The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-04-15
Frederic Haslkiins Letter
Haze An Onion.

temporary good IL accomplished in
this way, but Of course this copsti.
tutes no solution Of the problem az
how to assure the farmer a fair Re-.
turn for his investment and his IA.
Dor. 1t also leaves us all in q DO
sition which il . little absurd.
The population 10 increasing fast.
or than the food supply. Moreover
every year sees a larger proper.
ton OF that population crowded
into the cities. and a smaller bro.
portion Of 1t on the farms. Hence
We all urge the farmers to produce
as much food a. possible. But
the interest OF the farmer lies tho,
other way. When crops are small.
he gets good prices. The city peo.
pie suffer. When crops are large.
the farmer loses money, while the
city people get food at lower prices,
An Economic Absardity.
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 farm
ing, producing as many as possible
Of the things he needs himself and
putting forth q small money crop"i
which will bring q good price. The
intelligent farmer. and especially
the farmer who belongs to a farm
er organization, is rapidly getting
this idea. He is also getting the
idea that when he markets his mon
ey crop comparatively, thereby elm
mating at least some Of the middle
men, he will get still more money
for 1t. 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 we'll, instead of pun
fishing him, he will be under strong
inducements to short-ration us.
The worst difficulty which the
farmer faces in carrying out his
program is that chance and wealth
er have a great deal to do with the
size of crops. He can decide how
much land he will plant in a given
crop, and he does consider this
matter more and more carefully
with one eye on the market. But
he cannot decide how, much the
land will produce. That depends
on the weather. In onions, the
same land may produce as little as
150. bushels per acre or as much as
600 bushels. Thus the farmer may
intend to produce small crop and
produce large one in spite Of him
self.
This uncertain element in farm
ing is illustrated better by the po-i
tato crop than by any other. You
have doubtless noticed that potatoes
go up and down in price In a most
disturbing way. One year they are
a luxury and the next year a drug
on the market. The farmer does,
all he can to regulate the supply,
but an acre that produces IS BUSH
els Of potatoes one year may pro-
T, duce 10 bushels the next. Then,
too, large sections OF the crop may
be destroyed.
Thus, some years the country
| actually produces more potatoes
than it can eat or sell. Here is .
real waste that must be used some
how. One way of using it is to
make industrial alcohol out Of the
spare potatoes. 1t looks as though
! alcohol will soon come into compe
tition with gasoline as motor fuel
! anyway. A still is a simple and in
expensive plant. A community still
could convert q mans potatoes and
also other root crops and fruits.
into alcohol, for a share OF the
product, much as . mill now grinds
his grain for him.
In this way he would prod1ce
his own motor fuel right on the
farm, placing one more stone In
the edifice Of his economic indie
pendence. And what he could not
use would be commodity that he
might store until he had good
market for 1t.
Plainly. cooperation can do .
great deal for the farmer. Some
students Of the problem say that
when there is cooperation among
the consumers to buy and store his
products, the problem OF food sup
ply will be as nearly solved as it
ever can be. At least il will be
greatly improved-and without the
aid Of either government or indus
try, but by stepping around both
Of these huge machines. which
seem just now to be SO hopelessly
stuck in the mud.