The people's voice., 1943-06-18
SOUTH NOT YET
GROWING ENOUGH
VITAL WAR CROPS
Non-Essential Crops
Absorb Bulk of Farm
Effort AS Cotton Bloc
Resists Conversion To
Critical War Needs.

| Although the south has half of the
nations farmland, half of the farm
population, 80 per cent of the crop
land, and uses &C per cent of the fer
tilizer, it is contributing much less
than its fair share of the war crops
needed for victory, an article in the
current issue of the Southern PA
TROIT, out May 81, says.
Built around the theme of Food
for Freedom" the latest issue of the
PATRIOT, published by the Southern
Conference of Human Welfare in
Nashville, asserts that despite its
plentiful resources, the south supplies
only 19 per cent of the nations milk,
"a per cent of the beef, 1S per cent
of the pork, 25 per cent of the truck
crops, and II per cent of the corn
Much Land Lies Idle
The article points out that at the
time of the last census, only 63 per
cent of the available cropland in the
south was actually used, while 81 per
cent remained idle.
Moreover, 40 per cent of the crop
land in cultivation is devoted to the
production of cotton and tobacco
which are already on hand in such
great quantities as to make further
heavy production a waste of re-
sources.
In an adjoining article in the PA
TRIOT, the National Cotton Council
is scored as behind "a spectacle of
waste and absenteeism without coun-
terpart in industry"
Southern farmers with sons in the
Army will be interested to know how
they have been misled by those who
have proved themselves more willing
to oppose the war effort than to sub
their personal commitments
to cotton production, cotton process
ing and cotton marketing" the article
states.
Surplus Crops Absorb Manpower
One-third of the manpower in agri-
culture or two-and-one-half times as
much labor as is absorbed by wheat,
truck crops, peanuts and soybeans
combined is devoted to the production
Of these two surplus crops.
ut is interesting to note that the
United Nations have had to divert
100000 tons of shipping capacity from
war runs to Australia and Pacific
bases in order to import little more
Chilean nitrates than is represented
by the nitrogen dressings on cotton
and tobacco lands" the article asserts. |
The articles quotes with approval |
President Wingate of the Georgia |
Farm Bureau Federation who told a
committee, 1--WE cannot |
,at surplus cotton. We cannot eat |
obacco. We have got to grow food"
Miraculous possibilities for increas-
ng food production lie in the appli-
,ation of heavy phosphate fertilizer,
he PATRIOT says in an article on
ecent disclosures in the senate by
he Hon. Lister Hill 3D., Ala). In a
TVA-sponsored program that has
proved itself year after year on more
han 10000 farms located in 20 states,
PRODUCTION per acre has been in
reased 80 per cent or more WITH
)UT using either more labor or more
The sole cause has been
Ieavier use of phosphate fertilizer,
light to Is times as much per acre
s the present average on the nations
arms.
Production ArtficialIy Restricted
The only obstacle to an immediate
nd expanding application of these
iscoveries all over the country, ac-
ording to Senator Hill, is an artificial
estriction of supplies by selfish fer
ilizer interests. DR.. Harcourt Nor
an estimates that every pound of
applied to the soil would,
nder average farming production,
ield two-and-one-half pounds of extra
eef or 20 pounds of additional milk.
Continued on Page Four)