The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-03-28

Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
Clarence Ousley, who has done much IN
pushing farm work in all sections of the
country, issues the following in defense
| of recent action taken by him;
| l am receiving many letters concern
ing newspaper reports of my testimony
before the Senate committee on agricul-
ture on March 49, These letters show
that what l said has been reported IN
such a manner as to convey false i'm
preston in many respects. 1t is I'M
possible for me to answer every letter
and to discuss every angle OF the SUD
iect, but for the information of all IN
quirers I furnish the following sum-
mary of what l said on the subject Of
crop acreage and the labor necessary
to cultivate and harvest the crops in 1918;
If the law of averages holds good,
there will be approximately as much
land under the plow this year as last
wear. and / am inclined to believe that
in the aggregate the acreage VIII be
inereas ed. Since the latter part of jan
uary l have visited the northwest, from
Minnesota to Puget Sound, and the
south from Texas to Georgia. In the
northwest, of course, there were nc
paintings, but I found a general pur-
pose, Notwithstanding labor difficulties,
to equal or increase acreage In the
south ! found the same purpose already
partly in effect. 1t may be assumed
that what the farmers of the southwest
and of the northwest intend to do, the
farmers of other regions also intend to
do.
The winter wheat acreage last fall
was increased per cent and would
have been increased is to 20 per cent
but for dry weather in a considerable
, part of the winter wheat belt. The
prospect at this time is for an increase
of spring wheat acreage of to 10 per
cent. In the south the early paintings
carry a generous proportion of food and
feed crops. and if the spring is favorable
there is no reason to doubt mainte-
nance of this proportion.
IN many of the trucking and market
garden regions. especially those sur
rounding busy industrial centers. there
| is likely to be a considerable decrease
| in truck crop acreage because of labor
difficulties. but in many of these re-
4! gions much of the land will go into sta
pie crops, This readjustment Of farming
| operations in the trucking regions is
| like ely to cause a smaller yield of per-
| ishable products, but on the other hand
the home garden movement is in full
swing, and if every man who can do SO
will make a reasonable effort to raise a
| garden, there need be no lack of vege-
tables.
! OF course, no man can say what the
harvest will be, for the yield will de-
pend upon the weather and upon the
labor available for cultivation and har-
vesting.
The principal difficulty in farming op.
erations for 1918 is the problem of farm
labor. That is serious, but it is not in
superable. The department of agrlcui-
ture has farm labor offices in nearly
all of the states, working in co-opera-
ton with the agricultural colleges, the
county agents and other state activi-
| ties, anG the department of labor has
| employment Offices in nearly all the
centers of population. These two de-
partments together are enabled to con-
/ tribute much to the solution of the
problem by furnishing information and
by shifting labor from neighborhood to
| neighborhood as the seasonal demand
passes, and generally by bringing to-
gether the laborer and the employer
But when all has been done that may
be done by these departments or by any
other governmental agency, much viii
remain to be done by the states anc
communities, especially by the cities, fol
there is not enough labor seeking EN-
ployment to supply the farms for cul