The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-15

Canada got many of our best men, anu thousands of American farm boys crossed the ocean to fight with tGe
 British and French. Then came our
 own entrance into the struggle and
 the farm boys rushed to enlist. They
 volunteered more rapidly than those of almost any other occupation and comparatively few of them filed claims
 for exemption. Some farm districts had so many enlistments that the dratt
 there was not needed. and of the 7S2,-
 00o men registered from the farms only
 12 per cent filed claims for exemption. At the same time, our big industrial
 plants making war goods sent their agert ts over the country bidding for labor, and the farmers lost more and more of their best hands.
 Nevertheless, in one way or another the crops were planted The old mon and boys did what they could. and machinery was enlisted to make up the loss. In some sections farm tractors were employed by the hundreds, and one man with a tractor was able to blow much as four men each using two horses. had plowed berore Some of the seding was done by hitching three drills to one tractor, that one man was able to put in as much grain as three men with 12 horses had been able to plant in the past Tn certain districts the girls drove the tractors and the boys did more than their share of all kinds of work. Many of the farmers doubled their output by com bining their machinery. heard of one farmer who drove disc harrow pulled by four horses, and at the same time led four other horses harnessed to a drag harrow behind him. This was in preparing the land for the corn crop. Similar work was~done in all branches of cultivation and in one way or an- other 20 odd million acres of new lands were brought into use.
 Similar methods were used for cultivat- ing the crops. and then came the har- vesting, which is still going on. This is a Different proposition. The harvest ing of cur wheat crop has always strained the supply of farm labor. The chief bread basket of the country lies in a tier of states beginning with Oklahoma and running northward through Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas, branching off to include Minnesota and part of Iowa This harvest is governed by climatic con- ditions. It starts in the south and rolls norhward in regular waves so that the army of harvesters can start with the first ripening wheat at the far south and keep on cutting toward the north as the golden grain is ready for reaping. The harvest starts about June 10 It moves north week by week until at Sep- tember l they are gathering the grain in Minnesota and the Dakotas on the edge of Canada about 1000 miles away from where the crop began to ripen. From the latter point the wheat waves roll on
 into Canada, going further north as the climate grows colder
 IT the past there was a nomadic reap ing population which took care of this harvest It was composed of migratory laborers. who came from various sources
 and moved northward with the wheat It was brought together by the high wages and steady work and the knowledge that this work would continue during the harvest throughout the tier of states. In 1917 the country had the advantage of the most of this army of men. but when the wheat was ready to cut this year the men had disappeared. They had been swallowed up by the enlistments and drafts for the war, and also by the war industrial plants, whose wages and work were better than the best the farmers could offer.
 The situation was serious. The food administration here at Washington de- manded the wheat, and there was chance that the war might be >st by 1 the lack of this food supply The great government departments had reported as 1 to the crop and also as to the lack of | labor. and it was known that new | industrial army must be created or the wheat would rot in the fields The mat