( 36 ) 



The increase in the number of auctions and of farms chang- 

 ing hands that inevitably accompanies the acceleration of 

 these retirements is neither an index of a shortage of labor 

 nor an indication of prospective food shortages. Most of these 

 farms will continue to be going enterprises. They will be 

 taken over by aggressive men and will be operated efficiently. 

 Since there is no shortage of men looking for good farms or 

 looking for more good land in our productive areas, their 

 urban cousins need not be disturbed by the sharp rise in the 

 number of farm sales that occurred in 1942 and will continue 

 into 1943 and 1944. The common explanation will continue to 

 be a "shortage of labor." A more complete explanation would 

 be the high average age of present operators and their rising 

 incomes that permit retirement. 



Labor Policy Reversed 



The nation's farm labor policy has changed with passing 

 time, as has the policy on farm production. 



In the early stages of the war, the policy was to draft farm 

 labor indiscriminately. Ten years of surplus psychology had 

 sold the nation on the idea that production was not a prob- 

 lem, and that additional requirements on the food supply 

 could be met without difficulty. Local draft boards of city- 

 minded people had no reason to believe that they should ex- 

 empt farm labor when their stores were filled with signs 

 marked "Surplus Foods/' "Victory Specials," and the like, 

 all bearing some official insignia of the Federal government. 



Farm labor was drafted not only by the army, but also by 

 industry. During the depression the normal migration from 

 farm to city was dammed up. With the revival of industry 

 and advancing city wages, there was a rapid shift from farm 

 to factory. Surplus workers and some of the necessary farm 

 workers quickly shifted to the cities. 



As the food problem became acute, the national policy on 



