Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1918 — MUST HAVE HELP ON THE FARMS [ARTICLE]

MUST HAVE HELP ON THE FARMS

Corn Not All Gathered and Spring Work Upon Us. GRAVE SITUATION FACES US By Reason of Shortage of Fann Ijahor and the Necessity for Raising Large Crops. One fact in connection with the war with which we are now face to face, is that of sufficient help for the farms. If the production of the year 1918 is to be what it must be to supply the needs of our soldiers and the civilian population, as well as the needs of our allies, some steps must be taken at once to provide help for the farms of this country. This fact was demonstrated to the writer as never before while returning from Louisville last Saturday. We came by way of Jeffersonville over the Pennsylvania, through Seymour, Columbus, Edinburg, Franklin and Indianapolis, passing through the heart of two of Indiana’s great corn producing counties—Johnson and Bartholomew. South of Seymour crops were quite generally poor, from evidences yet remaining from last year, the corn stalks being ghort and about the size of one’s thumb. In fact, the land Is poor. In about Seymour the crops were much better and continued so on through Bartholomew and Johnson counties, yet there is a great deal of corn yet remaining in the fields, perhaps fully 75 per cent of the acreage of last year’s standing corn being unhusked. 'Much of this is broken down and will be slow work gathering. Very little or none of the shocked corn has been husked as yet, the shocks still remaining in the fields. There had apparently been more snow in that part of the state than here, but it is all gone now and the farmers are once more in the fields trying to get the corn in before the spring work opens up. In marked contrast with the section lying this side of Indianapolis and where a large portion of the corn has not h een gathered, one frequently saw two and three teams in one field. However, it was only on rare occasions Where one saw more than one team, in a field south of Indianapolis. While in Indianapolis we met at the Union station a business man from London, Ohio, and commmenting on the situation as it appeared, he assured us that the .same condition prevailed throughout eastern Indiana and Ohio, and stated that there jnany of the oats would be dnit hurriedly scratched in among

'the corn shocks this spring on account of the great scarcity of help, as it will be fully six weeks before the farmers can get ready for the spring work. The same condition prevails in Jasper county, but perhaps to a lesser extent, and all of Indiana, and some remedy must be found for it. The plan to close the public schools as early as possible will, of course, release a large number of boys for farm work, but this will not anywhere near prove adequate. There can be but one solution to this problem, and that is that we must all work longer and harder; where we have had convenience we must expect some inconvenience. There are too many clerks in the stores and too many helpers in the shops, and some of these must go to the farms. There are entirely too many loafers about the towns, and these must be made to abandon their idle lives and go to work on the farms. We are now face to face with a shortage in food supplies as a result of curtailed production last year in other countries, and that being' the case, what can we expect this year with hundreds and thousands of the young men who halve heretofore worked on the farms now in the service of their country? Unless their places are taken by others there can not help but be a shortage in production

such as we have never experienced before. The Democrat is not an alarmist, but these conditions should make every one sit up and take notice. With March 1 at hand and the great amount of corn ungathered at this time, it certainly should cause people to ponder over what the next harvest will be, for we can’t harvest a crop unless we plant it, and the acreage planted this spring will necessarily be the smallest by millions that we have planted in a score of years, while the demands will be the greatest ever known.