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his influence in changing production, in diverting it to normal and profit- 

 able lines, is going to be enormous. 



All of his field work is going, gradually but surely, to force that 

 synthetic view upon him and enable him to do the work most needed by 

 each community. 



In my district, originally consisting of six counties, there are probably 

 400,000 acres of land today that is non-productive. All of this land is 

 adapted to but one or two types of farming at a profit. One is meat 

 production on lands which today are as bare of grass, almost, as this 

 carpet, but which can be gotten into grass at small expense; the other is 

 fruit, and fruit of the highest quality grown anywhere in the country. 



It is possible to swing that land back into production, to compel it 

 to bear its share of the burden of feeding this nation. It is possible to 

 do it, and we are going to do it in the long run. 



It is possible for the men in the more fertile districts, such as Chester 

 County, who are not holding up their end of the game, to get their hills 

 into grass. And where today there are practically no animals there could 

 be raised animals to ship into Philadelphia and help supply Philadelphia 

 with meat. 



There is there as elsewhere a tremendous synthetic possibility that 

 today is not understood but will be tomorrow; and it is going to have a 

 direct bearing on the total food supply of the nation. 



The Farm Bureau, as usually organized, is supported by three or four 

 institutions, one the United States Department of Agriculture; another, 

 State College, representing the agricultural side of the work; and the third, 

 almost invariably, a chamber of commerce of some city that is located 

 within the county. There is sometimes a fourth, the railroad or the rail- 

 roads of the particular district. 



The county agent, when he takes hold of the county work, is 

 promptly swallowed up by the farmers. They absorb all his time. Yet 

 he is partly paid by the chamber of commerce of the city. 



What value is he giving to the city today for the money it is spending 

 for his service? We have not found ourselves, but we are going to, on 

 this proposition, too. 



The average county agent is not seriously undertaking to supply his 

 local city with wholesome perishable products and to so standardize food 

 as to make it a certainty in the markets; which it is just as much his 

 duty to do as it is to increase production on the farms. 



He has not been doing this because he has been absorbed by the 

 farmer. The farmers have been so anxious to avail themselves of his 

 services that they have taken all his time; but he is going to realize, 

 sooner or later, that part of his time must be devoted to the problems 

 ajffecting the city; and for this reason. Go to any of the interior second- 

 class cities in Pennsylvania in the summer time, and you will find the 

 average produce and fruit exposed for sale in the groceries is stuff which 



