The Newark journal., 1920-01-15
Important

In Feeding America, This is Just as tPrepared hy the United States Depart
 ment of Agriculture9
 You have heard great deal about the problems of reconstruction that are pressing for solution But. like most men, you have probably thought of them as tremendously big problems that had to be solved, nationally and internationally by statesmen and dip lomats and high executives. They are that-but not just that. Every man certainly every farmer-has recon struction problem all his own.
 The War unbalanced the agriculture of the United States by unbalancing the agriculture of individual farms. There had to be produced the kind of food that could be transported over seas. Wheat is pre-eminently that kind of food and other grain crops are to an extent such. Very many farms. therefore got too heavy on the side of tiled and cereal crops and too light on the side of hay crops and pasture. Many farmers increased their tiled and cereal crops beyond what they had any basis of experience in carrying. Labor requirements were increased. Rotation practices were interfered with. To the extent that the wheat acreage was increased, the climatic hazard was increased, because. under the extensive farm practice that char aeterizes American agriculture. wheat is q crop that is very sensitive to cli- matte uncertainty. Such q practice long continued was likely 10 result. therefore. not in increased food pro duction at all, but in actually reduced food production. Tn the long run, that would be the inevitable result. Even. if by some miracle, the hazard of weather could be escaped the practice would reduce soil fertility until yields would he greatly cut down. But, be- fore that even. meat production would be harmfully reduced. For it is as true physically as spiritually that man does not live by bread alone. Very largely. he lives hy meat And meat animalS-and milk animals-do not grow on grain alone. Most largely, they grow and produce on green grass and dry grass-pasture and hay.
 Return to Sound Farming.
 Those are some of the reasons why the United States department of agri- culture began urging, almost immedi- ately after the signing of the armstce and continuously since return to sound agricultural practice-returning to pasture and hay lots, to clover and other fertiizer-fiXing crops. some of the land that had been used for grain during the war emergency. The sug- eestion has been criticized from some quarters. because in some quarters il has been misunderstood.
 Specifically, the department recom- mended that it was not advisable 10 undertake to maintain the wheat acre age soWn for the crop of 1919 That did not imply that the department urged smaller food production in the country. It did mean thar the depart ment was urging an increase in the food production of the country by steadying agriculture. by reducing the hazards that necessarily play into the hands of spectators, by returning ngri- culture to peace basis that would in- sure adequate production of all kinds of food. for this year and for other years. And that meant restoring pas tures, restoring hay fields, insnring feed for the meat animals upon which the tables of the nation depend
 l,fz n n I q practice is important 10 the farmer certainly. But It is not more impor tant 10 the farmer than 1t Is to the city man. It has to do just as much with reducing the high cost of living as with reducing the high labor requirements and the fertlity-draining practice of farming.
 Wheat, officials of the department of agriculture point out does not key the cost of living It is merely one of a number of coordinate elements.
 "Gne honest John Tompkins heig- CT and ditcher," that perfectly con- tented man whose praises are sung in the cid verse. had a habit of saying :: "If can get meat, l can surely get bread." Maybe his reasoning was faulty. But it was not a bit more faulty than that of some business and industrial leaders who say, by infer ence: If we can get bread. we can surely get meat"
 Lack of pastures is serious handi- cap to production of low-cosr milk.
 The man does not live who can pro- duce beef economically without pas l iure.
 And, just as surely. the man does | not live who can produce lowcost pork | without pasture.