The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-01-01

the United States department of agri
culture began urging, almost imme-
diately after the signing of the arm
istice and continuously since, a re-
turn to sound agricultural practice
returning to pasture and hay lots, tC
clover and other fertilizer-fixing
crops, some of the land that had been
used for grain during the war emer-
gency. The suggestion has been
criticised from some quarters, be-
cause in some quarters it has been
misunderstood.
Specifically, the department rec
commended that it was not advisable
to undertake to maintain the wheat
acreage sown for the crop of 1919.
That did not imply that the depart
ment urged a smaller food produc-
ton in the country. 1t did mean that
the department was urging an in
crease in the food production of the
country by reducing the hazards that
necessarily play into the hands of
spectators, by returning agriculture
to a peace basis that would insure
adequate production of all kinds of
food for this year and for other years.
AUu IndL u1OdnL IGSIOIluS Dd6IuICS
restoring hayfields, insuring feed for
the meat animals upon which the
tables of the nation depend.
This return to sound agricultural
practice is most important to the
farmer. But it is not more import
ant to the farmer than it is to the
city 1t has to do just as much
with reducing the high cost of living
as with reducing the high labor re-
quirements and the fertility-drain-
ing practice of farming.
Wheat, officials of the department
of agriculture point out, does not key
the cost of living. 1t is merely one
of a number of coordinate elements.
zone honest John Tompkins, a
hedger and ditcher," that perfectly
contented man whose praises are
sung in the old verse, had a habit
of saying, eff 1 can get meat, I can
surely get bread" Maybe his rea-
soning was faulty. But it was not a
bit more faulty than that of some
business and Industrial leaders who
say, by inference, eff we can get
bread, we can surely get meat"
Lack of pastures is a serious han
dicap to production of low-cost milk.
The man does not live who can
produce beef economically without
pasture.
And just as surely, the mar does
not live who can produce low-cost
pork without pasture.
Milki Beef! Pork! Is there a
more important item in the high cost
of living than these?
Plenty of Feed for Livestock
And so the United States depart
ment of agriculture for the good of
everybody concerned, continues to
urge the sort of safe and sane agri-
culture that provides plenty of pas
ture and plenty of hay-which means
providing plenty of meat and milk.
The farmer, unless he chose to
head straight for bankruptcy, could
not think of maintaining a wheat
acreage equal to that sown for the
1919 crop. With decreased man
power-and farm labor appears to
be just as hard to find now as it was
the war - farmers cannot
maintain a materially larger acreage
of titled and cereal crops than they
did with larger man-power several
years ago. If they should undertake
it as a permanent policy, city fam
lilies would not only have less meat
and milk than they are accustomed
to, but they would actually have less
bread also.
War needs caused the blowing up
Of many pastures that, under peace
lime conditions, are worth more in
he economy of the farm in pasture
)r hay than in cereal or titled crops.
Some of them are back in grass now.
There are others that should go back.
Specialists of the department of ag-
'iculture suggest hat every farmer
the winter when he has leis-
Ire, should lay his plans carefully,
work. out his own problem of recon
truction, make his plans for planting
he kind of crops next spring that will
'nable him, if not at once, then as
DON as possible, to put his farm back
its proper basis of Investigation
nd rotation. His county and his
tate college of agriculture are ready
o help him at any point where he
nay need help. The United States
apartment of agriculture is ready to
dvise him on practically any phase
f the matter.