The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-06-11
Farm Bureau Notes

DoNNELLsoN, Iowa, June @
T. R. Miner, Lee county agent, in
bulletin, says:
Will food prices go lower, is the
question that is bothering all of US.
Head lines in the daily papers, such
as "The Prices of Foods Must go
Lower" Butter and Eggs to go Lower"
and similar head lines. Are they
based on facts? Perhaps a general
survey of our principal crops will help
to answer some of these questions.
Wheat, one of our principal food pro
ducts, will not make an average crop,
nor is the acreage up to normal. In
the spring wheat sections, because of
the backward spring, the normal &C
reage was not seeded. In the potato
growing sections several factors have
caused a decrease in the acreage. One
of the factors that is effecting all our
food products is lack of competent
labor The high wages offered in
the city has drawn the surplus help
from the farms, and this has resulted
In an acute shortage of skilled farm
help. 4
1t is well TO suggest that the con-
sumers OF foods are demanding GER
tain amount OF service that is eaus-
ing the foods to cost them more than
they would if this service was not
demanded. A great deal of this SER
vice is nothing but whimsical ideas
and is not based upon real food re-
auirements For example, we have
grown to demand nothing but white
-four for our bread. To produce this
white -four it is necessary that there
he an expensive mill to grind the
wheat and mill it to an extreme fine
ness. This causes an unnecessary
expense when the wheat must be
shipped from one locality to the mill /
and then the flour back again to the !
same locality to be consumed. The
same is true with our fruits. Instead
of the consumer buying home grown !
fruits he requires his groceryman to !
buy oranges that have been grown in J
California, and bananas that have been I
grown somewhere in the south, and
pineapples that have perhaps been !
produced in the Hawaiian Islands, !
and fails to buy the large number of
fruits that are grown in Lee county. |
To help to reduce the price of the
foods large numbers of cooperative
organizations have been formed, and
as a result of this cooperative mark
citing it has been the desire on the
part of some of the men to destroy
some OF the existing business methods
thai have been used to market our
products. The successful co-opera-
tive marketing associations have found
that they can market better product
in a more uniform package than they
were able to do before the organiZa-
ton of cooperative marketing. Some
of the results of this are plainly
shown in the Fruit Growers organiza.
ton of California and the Potato
Growers association of Minnesota
While these organizations are helping
to place before the consumer a more
desirable product the expense Of hand
ling and giving the service that is re-
uuired will still remain, and TO the
person who wants to buy more eco
nomically it would seem good poll
CIV to buy those articles that are
raised in the home country instead Of
loading the railroads with oranges,
bananas, pineapples and fruits that
cannot be raised in Lee county.
Here are some of the fruits and arti-
Giles that can be used as fruits that
are raised in Lee county Apples,
pears, peaches, plums, cherries, goose
berries, currents, strawberries, black
berries, grapes, raspberries, rhubarb,
tomatoes and melons This list
should be enough OF a variety to salts
fy the taste of anyone except the
crouch. If you want to reduce the
cost of high living, buy home grown
products.
Claimed to be the largest in the
world, Akron, Ohio, has a garage IN
Accommodate $500 automobiles