Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-08-14
a Once D;scourag;ng Riddle
Rece;pes a Cheering Ans10er

-HE Improvement in American crop
PROSPECTS during the last two months
Ia one of the years chiefly impor-
+anf and heartening events. The eve OF
summer found agricultural conditions the
country over exceedingly dlscouraglns:
belated and unfavorable spring had delayed
nlantine to such an extent that even the
most enterprising and best equipped farm
ers we're sadly behind. Moreover, IN the
principal wheat zones there had been an
acreage curtai1ment which, together Win
the untoward season. threatened" to cut
the harvest to distressful degree. The
logical forecast accordingly was shortened
nroduction higher prices, harder times.
But nature sends her radiant as well as
gloomful surprises. AS summer advanced
fields and gardens waxed luxur1ant. lVege-
tation took a richer green from the very
fact that a chill spring had held early
LEAKAGE in check and had forced an uncom-
monty deep, strong root growth nus =
was that week by week of warm skies ana
uuickening showers so improved the pros
meet that today all fears of a lean autumn
have vanished. We speak, Of course, or
food staples; cotton's fate seems still unde-
cided The curtailment in wheat acreage
will be more than counterbalanced by Doun-
tiful yields and by the increase In corn
and other grains This means much to live
stock interests. 1t will enable thousands OF
breeders to sustain and expand undertake
ings which otherwise would have been rem
dered impossible by prohibitive costs OF
feeding. Thus every phase of the larder
problem which looked so forb1ddlng two
months ago, begins to brighten.
It would be error to assume, however,
that all is cloudlessly. suspicious There
remains the serious matter of inadequate
transportation for this abundant produc-
ton; and it is yet to appear whether cred
1t facilities for carrying the divers crops
No nc xyi11 nNf
bring that full measure Of prosperity ex-
pected of them unless their producers in
terests are. duly cared for. We all want
lower prices on foodstuffs, but none can
afford a drop so sudden and extreme as to
injure the men who raised these crops at
unprecedented costs of labor and materials.
Competent observers say that in the case
Of many commodities liberal yield will
make it possible at once to increase the
profits Of the producer and decrease the
prices to the consumer, provided transport
tation and credit difficulties do not bring
the market to confusion.
It Is reasonably 20 be hoped that these
problems will find adjustment. The impor
tant and highly reassuring fact now is that
gray omens of dearth have changed to
signs of golden plenty. Sixty days eago it
seemed inevitable that Americas surplus of
food for expectation would be cut to a
pittance, if indeed her domestic supply was
wide significance that as summer ripens to-
ward a close the outlook turns rich and
cheering. Many home, which elsewise
would have ached from hunger, will be
fed; many a back that would have come
near breaking under the burden of living
costs will feel the stress grow lighter
From the earth beneath and from the
heavens above has come the answer to a
riddle which ten weeks ago bewildered the
keenest human minds and disturbed the
stoutest hearts.