Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-05-16
BEWARE OF PANIC PREACHERS
AND HISTORICAL BUYING.

There is no occasion to become
hysterical over the food situation
The only material damage will be oc-
casioned by undue alarm The fed
eral authorities assure the public that
some of the prices are entirely too
high and are occasioned by people
rushing to buy and willing to pay
any price. This gives the food specu-
lator his chance and without govern
ment control he takes advantage OF
the state of public mind and reaps
an abnormal profit The man who
goes about preaching panic only
helps this condition along. To pre-
dict that children will 60 hungry
here next year, that We shall have
meatless days, and that we shall be
using alfalfa as an item Of food is
nonsense. Such unfounded state
ments have been circulated No one
in authority has ever predicted any
such condition. On the contrary it is
conceded that with anything like a
normal crop we shall have plenty of
| food for ourselves and a surplus to
dispose Of There is great shortage
of food in Europe on account Of the
war and the amount we can spare
them depends upon the surplus we
can produce. More than ordinary
prices are assured for all the surplus
food we can produce for two or three
years at least. The following para
graphs are taken from recent arti-
Gle written for David F. Houston, sec
rotary of agriculture. than whom there
is no higher authority on the sub
ject in America today:
There is food shortage in the
United States, but it is not sufficient
to cause hysteria. No nation that can
raise two billion nine hundred mil
lion bushels of corn in a year is in
any danger of starvation. We shall
not starve and we shall not have to
go on short rations; but we shall
need for ourselves and for our Al
lies abroad more food than we have
ever needed to produce before. There
is no apparent economic justification
for the present extremely high prices
.of many foodstuffs. The supply of
wheat and of potatoes in the United
States is below normal This know
ledge has led to an unfounded appre-
hension and alarm and to an undue
increase in prices for various other
foods.
The worlds food reserve is very
low. The man who tills the soil and
supports the soldier in the field and
thep family at home is rendering as
noble and patriotic service as is
the man who bears the brunt of bat
tie. The American farmer has long
shown his ability to produce more
food per man and at lower cost per
unit than any other farmer in the
world; but he has never had to do
his best. He needs to do his best
now. This is not the time to expert
ment with new and untried crops and
processes. It is important that the
farmer shall devote his principal ef-
forts to the production of such crops
and the employment of such methods
as are we'll established in his COM
munity and likely to yield the maxi
mum return in food and clothing
material.
Within the next forty days the final
measure of crop acreage and food
production for this year will have
been established. Because Of the
world shortage of food, it is scarcely
possible that the production of. staple
crops by the farmers of the United
States can be too great this year.
There is every reason to believe that
a generous price will be paid for the
harvests.
There is yet time to add substan-
TALLY to the bread supply by increas-
ing the acreage of spring wheat in the
northern states. Throughout the
United States, east Of line drawn
through the center of the Dakotas, Ne
braska, Kansas and Texas, the corn
area may be increased to advantage,
with view to it's uses for both human
food and animal production. The pre-
duction Of a normal cotton crop is
necessary. This can best be accomp-
lished by more intensive cultivation
and increased fertilization rather than
by increasing the acreage and thus
neglecting the food and forage crops
so important to the South.
In the districts where wheat has
been winterkilled replanting is sug-
gested with oats, com or sorghum, as
climatic conditions may determine.
Where barley and oats are proved and
reliable crops they should be planted
to the maximum that can be effectively
handled. In proportions of the
Northern and Eastern states, where
the season is too short for the great
staple crops, the buckwheat acreage
may be we'll increased.
An important increase in our food
supply may be made by charging the
area planted to navy beans in the
North and West and to Mexican and
Tepary beans in the Southwest, and
by stimulating in every reasonable
way an increase in the area Of po-
tatoes planted-especially for local
use
A man who is too old for military
service, or who is rejected by the re-
cruiting stations as physically unfit is,
nevertheless, serving his country il he
works on farm, just as much as the
soldier In khaki, with rife on his
shoulder. He need not feel because
he cannot go into the army that he
is deprived OF doing his share toward
brining the war to a successful con-
clusion Our Allies in the field need
at this moment our wheat more than
our rifles; our meat more than our
soldiers. The farmer who makes five
bushels Of grain grow where three
grew before contributes as much to