THE INTRODUCTION OF NEW CROPS 



CHARLES L. MEHARRY, Attica, Indiana 



HE story is told of two lumber jacks engaged in the perilous 

 job of rafting logs down a swollen and turbulent northern 

 stream. The current and rocks were too much for the 

 raft, and it broke up. Jim was plunged into the torrent. 

 After a mighty struggle he managed to reach the surface 

 with belly and lungs well nigh filled with ice-cold muddy 

 water. His voice registered excitement and despair: "Bill, hurry 

 quick or I'm a goner!" Jim grasped a stray log as it floated past, 

 but the strong swift current carried his legs and body beneath the 

 log and toward the surface of the water. Moreover, the log began 

 to roll. At great risk to his own life, Bill reached Jim's log and 

 was reaching for his collar when Jim caught sight of his own feet on 

 the other side of the log, where they had been driven up to the sur- 

 face by the sheer force of the current. Again Jim spoke, but this 

 time his voice indicated more self-control, and into his eye had come 

 a gleam of courage and self sacrifice. "Look there, Bill ! I think I 

 can hold on a bit longer. Try and save the poor hick on the other 

 side of the log. He's in head first!" 



Should we farmers not try to visualize the entire world in its 

 plight? May we not summon all our nerve and courage, and if 

 necessary a certain spirit of sacrifice; for is not human civilization 

 head first in the same muddy torrent of economic maladjustment 

 through which we are struggling ; and if she perish what is the use 

 of living? 



"Let us then be up and doing, 

 With a heart for any fate; 

 Still achieving, still pursuing, 

 Learn to labor and to wait." 



There is much talk of late about overproduction of our im- 

 portant cereals and agitation for the introduction of something new 

 to take their place. But the introduction of new crops needs more 

 justification than that usually advanced ; namely, that oats and corn 

 are no longer profitable. It may be proved that overproduction is 

 not troubling us so much as underconsumption, and he who heed- 

 lessly curtails his production may awake some day to find that our 

 statesmen and economists have succeeded in restoring the international 

 political and economic balance, and that a hungry world is again 



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