Milford chronicle., 1948-11-05

LlS 4OOu IudL mas
been produced on
the farms of the
world. Hundreds of
PATTERSON millions Of humans
are hungry. Mil
lions die for lack of food each year
in such lands as Japan, China, In
dia and other nations. While they
died food rotted on American farms
because Of a lack of funds with
which to buy.
1T is NOT an insurmOuntabIe
task to finance the purchase Of
food for such hungry people and
doing that job would add to the
collective strength, and ability
to pay, Of the people of those
lands. America can lead the
way to such a result. It can be
done at no permanent cost to
ourselves.
WITH AN ASSURED MARKET,
at a profitable price, the American
farmer will protect his farm against
those things that mean deprecia-
tion and erosion. He will do all of
the things that mean increased
crops because there is a market
for additional produce.
IN ADDITION, there are millions
of acres that can be made far more
productive than they are today. In
North Dakota there are a large
number Of dry bowls that, in the
distant past, were fresh water
lakes. 1t should be a comparatively
simple irrigation job to fill those
hundreds of dry lake bowls from
the flood waters of the Missouri
river. The lakes would become res
ervOirs, supplying water for North
DakOta's dry acres. Instead of z
to possibly II bushels of wheat to
. the acre, there would be a yield
comparable to that Of the abundant
Red River valley.
THAT is ONLY ONE example of
supplying water where water is
needed and increasing American
farm production by changing from
dry to wet farming methods. There
is a vast acreage of dry farming
land in Montana that can be sup
piled with water from the Yellow
stone river. The spring foodwaters
OF the Platte, the North Platte, and
the Arkansas rivers can be stored
in reservoirs to insure greatly in
creased production from the dry
farms Of Nebraska, Kansas, Okla
homa and eastern Colorado.
THERE ARE A MILLION and
more farms on which dry farming
methods are utilized, that could be
turned into a far more bountiful
production by irrigation. This could
be done with water that now lends
itself only to destruction.
The water would come from
the spring floods when water is
Overabundant. Holding il would
stop much Of the wash of ton
soil into the sea. Directing il
into reservoirs, or the dry lake
bowls in North Dakota, would
save a considerable portion of
the damage those uncontrolled
waters are responsible for in
the Mississippi valley.
BUT WHY WORRY about ways
and means Of producing more food
until the farmers are assured Of a
market for all they can provide
at a profitable price.
WE MAY NOT call it appease-
ment, but when we meekly bow to
the Russian decree that we cannot
drive American trucks, loaded with
supplies for American troops and
for those Berlin Germans for whom
we are responsible, over the high
way leading from the American con-
trolled section Of Germany into Ber-
lin, it sounds and smells very much
like appeasement. If that is 'being
tough" we need something stronger
in our dealings with Moscow. A
fiat mo" to Soviet demands might
help more than finding a way to
evade such demands.
THERE ARE A SMALL, minority
Of farmers whose interest in gov
ernment is only what the govern
ment will give them for nothing.
AS a class the American farmer
prefers to stand on his own feet:
to take the chances that other pro.
ducers take, but he objects to be-
ing Disseminated against, or to be
fed on flowery, meaningless words.
To picture him in the something
for nothing" class is an insult to his
good citizenship, and he resents it.
Politicians should know the real
farmer.