TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 577 



again, but those things ought to be foreseen, and it seems to me that 

 possibly one solution of it is this, to develop a world market informa- 

 tion service which will give us as accurately as we can get it the trend 

 of production in all countries, and the trend of consumption of raw agri- 

 cultural products. That is something we have very little on in the way 

 of actual facts. It is strange how much we go by hearsay in those mat- 

 ters. Why, even the Chicago Board of Trade will take rumors very 

 often. I remember one last summer — they said they had had rain in 

 Argentine when they needed it very much, and that rumor affected the 

 price of wheat, and it was found the next day that the rain was not in 

 the wheat belt of Argentine. That sort of thing ought not to occur. We 

 ought to be able to know by cable just as soon as a rain happens in any 

 part of the world sufficient to affect the price of products. I have had 

 a feeling that there was need of developing some kind of world market 

 information service which would give the trend of production of these 

 great agricultural commodities. We might just as well have the facts, 

 and if we find that there is some country producing something cheaper 

 than we can produce it and put it on our market, we want to know it, 

 and we want to know it far enough ahead to make adjustments, either to 

 secure protection of a political nature thru a protective tariff, if it is 

 advisable; or if it is not advisable adjust our production on that basis. 

 South American Competition. 



There are several ports of the world that need watching by the 

 American farmer very closely. In the first place, in South America, a 

 territory much like this Mississippi valley forty or fifty years ago, and 

 you knov/ the development that has taken place in the past forty or fifty 

 years. It is not only showing great competency in raising live stock and 

 grain but they are now taking up the production of cotton very success- 

 fully. It is now thought that they will develop cotton culture in the 

 northern part of Argentine, which has a climate much like our southern 

 states. 



Can they raise cattle in competition with our cattle? If so, we ought 

 to know that. We ought to know whether there is a tendency to develop 

 cattle production on a large scale during the next twenty years. We 

 ought to know whether their, packing houses are developing, and their 

 ability to get onto the European market in competition to American prod- 

 ucts. Is that developing so that they can come in competition with our 

 products. We must know those things, because that directly affects the 

 American farmer and his products. 



We know from experience that they can develop hogs down there 

 very successfully, but they do not develop enough corn, so we do not have 

 to worry so much about that matter yet. 



There is a great competitor slowly developing on the South American 

 continent. 



Then we have New Zealand and Australia. Before the war Russia 

 furnished to Europe 15,000,000 tons of grain annually, almost half of the 

 imports of Europe. The coming of Russia into the markets of the world 

 again is a matter of the greatest vital importance to the grain producers 

 of this country, and we ought to be w^atching it carefully and forecast- 

 ing its coming back two or three years ahead. I don't know what our 



