Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-01
Billion Dollar Farm May Solve
Problem of Feeding y. S. Cities

under the new order they are ours of right.
Have meant that the new and better order
was for the city only that on the farm the old
order-long hours, low wages and scant COM
forts-must continue? Or have we been merely
too ignorant and too unthinking to realize
that life in rural parts has been as profound
" affected by Wainwright changes as it has
in the cities and the boom towns of industry?
Amazed and feeling much abused that the cost
of living doesn't come down while wages are
going up. we turn upon the farmer and accuse
him of being the proiteer.
X X
And the farmer is downright tired of it.
In fact NE is exceedingly warm under the
collar and doesn't make any bones in declar
ing that he doesn't intend to work twelve to
fourteen hours day for pre-war compensation
in order that the city dweller may. cut his
hours from eight to six and thus have more
time to spend his unprecedented wages in
luxurious living. With the young men and
middle-aged men focking to the cities and in
dustrial centers, if the old men and boys and
the few able-boded workers left on the farms
adopt city-worker hours there can be but one
result. America will not grow foodstufs
enough for her consumption. and this
complicated Industrial structure that is paying
the high wages and big profits will come top
ping down. For any industrial structure must
have as it's foundation the assurance of suf
ficient food supply.
That is why the question of farm produc-
ton has become for the first time matter
of prime Importance to industrial America, and
why fnanciers and captains of industry and
experts in management are considering the
possibility of applying factory methods to the
farm. Food has taken its place alongside power
and materials in the equation of industrial
production.
X X
There is no thought that factory farming
ever could put the individual farmer out of
business. Factory farming, at least in the be-
ginning, would have to have fairly cheap and
mostly unimproved land reasonably compact
in it's situation and with adequate transporta-
ton facilities, both outlet and intercommuni-
eating Also it would have to be land of such
topography and soil texture that it would lend
itself to cultivation by machinery on large
scale.
There are any number OF areas in the
United States which come under this descrip-
ton and not all of them are to be found in the
west, distant from the centers of population
Take your map and look at the tidewater sec
stion Of Virginia. Along the shores of Chesa-
ipeake bay and it's navigable tributaries
several million acres of land now lying idle
or only meagerly cultivated. 1t is not first
rich praries of Illinois and Iowa. but it is
kindly soil that responds generously to proper
treatment. In the days before the civil war
it supported baronial system of agriculture
based slave labor, but for half century it
has not been an important contributor to the
wealth of the nation
X X X
The Potomac, the Rappahannock, the York
and the James and lesser rivers feeding them
navigable to the head of tidewater.
Cheap water transportation is afforded to
the principal eastern centers Of population
up the Potomac to Washington, up Chesa-
peake bay to Baltimore, and out the Virginia
capes and up the coast to Philadelphia, New
York, Providence and Boston. There would
be no need to look to rail transportation for
perishing vegetables and fruits.
At the head Of tidewater all nearly
all the rivers there is water power capable of
immense development. The soil generally is
sandy loan. ideal for cultivation by machinery.
Natural fertilizer is at hand in the form of
mari. immense quantities of oyster shell and
the menhaden fisheries. The rainfall is abun-
dant and the growing season is longer than
in most agricultural sections. Cattle be
grazed almost throughout the year. The soil
is peculiarly adapted to corn which before the
war was a staple crop. and during recent. years
it has been demonstrated that alfalfa can be
grown successfully there anywhere in