Evening star., 1943-04-13
Labor and Machiner,
Shortages Plague
Corn Belt Farmers
Highly Trained Help
Is Needed Most at
Planting Time
By the Associated Prass.

By the Associated Press.
CHICAGO, April 13-Shortages
of manpower and machinery are
twin wartime locusts plaguing the
Corn Belt farmer.
But, as Donald kirkpatrick of the
it, THE American farmer has a
knack of making the best of things
and can be relied on to do the job
expected of him."
The job expected of him this year
in the 12-State Corn Belt is to pro-
duce food, and the products that go
into food, as he never has done
before.
His corn must grow tall and heavy
to feed hogs for pork. lard and
bacon. His grains must fatten more
beef cattle and his dairy herds must
provide greater quantities of butter
fat for butter, cheese and condensed
milk.
Midwest farm leaders estimate
that 80 per cent of the vital foods
needed for Americas fighting men
and for lease-lend to the United
Nations will be produced in the fer
tile North Central States.
Conservation Program Set Up.
Because non-food crops never re-
ceived much attention among Corn
Belt farmers, they have little non
food crop lands, such as cotton and
tobacco, to divert to corn and grains.
They hope to achieve their goals by
planting greater acreages.
A 10-year program of soil con-
servation has come to the aid of
the Midwestern farmer in this
pinch. John j. Lacey, information
director of the American Farm Bu-
reau Federation, says. This pro-
gram, embracing rotation of crops
to restore fertility, gives farmers
thousands of acres which tempo
rarily can be withdrawn from ro-
tation and planted to foods.
Mr.. Kirkpatrick says most of the
proposed methods of easing the
manpower shortage lose sight of the
Corn Belts specific problems since
attention has been centered on the
harvest.
Our problem is not so much find
ing men to harvest our crops as it
is to find men to plant them" he
declares. Our planting season is
comparatively short, while the har-
vest of a crop like corn can be
spread over three or four months.
In vegetable and fruit areas the
short harvest season puts the big
pull on manpower."
Skilled Labor Needed.
The products of the Middle West,
moreover, require skilled handling
and the men who work the land
need more than two good hands and
strong back, assets that would
carry on average workman through
a harvest of sugar beets or potatoes.
Hence, MidWeSterners say, hap
hazard recruiting of workers would
Cffer no solution to the North Cen
trail States manpower difficulties.
Machines in great numbers and
varieties work the corn belt lands,
and their operation can't be en-
trusted to the inexperienced
Women and children can lend a
helpful hand, as they have been do
i2g, with farm garden and orchard
Clc-cS but only in remote instances
s~e they qualified to operate ma
chimes, farm leaders say
The valuable dairy herds of Wis
consin demand scientific feeding,
milking and care. Sanitation regu-
lations are eXacting, The Wiscon-
sin farmer, according to that States
Board Of Agriculture, needs helpers
who are specialists and do not re-
ouire constant supervision-itiner-
ant farm workers or emergency
manpoWer recruited from the cities
are of little or no help with his
primary work.
Corn Belt farmers consider the re-
lease of men over 38 from military
service beneficial to the manpower
problem, but feel real solution
could be approached through gen.
eral furloughing of farm youths
back home for the farming season.
The armed services would not suffer
from such a system, the farmers
say, since a vast number of these
youths merely would be in camps
awaiting transportation facilities to
take them to the fronts.
Students to Help.
City folk are expected to con-
tribute real help to truck farmers
near populous centers and to supply
periodic aid to crop farmers. Vari-
Gus States have set up ambitious
programs to tap this labor supply.
Young men from marginal farms
In Northern Wisconsin have been
trained and assigned jobs on highly
productive dairy farms in southern
areas. County agricultural agents,
working with civic and school Of
ficials in areas where there have
been manpower pinches, have ar
ranged to get boys and girls onto
farms during the summer and in
some instances have organized small
town businessmen into farm aid
groups during the harvest season.
Minnesota has program to train
high school youths, and some Iowa
farmers favor program that would
utilize retired farmers and high
school pupils. An Iowa State Col
lege survey showed there were from
$4,000 to $1,000 city and town boys
under II who could be trained and
supervised by retired farmers who
aren't physically able to do the work.
The machinery shortage in the
Corn Belt is termed "deplorable" by
Mrs. kirkpatrick, who says the in
dustry has been handled poorly in
the conversion to war production.
The farmer is making the best of
what ne has by repairing, re-
conditioning it and in general tax
ing good care of that in service.
Equipment Pooled.
Harry D. Linn, Iowa State Secre-
tary of Agriculture, declares there
is a serious shortage of labor-saving
machinery, vital now more than
ever because of the shortage of
fsrmhan0S, He and spOkeSmen from