Arizona republican., 1921-04-15

this constitutes no solution of the problem of how to assure the farmer a fair return for his investment and his labor. It also leaves us all III position which is little absurd.
 The population is increasing faster than the food supply. Moreover, every year sees a larger proportion Of that population crowded into the cities. and a smaller proportion of it on the farms. Hence we all urge the farm
 CTS to produce as much food as pos
 sible. But the interest of the farmer lies the other way. When crops are
 small, he gets good prices. The city
 people suffer. When crops are large, the farmer loses money. while the city people get food at lower prices An Economic Absurdity
 | So the better the farmer does for | the city people, the worse he does for | himself. The best thing for him to do is to practice diversified farming, producing as many as possible of the | things he needs himself, and putting | forth small money crop which will bring a good price The intelligent farmer, and especially the farmer l who belongs to a farmer organiza- l tion, is rapidly getting this idea He is also getting the idea that when he markets his money crop cooperative ly. thereby eliminating at least some of the middle men, he will get still more money for it. Small crops. pro- 1 duction for home consumption, and l community CO., operation may help tc l solve the problem for the farmer. But
 they will not solve the food problem Il of the nation. Until some way is
 found of rewarding the farmer for doing his task well. instead of pun
 ishing him, he will be under strong
 inducements to short-ration us.
 The worst difficulty which the
 farmer faces in carrying out his pro- gram is that chance and weather |, have great deal to do with the size of crops. He can decide how mucf land he will plant in given crop and ,, he does consider this matter more
 the market. But he cannot decide
 how much the land will produce. Ina
 depends on the weather. In onions ; the same land may produce as little as 150 bushels per acre or as muci
 as 600 bushels. Thus the farmer ma, intend to produce a small crop ant !. produce a large one in spite of him
 self.
 This uncertain element in farmin, is Illustrated better by the potat ! crop than by any other. You hav doubtless noticed that potatoes g up and down in price in most dis : turbing way One year they are
 t I the market. The farmer does all h | can to regulate the supply. but al
 acre that produces S5 bushels of DO I tatoes one year may produce II bushels the next. Then, too, larg
 sections of the crop may be de stroyed.
 Thus some years the countr
 actually produces more potatoes tha it can eat or sell. Here is a res - waste that must be used somehow . One way of using it is to make indus e trial alcohol out of the spare pota
 toes It looks as though alcohol wi
 soon come into competition with gas
 oline as motor fuel anyway. A still II a simple and inexpensive plant. community still could convert It mans potatoes and also other roc = crops and fruits into alcohol for d share of the product much less as r. mill now grinds his grain for him. q Tn this way he would produce h y own motor fuel right on the farr .t placing one more stone in the edific e of his economic independence. Ar l. what he could not use would be $ commodity that he might store unt 'f he had good market for 1t.
 ie Plainly. cooperation can do gre; l. deal for the farmer. Some studen ID of the problem say that when the m is also cooperation among the col m sumers to buy and store his product 1t the problem of food supply will be le nearly, solved as 1t ever can be- / lg least it will be greatly improved-al or without the aid of either governme m or industry, but by stepping aroul .e. both of these huge machines, whi ne seem just now to be so hopeless he stuck in the mud