The Pulaskian., 1920-02-20
FARM LABOR GONE
 TO CITY WORK
STARTLING CONDITION DIscLos- ED BY J. R. ALEXANDER, LEAD ING ARKANSAS PLANTER
 AND SToCKMAN.

J. R. Alexander, one of the most prominent planters of Pulaski coun- ty. and president of the Arkansas Di- vision of the American Cotton Asso- ciation, calls the attention of the far mers and business men of the state to most startling condition con fronting our people at this time. He says:
 "The acreage of wheat in 1919 was 25 per cent shirt of that sown the preceding year and the same eondi- ton prevails in the seeding of rye. The condition of those two crops in December was thirteen points below normal, which would indicate a short age in the wheat and rye crop com bined of something like 225,000,000 bushels.
 ''The Department of Agriculture at Washington sent out some 75,000 questionaires to farmers in the corn and livestock belt, and up to this time, 10000 replies have been received. They were asked the trouble con- fronting the farmer. In almost every instance, the reply was labor" Twen- ty thousand farmers replied that they contemplated abandoning farming al- together. or reducing their acreage to meet only their own requirements, on account of the shortage of labor.
 Practically all hired labor has withdrawn from the farms into the cities, making it impossible to seed or cultivate the larger crops The same condition prevails, to degree, in livestock. For instance, Kansas lost 25 per cent of it's beef cattle from March 1st to December, 1919 and the inventorysof hogs March first was be- low that of any year since 1882, and from that date, there has been a fur ther loss of 25 per cent. This is the only state on which I have actual fig ures. Other states make complaint
 
 stock has been turned on the market so rapidly in the last six months, that the price has been so depressed, the farmers are discouraged, and, in the near future, there will be great scarcity of live stock The trouble seems to be everywhere no labor due to the abnormaIly high prices paid in the cities compared with what can be paid on the farm.
 Over two million farm boys were drafted into the army, and only lit tie over one per cent of them have returned to the farm. Other boys are leaving as fast as they become old enough, or can get away.
 Under present conditions, there will be a greater reduction in corn and oats than in wheat and rye, and at the same ratio, we will be con- fronted with shortage of something like seven hundred million bushels of grain in 1920.
 T would especially call the atten- tion of the Arkansas farmer to the situation that confronts us. We have the largest carry-over of cotton in the South's history-more than six mil lion bales-and every indication that one of the biggest crops of cotton will be planted in 1920. With the shortage confronting us in the corn crop and with bumper cotton crop, it is more than probable, under the conditions, that the selling price of cotton will be below the cost of pro- duction, and food crops will be so high and scarce that it will be inn possible to buy them at any price. Flour now, after two of the biggest wheat crops in history, is $16 bar rel and still going up The same condition prevails in livestock and corn.
 "The American Cotton Association offers the Southern farmer as one of the principal blanks in It's platform the production of sufficient food and feed for home consumption and that cot ton should be the surplus money crop With ten million bale crop, the producer may get as much as 75c or S1 a pound, while with sixteen million bale crop, the returns would tie fellow to be carried on the back
 ''The American Cotton Association if it secures the one million members it is endeavoring to enlist, will be enabled to do more for the welfare of the agricultural situation of the South than any other power"
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 Suffrage in Virginia.
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