Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-10-31
How the Crop
Was Gathered
BY Frederic J. Haskin


crease production, there wouldn't have
| been enough food 10 go round this winter
| And the farmer must admit that If the
| city fclIer hadn't turned out and helped
| him get the crops in the result would
| have been the same For it is fact that
| hundreds Of thousands of professional
men society women, school boys, mechan-
| ics and others of the city toiled in the
| fields this summer and fall, and but for
| them the farmers would have lost mil
| lions Of dollars and the nation millions Of
| pounds Of food.
DIR. f. V. Wilcox who managed this
mobilization of volunteer farm labor for
| the Department of Agriculture, tells
some interesting stories OF how the 1918
crop was gathered According to hlm,
many of those who worked in the fields
J did so at a heavy sacrifice Of convenience
and comfort
Some men and some women went through
the setting mp exercises every day for
| month in an effort to harden their muscles
so they could stand the strain Of labor IN
| the hav field And many men and women,
soft from years of sedentary living, stuck
| to the job doggedly, while the sun burned
/ thc skin off their faces and the hard
| handles Of rakes and hoes rubbed blIsters
on their palms.
WHAT CITY Folks DID.
An important phase of the matter IS
| that this demonstrated to the farmer that
the city chap, and even the city woman,
| could do davs work in pinch. Down
IN Kentucky all of the professors of the
State Agricultural College turned out
and worked in the harvest fields and the
president reports that one thing they
| certainly harvested. was the confidence Of
the farmers The labor shortage IN Ken
tuckv gave n big boost TO cooperation be-
tween The scientist and the man on the
farm
In some sections city folk saved crops
that would otherwise have been q total
loss Dlt at Mountain Park, New Mexico,
for example, they are Just now picking
the last of q very fine apple crop. And
the pickers are 100 women, nearly all Of
them nell off. many belonging to that
vague class known as society women.
They arc picking the apples because there
WAS absolutely no one else 10 do It.
People are scarce IN New Mexico, any
how. and the men Of that section have
gone to war in great numbers he apples
| would have rottcd If q public spirited
woman had not organized a local chapter
of the Women Land Army, set mp camp
IN the orchard region, and put her organ
izatlon 10 work Many of the women
came from the town Of Las Cruces, which
| is the metropolis Of southern New Mexico,
and some came from rs far away 80 III
| Paso. Texas
The farmers in certain section Of
Missouri took the attitude which IS
hromidically associated with that state
They d,dn believe the city folk would be
| worth having rs substitute mred men.
They needed To be shown,
JUST woUlps'r ASK FOR HELP.
These farmers cut their wheat crops
and made no arrangements for having IT
shocked, which requires a great many
| hands. They thought the usual influx OF
| floating labor would happen. But II
didn't The wheat was CIT and IN a fair
wav 10 rot but the farmers refused to
appcal 10 the town people. Accordingly q
local Chamber Of Commerce organized a
! shock troop of CITY men and women
/ These went 10 the farms and shocked the
wheat. without 50 much as asking the
| farmers permission The farmers went
out and Inspected the Job and found II
| good. Then they called up their bene-
| factors and offered thanks and remunera-
:, ton Tie remuneration was accepted for
| the Red Cross, but the farmers we're told
that thanks were not n order. The crops
had not been harvested for the benefit Of
| the farmers. but because the nation need
: ed the wheat.
This was not the usual attitude of the
farmers though In general they received
the CITY man as a friend and were glad Ot
his help. And the farmer haSn I as much
TO be glad about as Is generally supposed.
He Is getting big prices Tor his stun, but
he is also paying big prices Tor his tools.
seed. fertilizer and everything else ne
BUYS \ large part of the profit which
occurs between the farm and the table
still falls 10 various mlddlemen II the
farmer vas as dull and provincial as
some people seem To think, he might we'll
believe thai towns are inhabited largely
by greedy middlemen and long-wnded
rcformers. who want to tell him how q
run his business and how to aInuse hun
, self These arc the two types that he most
| often encounters and hears from.
i THE FARMERS SIDE.
Meantime. he works hard for small
money He is advised to get and cultivate
more land, and land is held 50 high that il
he buys it and cuitivates IT, he cannot
make rs much interest on the investment
as he could by putting the money into d
first mortgage And all the time he Is aware
that II 1t were not for hun, the country
would starve. The war and the scarcity
of food have brought this fact home To him
with renewed force tie reflects that if he
wanted to. he might raise just enough to
feed himself; then maybe the country
would wake up to his Importance and see
his viewpoint.
Kansas outdid all of the other States
in helping out its farmers. There were
eight million acres of wheat in Kansas Il
be harvested. The movement for recruit
ing labor to harvest this crop was started
al Kansas City, Mo, but was essentially
Kansas project none the less. The
Kansas City Chamber OF Commerce got
up State organization, and assigned IL
each town u quota OF men which it must
raise Tor the purpose OF harvesting the
wheat crop People were told that the
wheat crop vas more important than
any thing else in Kansas and therefore
any man was justified in leaving ms
business for 4 few days or few weeks to