Evening star., 1923-03-11
TO GET BOYS OFF FARM
BIG PROBLEM OF TODAY
Increased Efficiency Of Agriculture Held
to Have Resulted in Overproduc.
ton of FOOdstuffs.

! isn't. The real relief will come
through having fewer farmers pro-
ducing what the people eat. The
farmer has become altogether too ef-
| ficient.
Speeded Up for War.
I Now this super-ef1icient farmer We
! have, who is working himself out OF
a job, got speeded up during the war
and can't stop. We took from him
during the war practically all his
sons and many Of his daughters, en-
| ploying the latter in offices and mu-
| nitions factories And yet without
| the youths on the farm the output
was increased 20 per cent. This was
| partially due to Increasing use of
| tractors and other farm machinery
| and labor-saving devices. But. most
| of all, it was through distribution of
| crops so that the farmer could work
| longer hours and work the year
| around.
| Another thing that the farmer has
! done-he's added many side lines. such
! as poultry and fruit growing. In these
he has become SO efficient that it
looks like he's going to flood the mar
ket with poultry products.
So the question is largely that Of
finding out who will quit.
/ The same figures as quoted above
on Michigan can he applied to prac-
tically all of the states. You could
take a state like Michigan and build
| a stone wall around it and the price
of all food products would go down
and the number of farmers would
have to be decreased. The only items
on which production would have to
be increased are meat and wheat,
which Michigan could do easily if
there were n market demand.
Fixed Charges Doubled.
No. we have been hearing the farm
er crying for more efficient market
ing and more credit and a decrease
in taxes-and sum this all up and
he's just acknowledging there are not
enough consumers to take the food
he's producing.
All the time we must keep in mind
that the farmer is part Of the public
body and the cost of doing business
is increased in proportion to what he
has to pay for doing business in
town. His fixed charges are now dou-
bled, having increased in ten years as
much as they have in the cities. In
addition the mortgage on his farm
| has doubled in ten years.
| The number of mortgaged farms in
! this country in 1910 was 35 per cent,
with 65 per cent mortgage free. In
1920 As per cent were moTtgaged and
80 per cent mortgage free. To COM
plete the picture let us take Michigan
again for an illustration. In Michi-
gan in 1910 the average debt per farm
was s1.107. and in 1920 the average
debt per farm was s2.141, or approxi-
mately double.
The New Farm Problem.
The farmer is going out on efficient
production and a survival of the fit
test Will the same day come to the
manufacturer?
Assistant Secretary Pugsley says:
"a great many in the Department OF
Agriculture feel that we are on the
ture. Heretofore the problem was to
get every one on the farm and pro
duce all we could. Now the problem
is to make the farm produce efficient
ly and economically and to keep on the
farm only enough to produce what
the world needs and to release the
, others so that thew can do those other
things that the world finds should be
done.
THE interest Of the business man
heretofore" Assistant Pugsley says,
has been in getting the farmer to
increase his production, but now his
interest must be in the prosperity of
the farmer, for if the farmer doesn't
have anything after paying his costs
he will not have anything to spend
for what the business man has to sell.
The farm boy isn't going to stay on
the farm unless he has equal oppor-
tunity with the boy elsewhere"