XIII 

 FORTUNES IN AGRICULTURE 



PROBLEMS AS WELL AS CROPS always have been harvested by 

 American farmers. For years they sought to expand produc- 

 tion to feed more people. In 1800 one farmer could supply 

 food for less than six persons. A little over one hundred years 

 later one farmer could feed eighteen persons. Then in the 

 1930*8 the problem of surpluses plagued farmers, and produc- 

 tion was curtailed in order to raise prices. 



Today farmers and the government face the tough problem 

 of increasing the production of many foods needed by our 

 fighting men, civilian workers, and allies. In 1942 farm out- 

 put hit an all-time high. What will happen to this tremendous 

 productive capacity after the war? Will the problem of sur- 

 pluses again plague the farmer? 



Since 1935 the National Farm Chemurgic Council has 

 spread the word that the "farm problem" can be solved in 

 part by finding nonfood uses for crops through chemurgy 

 "chemistry at work for the farmer." In 1939 the United 

 States Department of Agriculture established the first of four 

 Regional Research Laboratories at Peoria, Illinois. Other 

 laboratories are at New Orleans, Philadelphia, and near San 

 Francisco. 



"Future historians," wrote David Dietz, Scripps-Howard 

 science editor, "may look back to the establishment of these 

 laboratories as the most important event of 1939. They will 

 seek to solve the farm problem in the only way that scientists 



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