The Wilmington morning star., 1945-03-05

ing prophet. No one can read the
future, but, certainly one can see
what the trend is, and despite the
lack of labor and the hardships
which farmers will have to put up
with in 1945, they must look after
their home supplies Of food and
feed Louis Broomfield said in 1913,
I believe it was, that we would ap-
proach famine conditions by the
summer of that year. He didn't
know what he was talking about
because the farmers of America
broke all records for food produc-
ton up to that time and then went
on to break them again in 1914.
But they had good seasons. SO far
in this year, we have had no serious
drouths, nor any great insect or
disease outbreaks to affect our pro-
duction of food and feed crops. This
has been true now for seven
straight, successive years. 1t is
simply too good to last. We may be
in for the seven poor years of JOS
eph's day. 1t could not be as SER
ious with us as it was with ancient
Egypt because we have a greater
diversity of soils and climate over
this nation and are not dependent
solely upon rains at the upper
reaches of a river.
But we could be hurt and hurt
badly if something happened to the
normal food supplies of the nation.
North Carolina should never want
for anything. From the seashore
at Wilmington to the. tops of the
mountains, we have soils, climate,
rainfall in such variance that some
groups, somewhere, will have good
crops. We can grow anything that
can be grown anywhere else in
the nation and then something
more. Our orators have told us that
time and time again. The thing we
must do, however, to think through
the situation as it might affect our
own, individual farms and then
make our plans SO that we shall not
want on any farm. Then we also
have an obligation towards the fam
lily in town that normally buys the
surplus which we product. Society
is so divided that some of us make
our living on the farm from the
land, while others make their liv-
ing manufacturing or trading in the
things which we need or in hand
ling the things which we produce.
We, therefore, have RESPONSE
bility to see that these persons do
not suffer from lack of nutritious
food.
Reports indicate that we plan to
increase our production of corn
this year by using good seed, by
fertilizing with more nitrogen, and
by better cultivation. We have bet
ter pastures for our livestock be-
cause we have used ground lime
stone and phosphates upon them
and they will turn out more gal
Ions of milk, more pounds Of beef
and more eggs and broilers. Vic
tory gardens are off to a good start
in the states to the south of us.
In some of the states, governors
have issued proclamations urging
all citizens to plant gardens and
to husband the surplus. Reports
from all parts of North Carolina
indicate that we shall have as many
home gardens this year as we had
last year. This is good as far as it
goes; but, the fact remains that we
did not have many gardens last
year as we should have had. The
town people fell down on this job
a little and if they are wise, they
will remedy the situation in 1915.
And just this one other word
about food supplies. We are going
to need all kinds of foods. Meat
will be almost impossible to get
later on. If we are to be properly
fed, we must have fresh vegetables,
peas, beans and other vegetables