their beans potatoes and other products dried. In
this country a process of drying by of fans
has been perfected which is said by experts TO be
very efficient. There are, however, very few dry
ing machines in the United States. They must be
built and plan for their cooperative use worked
out
The control of the distribution of foods, in ad-
dtion to the fixing of prices, means regulation of
their shipment and storage The food bill, as re-
ported from the house committee on agriculture,
gives the administration adequate powers to deal
with both. The general idea is to direct shipments
so that they will go where they needed. The
purpose will be not much to break up gluts as TO
prevent them. For example, if Cleveland has all
the potatoes it needs there is nothing now to pre-
vent farmers who have always used Cleveland as
their market from shipping still more potatoes to
that point, that some of them will rot for lack
of a market while in Chicago perhaps, potato
scarcity is not far Off A food administration
which knows what the patoto supply is in each
place and has power TO regulate shipment, will
easily prevent these market gluts.
In Germany it has been found possible to reg
ulate the distribution of foods except in so far as
the consumer goes direct TO the producer. That Is
food which goes railroads, is handled by COM
mission men, wholesalers and retailers, is easily
regulated through these agencies. That does not
mean that their business is seriously injured; they