Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-09
A PENNSYLVANIA MEAL
OF PENNSYLVANIA FOOD
The Time Has Come When We
Should Look to Local Farmers
to Supply Home Needs

A HOUSEWIFE went into a Phila-
"A delphia meat market to buy a fresh
| killed chicken. The market man turned
to fat box on the counte, packed
iull Of pluckcd chickens and lifted one
| out.
SIS that fresh killed." the woman
asked.
"Oh, yes" was the reply.
''But where does it come from, in
box like that"
From Wisconsin. They raise nice
chickens there"
The woman took the chicken and
paid forty eight cents a pound for II,
confident that it had not been IN a cold
storage warehouse.
When she went into fruit store
she found apples from Oregon and
Washington selling for ten cents apiece,
In the grocery store she bought but
| ter from one of the western states, and
paid not less than seventy five cents a
pound for it.
And her beef aud pork, of course,
come from the West because the East
has stopped raising meat.
There are two ways of looking at
this situation.
One may swell with pride and boast
that Philadelphia lays the whole coun-
try under tribute to supply her needs.
Or, one may wonder why one Of the
richest agricultural states in the Union
fails to supply food enough for the
cities within her boundaries.
Every foreign raised chicken apple,
pound of beef or pork paid for in this
city lays a tax upon the wealth of this
community. 1t takes money out of it
and sends it to distant producers. who
spend it in the markets of their own
| part of the country and pay part of il
in taxes to build roads in other states
and to maintain other state govern E
ments.
After one has got all the satisfaction
possible out Of swelling with pride a,
the ability of Pennsylvania dollars &C
bring the products of other states here
one would do well to consider a little
while what would happen if more
Pennsylvania dollars were spent al
home.
The orchards Of this state can bc
made to produce all the apples that car
be CONSUMED here. And they can pro
duce better apples than are raised in
the irrigated orchards of the West. The
westerners themselves admit it. Wher
they taste an eastern apple grown il
a region where there is moisture enough
in the soil to keep the trees in goot
condition and where there is SUI
enough to ripen the fruit they sigh ant
wish that their own apples had tn,
same flavor.
The time is coming when enterpris
ing farmers in increasing numbers viii
cultivate their orchards as they do il
the West, and will spray the trees ant
prune them and care for them ms they
would care for the goose that lays thu
golden egg il they happened to owr
that fascinating and productive fowl
Our own State Department of Agri
culture can do something to haster
this day as it can do something to In,
cite the farmers to raise more chickens
and more cattle and more pigs.
The western cattle ranges are bein;
cut up into farms. The era of fre
grass is coming to an end. A new sys
TEN of meat production must be de
veloped in the near future because tn
old system is breaking down. The ma
chinery built up for gathering anc
slaughtering and distributing tn
range fed meat is still in existence.
is being adjusted to the new condi
tions; that is, to the assembling ant
slaughtering and distribution of farm
raised cattle. when it is not cXtendin
itself to South America and Austria
lila. where the range conditions still
: prevail.
At the present prices Of meat ant
at the prices that are likely to prevail
for several years cattle can be raise,
profitably on Pennsylvania farms. An,
the by product of stock farm can b
. utilized to make more fertile til
ground on which vegetables and grain
are raised All that is needed is NOR
: intensive cultivation and the adoption
of some of the methods used by tn
western farmers.
Where is the labor to come from
some pcssmist may ask The wester
farmers have already begun TO look 70
= supply of hands for the harvest sea
son which they used to get from tn
floating population Of "hobos." The
) say that prohibition has abolished tn
) tramp and that seasonal labor must b
recruited from some other source. Wei
IL prohibition has produced this benefi
; cent result We should be glad OF It an
set about finding some other way fc
supplying harvest hands wherever the
= may be needed.
= The machine has already enabled or
l. pair of hands to do in farming wht
used to require half dozen pairs. TT
} machine, it is evident, must be sti
: further adapted to farming. The tra(
'e tor is still in its infancy, but II ca
be used on Pennsylvania farms in man
g of the processes of cultivation. In Il
% potato growing states, planting, Gu
d tivating and digging are all done |
ID machinery, reducing the amount ,
j hand labor to a minimum. This
1t merely an illustration of what can
III done.
lg Then il the local farmers who SUI
Ie ply our markets would engage in c,
l. operative buying and harvesting al
selling they could bring about econ'
Il mics for themselves and for the co
ne sumer which would be of immen
J. benefit to all concerned.
m We look to the superintendent