Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 293, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1914 — MARKETING WORLD'S GREATEST PROBLEM [ARTICLE]

MARKETING WORLD'S GREATEST PROBLEM

Wt ARE LONG 6n PRODUCTION, SHORT ON DISTRIBUTION. By Peter Radford Lecturer National Farmers’ Union. The economic distribution of farm products is today the world’s greatest problem and the war, while it has brought Its hardships, has clearly emphasized the importance of distribution as a factor in American agriculture and promises to give the farmers tbe” co-operation of the government and the business men the solution of their marketing problem. This result will in. a measure, compensate us for our war losses, for the business interests and government have been in the main assisting almost exclusively on the production side of agriculture While the department of agriculture has been dumping tons of literature on the farmer telling him flow to produce, the farmer has been dumping tons of products in the nation’s garbage can for want of a market. The World Will Never Starve. At no time since Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden have the inhabitants of this world suffered from lack of production, but some people have gone hungry from the day of creation to this good hour for the lack of proper distribution. Blight variations in production have forced a change in diet and one locality has felt the pinch of want while another surfeited, but the world as a whole ha* ever been a land of plenty. We now have less than one-tenth of the tillable land of the earth’s surface under cultivation, and we not only have this surplus area to draw on but it is safe to estimate that in case of dire necessity one-half the earth’s population could at the present time knock their living out of the trees of the forest, gather it from wild vines and draw it from streams. No one should become alarmed; the world will never starve. The consumer has always feared that the producer would not supply him and hi# (right has found expression on the statute books of our states and nations and the farmer has bet>n urged to produce recklessly and without reference tp a market, and regardless of the demands of the consumer. Back to the Boii. The city people have he" rr ztzz

eaca oaer to move oacx to tne rarm, but very few of them have moved. We«welcome our city cousins back to the soil and this earth’s surface contains 16,092,160,000 Idle acres of tillable land where they can make a living by tickling the earth with a forked stick, but we do not need them so far as increasing production is concerned; we now have all the producers we can use The city man has very erroneous ideas of agricultural conditions. The commonly accepted theory that we are short on production is all wrong. Our annual Increase in production far exceeds that of our Increase in population. The Worid as a Farm. Taking the world aa one big farm, we find two billion acres of land in cultivation Of this amount there is approximately 750.000,000 acres on the western and 1.260,000.000 acres on the eastern hemisphere, in cultivation. This estimate, of course, does not Include grazing lamds. forests, etc., where large quantities of meat are produced. The world’s ananal crop approximates fifteen btltion bushels of cereals, ' thirteen billion pounds of fibre ! and sixty-five million tons of meat 1 The average annual world crop for the past five years, compared with the previous five years, is as follows: Past Hlalf Previous Half Crops— Decaiie. Decade. Corn (Bu.) 3,934,374.000 3,403,655,000 Wheat (Bu.) 3,522*769,000 3,257,526,000 Oats (Bu.) 4,120)017,000 3.508.315,000 Cotton (Bales), 19*863,800 17,541,200 The world, shows an average Increase In cefreal production of 13 per cent during the past decade, compared with the previous five years, while the world’s population shows an increase of only three per cent. The gain in production far exceeds that of our increase in population, and It is safe to estimate that the fanner can easily Increase production 25 per cent if, a remunerative market can be found for the products. In textile fibres the world stows an Increase during the,;past half decade in production of 15, per cent Against a population increase of thr °e per cents ’ The people of thds nation should address tfnemselves to the subject of Improved) facilities f«r distribution.