REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 13 



All the administrative agencies of the Government have been at 

 work with vigor and good judgment to help overcome the farm 

 troubles, through enlarging consumption at home, extending abroad 

 the markets for the farm surplus, promoting the readjustment of 

 production so far as practicable, gathering and making known infor- 

 mation concerning world consumption and production, and in innu- 

 merable other ways which it is not necessary to set forth here but 

 which will be dealt with later in this report. 



NEED OP FURTHER IMPROVEMENT. 



Notwithstanding the progress made toward better times, and not- 

 withstanding all that has been done so well by both legislative and 

 administrative agencies, it ought to be understood clearly that there 

 is still room for much improvement in the state of agriculture and 

 that we can not reasonably expect to attain to that condition of 

 national prosperity for which we hope so earnestly until the farm 

 group, which comprises about 30 per cent of our total population 

 gets its fair share of the national income and is able to sell the prod- 

 ucts of its labor at prices fairly relative to prices of what it buys. 

 Industry, commerce, and industrial labor may prosper for a time at 

 the expense of agriculture, as indeed they have during the past three 

 years, but the longer that continues the more hurtful to the Nation 

 will be the results. The truth of the statement that in the United 

 States national prosperity must rest on a sound and prosperous 

 agriculture stands unchallenged. 



Producers of those crops which are practically all consumed at 

 home are in the main finding themselves able to make such readjust- 

 ments as are necessary to meet changing markets and prices and 

 are doing so with a courage that commands admiration. In the 

 case of some crops time will be required to make these readjust- 

 ments, especially in regions remote from markets which were brought 

 under production because of favorable freight rates covering long 

 distances. The advance in freight rates has worked great hardship 

 in some of these regions, and if maintained will make necessary a 

 change of markets or of crops. By and large, however, growers 

 of home-consumed crops will gradually adapt themselves to changed 

 conditions, even though at considerable loss. 



