Evening star., 1932-01-03

/ 1nJeT1OT OIL bllC NoAAJly were VHClCNt
tapping new sources OF supply
| These are but examples, yet every
| where the tendency has been marked.
1t is of interest here because it indi-
Gates q new type of thinking regarding
agriculture a greater conservation of
wealth and a greater opportunity to
build the individual and the nation into
sound and balanced economic units.
This leads, however. to the most sig
nificant phase of the future possibilities
of Latin American agriculture. 1t has
been suggested that the end of these
plantation crops has come in Latin
America, and that new era is dawn
ing That new era certainly does not
eliminate the cash crop, nor the posi-
bility of an increasingly important in
come from agricultural products abroad.
But it does mean the bringing of Latin
America definitely into the production,
on large scale, Of the great food
staples of the world.
To Use Mere Latin Food.
The older nations, including the
United States and to a lesser extent
Canada, are becoming industrialized so
rapidly that first in meat and wool and
later ON in the cereals they will have
| to turn more and more to Latin America
/ the same procession OF events as hap
pened in Europe when the United
States, in the second half of the last
century, began to pour cheap farm
produce into the older countries. They
could not produce as cheaply as they
could buy these foods, and SO turned
their energies to manufacturing.
Now the role of supplier of the worlds
food Is definitely passing from the
United States; in cereals it is Canada
that is now on the upswing. But there
are vast future producing areas in
Latin America even outside Of Argen-
tina. In the next Is years the trans
formation will be well on its way. What
will be produced time only can tell, but
first of all. perhaps, will be meats. The
introduction Of the quick-freezing proc
ess, which makes frozen meat as pal
atable as chilled meat, has made den-
nitely possible the coming, first, OF Ar
gentine and Uruguayen meat, and later
of beef from the warmer countries, to
the United States market.
The previous lack Of development OF
the food crops In the tropics has been
due to two definite factors. One Is the
climate itself, with its alternating dry
and rainy seasons, and the luxuriance
of the jungle growth which takes back
each wet season the gains Of the dry.
The other is the problem Of soils.
Soils Are Deficient.
Basicslly, the tropical soils are rich
in humus, but deficient in mineral salts,
those ingredients in the soil Of the tenn
perate zones which have made them
granaries of the world. But mineral
salts are replaceable by fertilizers, and
by the same means there undoubtedly
can come an elimination of at least
some of the tropical luXuriance OF
weeds
Irrigation, the product Of engineering,
is the solution of the problem OF rainy
seasons and dry. Years ago it was de-
termined in the sugar fields Of Hawaii,
and of Peru as well, that irrigated sugar
fields are more economical and better
producers than the loWlands, on which
sugar cane is traditionally grown. The
development Of irrigation is one OF the
great romances Of Latin American ag-
riculture. Engineering has been able to
impound water in arid regions and,
more recently, cheap electric power has
pumped water from beneath the surface
of lands too far distant to be served by
the irrigation bitches of the dam itself.
Irrigation has turned fiat regions emf
nently adapted to the use of machinery
from deserts into gardens, and the
process is hardly begun. 1rrigation-and
fertiliZation-are the answer to most OF
the questions that are presented as the
uranswerables in regard to tropical and
desert agriculture.
Immense regions still await the solu-
ton which other branches of science
and engineering and machinery can
provide for them. The Amazon Valley,
I1n1 oa nfC
lea, is yet to be harnessed. It's first use
will unquestionably be its forests, now
almost completely neglected and yet ca
pable Of producing an immense amount
of timber for untold centuries to come.
Under sound forestry laws and methods,
which have been evolved at such tragic
waste Of the timber resources Of the
United States and Canada, the forests
of tropic Latin America may well fur
nish timber and pulp and paper to the
world in perpetuity.
Drainage Is Difficult.
The Amazon and its hundred mighty
tributaries, and likewise the upper
reaches of the corresponding river sys-
TEN to the south, the River Platte basin,
are so fiat that drainage is slow and
difficult. They present engineering
may not be solved for generations. That
they can be solved when the need arises
cannot be questioned, but there are i'm
measurable areas on the very slopes OF
the Andes and draining into the ANA
zon basin which are to be developed
first.
The contribution of the two Anglo
Saxon areas of America to the solu-
ton of the agricultural problems of
Latin America is very definite. Canada
and the Northwest of the United States
form the laboratory OF the temperate
region and the once desert wastes OF
the Western United States OF the
tropics. But the greatest gift North
American agriculture has made to that
of Latin America has been machinery.
In the somewhat circumscribed field Of
agriculture this contribution has been
tremendous. The tractor, as applied to
agriculture-not to mention its other
uses-h1s revolutionized farming in
the temperate and subtropical regions,
and certainly in the tropics. No list
of the contributions of North American
manufa cturing to the uplift Of Latin
America is complete without figura-
tive wreath of laurel on the machine
which can go where no vehicle but an
OK cart could ever go before and, in
deed, with crawler tractors, into swamps
and over mountains where no OK could
pull load.
In the opening Of new lands, in the
tropics or in the temperate zone or on
the heights, North American earth
moving machinery has made possible
developments which without its help
would literally still be waiting for a
miracle. Through swamps and over
fra ckless wastes the mower shovel and
the "bulldozer" and the scraper and
grader have built not only the roads
but the very fields themselves.
Piows of All Types.
The list is endless, and not least are
North American plows, Of all the varied
types which long experience has evolved
here. A disk plow drawn by pair of
oxen, or a handmade wooden p1ow