Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-05-03
ONIONS FLOOD
CITY MARKETS
ALLOW PRICES
AS Food, They Contain Miner
al Salts, Vitamines and
Essential Oils.
AN ECONOMIC PROBLEM

Of those thrifty persons who cut down
the cost Of living by buying what the
market offers at a bargain, you Will
feature onions on your table this spring.
The market is glutted with onions.
There are said to be $500 carloads Of
| them on hand, which viii soon be USE
less If not eaten. And at the same
time the human system has q special
need for onions. They are, according to
| experts, one of the very best of spring
tonics. Not only do they contain
v1tamines, and the mineral salts IN which
a civilized diet is so poor, but also
| certain essential oils that have the
specific effect of stimulating the liver.
And the liver is usually an important
factor IN that spr1ngtime feeling OF
lassitude and general Indifference which
| the poet does not sing.
The present glut in the onion market
has forced down the price Of that
vegetable. which took rank as a luxury
| during the war, to two cents a pound. In
the producing regions you can buy them
| for as little as half a cent. This situa-
! ton, which is so happy for the onion
eater and SO sad for the onion grower,
| Is a part Of the general collapse Of the
values Of farm products-a collapse
which is undermining the economic
health of the whole country. But it is
also due in part to a popularity Of the
business of onion growing.
i There are two great onIon-rroducing
regions in the United States. The most
important Of these is in the North It :
runs from Massachusetts to Michigan IN
an unbroken belt across the country, then
jumps the prairie States and appears
IN Co1OradO and north Colt
fornia. This region produces So per cent
of all OF our onions. From It come the
big white, red and yellow onions which
you can buy all winter at the grocery
store. They are harvested in the early
fall and are placed in special onion stor-
age houses, which are so constructed as
to resist the frost These storage houses
may be owned by the onion growers in
some cases, but are more often the
property of local dealers. The onions
are sent to market as they are needed.
BERMUDA ONIONS
OF THE SOUTH.
In the south, especially IN the Gulf
States, there is another onion belt, which
produces the other Is per cent Of our
onions. These are the Bermuda onions
which you see figured on menus about
this time Of the year. They are planted
in December and harvested early in the
spring. They are supposed to come on
the market just as the northern crop,
stored the fall before is becoming ex-
hausted. In this case, the northern crop
has not been exhausted. Thousands OF
tons Of northern onions remain in the
market to compete with the southern
crop. And the southern crop won't keep.
Harvested in warm weather, 1t must be
moved and eaten within three or four
weeks, or it viii spoil. Hence, not only
is the grower Of northern onions being
forced to take g very low price for his
crop. but the southern onion man is apt
to see his crop rot in storage.
This situation is typical Of the condi-
lions which are causing the American
farmer SO much distress. The price that
he gets fer his product is regulated by
demand and supply. Unfortunately, he
cannot control the demand at all, and
he can control the supply very little.
Besides this, when prices fall, dispro-
portionate share Of the loss falls upon
the farmer. The other agencies which
handle his product usually suffer very
little when prices fall, ard they usually
make most Of the extra profit when they
rise.
The population is increasing faster than
the food supply. Moreover, every year
sees a larger proportion Of that popula-
ton crowded into the cities, and a small
Ter proportion of it on thu farms. Hence
we are urging the farmers 70 produce as
much food as possible. 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 him
self. The best thing for him to do is
to practice diversified farming produc-
ing as many as possible of the things
he needs himself, and putting forth a
small money crop" which will bring a
good price. The intelligent farmer, and
especially the farmer who belongs to a
farmer organization, is rapidly getting
this idea. He is also getting the idea
that when he markets his money crop
comparatively, thereby eliminating at
least some of the middlemen, he will get
still more money for it. Small crops,
production for home consumption, and
community cooperation may help to
solve the problem for the farmer. But
they will not solve the food problem OF
the Nation. Until some way is found of
rewarding the farmer for doing his task
well, instead or Furnishing him, he viii
be under strong inducements to short
ration us.
The worst difficulty which the farmer
faces in carrying out his program is
that chance and weather have a great
deal to do with the size of the crops.
He can decide how much land he will
plant II given crop and he does con-
slider tbs matter more and more care
fully with one eye on the market But
he can not decide how much the land will
produce. That depends on the weather.
In onions, the same land may produce
as little as $50 bushels per acre or as
much as 900 bushels. Thus the farmer
may intend to produce a small crop and i
produce a large one in spite of himself
Thus some years the country actually
produces more potatoes than 1t can eat
or sell. Here is a real waste that must
be used somehow. One way Of using
it is to make Industrial alcohol out OF
the spare potatoes. 1t looks as though
alcohol will soon ONE into COM
petition with gasoline as motor fuel
anyway. A still Is a simple and in
expensive plant. A community stu
could convert a man't potatoes, and also
another root crops and fruits, into
alcohol, for a share of the product, much