Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 223, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1918 — PRODUCTION NOW BIG FOOD PROBLEM [ARTICLE]

PRODUCTION NOW BIG FOOD PROBLEM

By Dr. Harry E. Barnard.

Federal Food Administrator for Indiana

With the growing shortage of farm labor, the food problem resolves itself largely into one of maintaining maximum production. The Federal Food Administration is committed to the support of the program of the United States department of agriculture which is asking Indiana farmers to Increase their wheat acreage for 1919 17 per cent, and &t the same time continue the intensive effort to increase production per acre. The harvest of the corn crop is one of the present Issues before the agricultural community, and every patriotic Hoosier available will make it his business to contribute his part. His part means his work, not just his sympathy. The salvation of the unprecedented yield of tomatoes has become as important a task in Indiana as the purchase of thrift stamps and liberty bonds. It ranks with a prompt registration and report under the selective conscription law. The tomatoes are absolutely necessary to the success of the crusade for freedom and democracy and except that every man, .woman and child in Indiana realize that it is a part of his business, where the opportunity affords, to help pick, peel and pack the tomatoes, his patriotism will not assay 100 per cent when the test comes. The federal government has requisitioned one-third of the Indiana tomato pack, in a realization of the importance of canned tomatoes in the soldiers’ rations. The United States Boys* Working Reserve in Indiana, is one of the dependable supports of the farm labor line. There are, In the state, thousands of boys who have pledged themselves to assist in the patriotic work of tilling the soil. During the planting season, since school dismissed In the spring, they have demonstrated their usefulness, their ability and their right to claim succession to their elders who have left the farm for the training camp. The boys jielped save the sugar beets in northern Indiana and southern Michigan; they plowed corn, shocked wheat and oats and have, in large measure, relieved* their elders of the responsibility for doing farm chores, which added to the time every man might spend engaged in the heavier work of crop production. Indiana farmers in many counties already have been educated to look to the Boys’ Reserve for emergency help. They have done so profitably, satisfactorily and successfully. In other counties business men have banded together in a mutual agreement to close their stores, where

necessary to save the crops. “Shock troops” have * helped wherever they have; been formed, and thousands o dollars’ worth of grain and hay that might have been lost, have been saved to the nation’s supply through the willingness and organized readiness of volunteers. But for a successful program that will take care of the requirements over the possibly long period of-time during which the government must draw more and more heavily on the labor supply, it is essential thgt every producer look ahead. He must accept the untrained youth between fifteen and eighteen yean of age and teach him the rudiments of agricultural work. He must be patient and painstaking, and accept the boys as the aaly labor obtainable and realize that -tie can do his full duty to the fighters in France only by making the best of the situation at home and devoting himself wholeheartedly and without restraint to the task of producing food props. Arrangements are being made whereby school officials will permit boys of the Reserve to absent themselves from school to help in the corn harvest. Farmers, canners and others engaged in this important war duty who may be In need of help are urged to write to Isaac D. Straus, federal state director of the U. 8. Boys’ Working Reserve, 83 State House, Indianapolis, Ind., for direction's as to how to secure the assistance of the agency by means of which the federal government expects to maintain the production of food.

Indiana is allotted 12,276,000 pounds of sugar for September. This makes certain that there will be sufficient for all patriotic canners who are. willing to abide by the regulations and not abuse the canning privilege to secure more than their fair share of sugar for ordinary consumption. The food administration encourage* maximum canning with a minimum of sugar. M. Zendal, a Lafayette grocer, was closed for a week; A* C. Foerster, a Batesville grocer, was deprived of 1,000 pounds of sugar, and O. M. Jeffries, a Union City bottler, was permitted to pay S2OO to the local Red Cross, for violating the sugar regulations during the past weekIndiana Candy manufacturers have been asked to adopt a regulation similar to that agreed to by ,New York manufacturers -to limit candy sales to one pound per customer during the sugar shortage.