318 JoiRXAI, OF THE DePARTMENT OP AGEICULTtJRE. OcT., 1^22. 



price of silk, and after wliicli the ])rice level in all cjmmodities began 

 fo decline: williin the next year a similar decline was seen in Eng- 

 land, followed almost simultaneously in France, Italy, the United 

 States, Germany, India, Canada, Sweden, Holland, and Australia. 

 In a short space r)f lime all four (juarters of the globe were affected. 



The American View. 



In the United States the great rush of descending prices touched 

 every industry and every class of people. A Joint Commission was 

 appointed in that country to investigate the condition of the agricul- 

 tural industry as a result of the crisis that had arisen, and the first 

 l)ait of its report* based on exhaustive consideration of masses of data 

 (and which is made use of in this article), is of particular interest 

 to farmers in South Africa, for it refers to conditions that also exist 

 here, the amelioration of which will alone bring relief to the troubles 

 that have overtaken us. 



The report describes the processes that operate during periods of 

 prosperity and of depression, and how these periods alternate. 

 Believing that the country is now emerging from the latter, the 

 commission recommends various steps that will bring about renewed 

 prosperity and greater stability in the agricultural industry, and it 

 is in the summing up of the position in the United States that much 

 is said that applies equally well to conditions in the Union. 



On the whole, it was not considered that overproduction or ovei'- 

 nuirketing of farm products led to the decline of prices in the United 

 States, but that the first downward impulse in prices of live stock and 

 pioduce was given by the diminishing demand for export resulting 

 from the failing purchasing power of the world. Consumption of 

 wheat, beef, mutton, and dairy products tell off during the period of 

 depression, and this contributed to and accelerated the decline in the 

 prices of these commodities. 



The Road to Prosperity. 



After revie\\ing the trend of agriculture in the I'nited States 

 ovei' a number of years, the report states that a definite programme 

 is needed for tlu; future with a view to relating agriculture with the 

 various agencies of distribution in such a way as to avoid duplication, 

 waste, and loss in the common purpose to deliver the products of the 

 farm to the consumer in the most economical and efficient way. For 

 this purpose a more extended and prompt system of agricultural 

 statistics is necessary, and when it is remembered that the system 

 already o])erating in the United States is the most extensive in the 

 world, it will lip realized how dependent organization is on reliable 

 statistics and forecasts. To i)rocurc sucli statistics there must be a 

 basis of standardization of agricultural i)roducts and containers (a, 

 matter sadly lacking in South Africa). Such standardization is like- 

 wise essential to any adequate schenu) of marketing and distributing 

 farm products if unnecessary waste and losses are to be avoided. 

 ])istribution will be greatly facilitated by sc.und and practical 

 standards and grades applied to agricultural products in commerce. 



*" The Agricultural Crisis and its Cause" (Report No. 4US). Government Printing 

 Office, Washington. 



