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BETTER FRUIT 



The Farmer's Responsibility of the Great War 



By Clarence Dubose, Department of Agriculture 



THE war has given to the American 

 farmer the greatest responsibility, 

 the greatest privilege and the greatest 

 task any man or any class of men have 

 ever known. The American farmer in 

 large degree will determine the trend of 

 human history for all time to come, 

 because the enormous ultimate conse- 

 quences of this conflict rest primarily 

 upon the farmers' production of food 

 and feed to sustain the fighting forces. 

 They might fail even with an adequate 

 food supply; without it they are certain 

 to fail. But in his field, far from the 

 fury of battle, far from either the ad- 

 ventures or the horrors of the firing 

 line, the American farmer will say 

 whether autocracy or democracy shall 

 rule the world during the seasons that 

 are to come. 



In a sense the war will be won or 

 lost in the fields, gardens, orchards, 

 pastures and hog lots of the American 

 farmer. The hope of the American 

 citizen, not a farmer, also hinges upon 

 adequate agricultural production. Our 

 aeroplanes are useless, our guns are 

 spiked and our rfles jammed, our shells 

 are but as harmless baubles, if the 

 farmer fails. This must be understood 

 in all its grim force by every man, 

 woman and child in America; by farm- 

 ers and by those who are not farmers. 

 With food we can win the war. 

 Lack of food will lose the war. 

 Whether or not we produce the food 

 depends upon whether or not each and 

 every individual farmer does his level 

 best on his farm — produces its max- 

 imum. 



But the "agricultural problem" means 

 not merely the production of food- 

 stuffs and feedstuff's and live stock. It 

 means the conservation of the food 

 after it is produced. That puts the 

 "agricultural problem" squarely up to 

 everyone from the man on a forty-acre 

 field to the man whose fertile lands run 

 farther than he can see; from the tene- 

 ment cave-dweller to the occupant of 

 the costliest mansion. 



The agricultural problem today means 

 to every American, and indeed to every 

 civilized person on earth, simply 

 whether he shall, when this strife ends, 

 be .a free person in a free land or 

 whether he shall be bossed from Berlin. 

 That is the precise interest that you, 

 now reading these lines, have in the 

 agricultural problem in America today. 

 You may have been a farmer all your 

 life or you may not know the difference 

 between a straight furrow and a thresh- 

 ing machine — no matter what your con- 

 dition may be, one of the two divisions 

 of the agricultural problem is yours: to 

 produce food or to conserve food. 



Manx people have thought of the war 

 as "far away," as a remote, impersonal 

 thing, a sort of dreadful nightmare 

 hut not as a spectre menacing our im- 

 mediate persons and property. Our 

 appreciation of the actuality is more 

 poignant now, with our own flesh and 

 blood upon the firing line. That firing 

 line is in Prance today. It will come to 

 America if the farmer fails. No mat- 



ter what course military strategy may 

 take, the final battlefield of the war is 

 already fixed. The Waterloo of the 

 Prussian autocrat and all he stands for, 

 or the Waterloo of American liberty — 

 the end of autocracy or the end of 

 democracy — the end of Prussianism or 

 the end of freedom — will be wrought 

 on the battlefield of the American 

 farm — every American farm. 



But even victory there will not avail 

 if we lose in another equally fateful 

 battlefield — the American kitchen. If 

 we produce to the limit of farm re- 

 sources and energies and do not con- 

 serve what we produce we may lose 



Page ip 



by waste. No conceivable responsi- 

 bility could be more grave, no privilege 

 more proud, no opportunity more rich 

 for significant service than the Ameri- 

 can farmer has today. The war has 

 sounded a call to duty to every indi- 

 vidual throughout civilization. The 

 course of the individual life is not now 

 to be considered in terms of self. The 

 question dominating every individual is 

 for what service can he be used — what 

 can he best do to help win the war. To 

 some the call comes to march away 

 with uniform and gun, to some it comes 

 for the organization and administra- 

 tion of parts of the great war ma- 

 chine — to the American farmer comes 

 the call to feed the forces fighting for 

 liberty. To every other man, woman 

 and child comes the call to save. 



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Will Almost Run Your Place 



1 K FEATURES — invalu- 

 ^ able in orchards— make 

 this the needed tractor. 



No other tractor of the 

 track-laying type sells at so 

 low a price. And no other 

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The Bean TrackPULL 

 Tractor turns clear around 

 inside a 10- foot circle (5-foot 

 radius) , and it has full power 

 even on so short a turn. It 

 plows and harrows close up 

 in the corners, and right up 

 to the tree trunks. It goes 

 under branches only four 

 feet off the ground. The 

 fuel is far less than other 

 types doing the same amount 

 of work. 



When not in the field this 



tractor's 10 h. p. pulley runs 

 your stationary machines. 



Sooner or later you'll de- 

 cide, without doubt, that you 

 want a tractor to do these 

 things. 



So don't buy a tractor until 

 you know all the facts about this 

 remarkable agricultural aid. 



Before you turn this page 

 send for full information about 

 the Bean TrackPULL Tractor. 



BEAN TrackPULL Tractor 



6 H. P. at Drawbar 



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Name. 



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 Our low price of $1216 may have to be / 

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mty 



Win N WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



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