Imperial Valley press., 1922-02-13
STORM MY WEATHER
AFFECTS HAY
SITUATION
Reduces Receipts and Keeps The
Demand Ahead Of the Sup
.pIy-MQrket items

The stormy weather of last week,
extending over the entire State. inter
fered with the baling and shipping
Of alfalfa hay, and arrivals in central
and local markets were thereby cut
down considerably. These reduced re-
ceipts were below the requirements
for current consumption and kept the
demand ahead of the current supply |
especially so for hay of the choicer |
grades, of which there seems to be |
practically no reserve supply left in
the hands Of dealers and consumers
Country offerings also were light; |
they will probably pick up again with
better weather, but are likely to aver
age rather light during the balance
OF the old crop year, as in most sec
tions producing marketing hay, the
growers are already pretty well sold
out. Prices continued firm without any
material change from previous levels.
The most important problem now
worrying the alfalfa farmers, and for
that matter, the farmers of the whole
country, is to find out ''where they
are at" as regards the new crop year
The Importance CT this problem, moi
alone for the farmers but also for
all other interests, is now fully recog
nized by the latter as well as by the
farmers themselves. Government, fl
nancial, business, etc, authorities. arr
therefore all agreed that something
must be done to give the farmaf q
market for their products at prices
which enable them to get on theil
feet again. These authorities do not
stop there, but, with President Har-
ding personally in the lead, are all
trying to find ways and means to
bring about the desired result. Q
They even went so far as to ask
the farmers themselves to express
their opinion, by inviting their rep
resentatives to two Washington con.
ferences, though this is about as fal
as they were allowed to take a hanC
in this matter of most vital Importance
to them. When they ask to be allowed
to help in the working out of con
crete measures, as for instance b!
having farmer as representative or
the Federal advisory board, or b.
having their interests jointly repres
views, they are as welcome as pls
in the house of an orthodox jew.
The idea is of course, that th
farmer" for whom the political, finan
cial, economic, etc. authorities hav
to act as guardians. They have in fac
acted in that capacity in the past ant
we suppose all would be well still
if they had not made such mess O
it during recent years that their ward
protested, believing that notwithstand
ing their limta ations the result coul
snot have been any worse, and possibl
better, if they had been allowed t
cooperate in the management of thel
own affairs.
Perhaps the farmers are not S
very far out Of the way in coming t
this conclusion on basis of what the
had seen going on during the las
few years. They remdmber how, 500
after the close of the war, the sloga
of "more production" in industry an
farming was given out by "authoi
tiles" of all kinds, as the only saliva
ton of the nation; it was preache
in the newspapers day in and da
out for year, together with tn
battle cry of "work harder" In il
self there was nothing wrong wit
either recommendation and they wer
promptly followed; production gather
ed speed and labor also took heed G
the admonition to work harder" b
becoming more efficient again.
Our financial, economic and polit
cal authorities, when urging this po
icy of "more production" had howeve
forgotten or overlooked the very oh
vious and elementary fact that "mor
production" requires correspondence
more money, which meant more credi
expansion, or, in plain words, NOR
initiation. Everything went alon
swimmingly until after a year or NOR
the authorities" became so scare
that they suddenly put on the brakes
stopped, turned around and then tray
elled in the opposite direction at break
neck speed. This was called "liquida
ton" and those words were then tn
battle cry for about a year and
half, just as ''more production" ha
been before; added to this was tn
slogan "spend less", rather crue