The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1921-03-24
AGRICULTURAL SIT UATIoNs
Continued from pale FOUR


OF talk extolling the beauty of farm
LIE can stop it. Nor has this relative
decline in the producing population
been very serious matter up to the
present time. Certainly it has not
been serious from the farmers view
point. We have made great advances
III methods of production. The de-
velopment of labor-savinE machinery
has enabled us to increase our pro
duction per man. Notwithstanding
our Increase i'll Total population, we
have, until very recently, steadily i'll
creased food production per thousand
of total population. The increase has
come both from the use OF labor-sav-
ing machinery and from bringing into
cultivation new areas of fertile land.
We can not keep up this gait in the
future. Consumption has almost over
taken production under normal world
conditions.
Most OF our fertile lanl which can
be farmed profitably without expen-
sive reclamation has been taken up
We still have large areas of swamp
land and dry land and cnt-over land,
but these lands can not be pro6tably
reclaimed and farmed unless We can
depend upon higher relative prices
for farm ploducts than prevailed be-
fore the war. So, also, We can great
ly increase the productive power of a
large area OF the Land in surplus pr
ducing states, provided we can depend
upon prices which will cover the in
creased expense. Under our system
of farming we have produced far more
per man than any other nation, but
We have not produced nearly as much
per acre as in the nations of western
Europe, for example. Our greatest in
crease of food production In the futura
must come from increasing our acre
yields. but this. in turn, depends upon
prices which will Justify the increased
cost
The farmer Is the one man engaged
in big business who has had no
voice in fixing the price Of the things
he produces. He has been compelled
to take whatever prices lie could get
His cost Of production has not at any
time been considered in determining
the price. In times of small crops the
prices have sometimes been high. In
times of large crops the prices fire.
quently have been ruihously low.
Very large crops, as a rule, give the
farmer fewer dollars than the small
crops. Farming seems to be one bust
ness in which large production is al
ways penalized.
No doubt when we get through this
period of world reimbursement and get
squared away on an orderly basis
there will be a gradual increase in the
value of farm land, provided our ma
tional policy is fair to agriculture
but this increase will be much slower
than in times past The speculative
value has been taken out of the land
The farmer can no longer depend on
the increase in the value of his farm
to make good losses suffered through
his farming operations year by year
Farmers crops must sell higher relat-
lively in the future than In the past.
We seem to have been going on the
theory that the fertility of our SOIL
especially in the great corn and tame
grass country, is inexhaustable. To
line nation this is a most dangerous
theory. We must set about in earnest
the development of an agricultural
~policy which will enable us to feed
our people at fair prices and at the
same time, retain the fertility Of our
soil, our greatest national asset
The increase in tenancy has arous-
ed great concern. Many people seem
to think that tenancy is in itself an
evil. Not necessarily so As land adj
vances, tenancy increases. This has al
ways been true everywhere and it is
not necessarily bad thing in itself
The farmer who has limited working
capital can far better afford to rent
than to own after the land has reach
ed fairly stable value based on its
productive power Men who are willing
to invest their money in and and ac-
cept very low rate of interest be-
cause of the security of the invest
meltd but there are evils which grow
out of the tenancy system which must
be corrected.
III we are to make this self-sus-
tanning nation agriculturaLly, as Pres
ident Harding put Ii i'm one of his
speeches, there is no time to be lost
Studying these great problems. 1t is
not question of production alone, II
is question Of the farmer being able
to sell what he produces at price
which will Justify him in continuing
to produce. We are the best producers
in the world. but our sales system is
lN.,I