The Washington herald., 1921-03-07
POLES NOT BEREFT
OF JOY OF LIVING
DESPITE TROUBLES
coNrINuEp FROM PAGE ONE.

DESHIlE GnOO DLCS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.
of what relief work is accomplish
ing and what countries like Poland
are doing to get together and take
care of themselves.
Food Conditions ~aueer."
Food conditions in Poland this
year are, in the words of one OF
the best informed Investigators with
whom talked -"quser." There
was. for instance. q large surplus Of
POTATOES. There was also surplus
sugar. although sugar Is very
scarce for the average individual.
but there Is q heavy shortage OF
grain.
There was a scarcity of fats. but
enough meat. You might think
that with potatoes to spare other
things might be brought from the
outside, but in practice II did not
work out that way Transportation
IS more or less demoralized. the
winter comes quickly in Poland-it
was already freezing by November
land to ship and store these po-
tatoes without freezing them was
often impossible.
The,lght soil of Poland responds
wonssp1ally to fertilization, and as
nsturst-nanure is lacking, owing to
the destruction of herds, one of the
things badly needed Is artificial fer
tiIizer,.1The government has, there
fore. strled to use some Of the sur
plus Sugar to import fertilizer and
thiSuse vii be continued mp to the
- -. H.A 40 rTak f1rR -
-zfWAys the first to feel such
pinehes-begin to protest too much.
The Polish drive into Russia last
spring and the Bolshevik Offensive
during the summer naturally Gu:
down this years crop. particularly
in Russian Poland. The Poles were
running either after or away from
the Bolsheviks most Of the summer,
and this not only took men sway
from the farms but was frightfully
destructive of horses.
In Russian Poland. which nor
mally ougth to do a little better
than support itself so far as food Is
concerned, a good deal of the crop
was destroyed outright. This was
less true in Austrian Poland. but
the Population is so dense in much
Of Galicia that they have at best
some difficulty in taking care Of
themselves. German Poland-Poz-
nan-was untouched by war, and 1t
Is the richest and best developed
pat of the new republic. II always
had and has now an agricultural
surplus, and most of the surplus
sugar comes from there.
Must Import Grain.
Last year the Poles had to import
about 25o,oo0 tons of grain. The
upshot of this years conditions is
that they will also have to import
from abroad probably as much OF
more than this, and arrangements
have already been made for getting
at least part of this from Rumania
The difficulties are not the lack OF
grain. of which there is enough In
the warld. but of transportation and
of paying for II without exports and
with the Polish mark worth less
than fifth of q cent.
One so often hears of the shiftless
farming methods of the Polish land
owners and the story of the Polish
aristocrat who amuses himself-or
used to before the war. at any rate
lin Paris or the Riviera, and lets
his estate go hang, Is so often re-
speated. that I was interested to
hear one of the American investiga-
tors in Poland give a different ver-
sion.
That kind Of criticism would an.
ply" he said. ito a small minority,
maybe twenty or thirty landowners,
who have so much land they scarce
ly can tell the number OF their own
estates It is also true that condi-
tions in parts of Congress" or Rus
sian Poland are not unlike those In
Russia itself. and that Russian Pole
landlords are less thrifty and efi-
cient farmers than the Bait barons
OF the Baltic provinces or the Junk
ers of East Prussia.
But I should say that the aver
age middle-sized estate of 1000 or
1000 acres is as well run as the
average farm in America. The own
ers live on their estates most of
the year and direct the farming
themselves. Here In Warsaw you
will find an example Of the interest
they take in good farming methods
in what they call their agricultural
central. where they publish two Pc
riodicals and many pamphlets and
keep q stan OF clerks all for the
encouragement Of coed agriculture.
Yield Greater Than Ours.
In former German Poland the
Polish--fa -farms are just as good as
the farms run by Germans. 1t Is
wonderful wha. they accomplish
over there IN. Poxnan. Their land is
not as good as ours and yet they
,ref r,orA ant ~ N nsr 49,. th.n 80.
do in the richest parts of the Mis-
sissippi Valley. In rotation Of crops
and the use OF plants to restore
oxygen they know all that Is known
and use their knowledge.
people 50 often think Of Poland
as a country OF big estates that
many will be surprised to md that
in former Austrian Poland. In Ca
ticia. that Is to say. there are al
most as many people to the square
kiiometer as in Italy. more than In
Switzerland and Denmark. eight
times a. many as in Sweden, and