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ORGANIZED AGRICULTURE AND ITS PROBLEMS. 

 (Clifford Thorne.) 



During the past year there has been a world wide depression, affecting 

 practically all lines of industry. The farmer has shared in these conditions. 

 In this country he has probably suffered more than those engaged in most 



of the other lines of activity. The situation 

 in American agriculture today is probably 

 worse than that which has existed during any 

 previous year of the present generation. In 

 stating that fact, we must not forget that 

 500,000 railroad employees have been dis- 

 charged and deprived of their daily means of 

 livelihood during the past year, while you still 

 have the means with which to get your food 

 and most of the necessities of life. We must 

 not forget that there are millions of people In 

 China, in Russia, and in other countries that 

 are literally starving at the present moment; 

 and we must not forget that the army of the 

 unemployed even in the United States runs 

 into the millions. 



Today we are passing through that after- 

 the-war reconstruction period which follows 

 every important struggle. It followed the 

 Napoleonic Wars in Europe; it fol'owed our 

 War of 1812; it followed the Civil War; and a 

 similar condition of affairs has followed every 

 other great war in history. I am not one of 

 Clifford Thorne. those who can be classified as pessimistic. This 



is only a temporary situation. It is only a 



question of a few months or a few years until conditions will be substantially 

 restored as they were prior to the war. But it will be a mistake if we let 

 this experience go by without learning lessons for the future. It is during 

 times of readjustment, when we apply the acid test to methods and policies 

 of the past, that great progress is generally brought about. Let us make a 

 sort of appraisal of things as they are and as they have been to see what 

 lessons we should learn for our guidance in the future. 



The production, transportation and sale of farm products and your 

 purchases of the necessities of life constitute the grand divisions of the 

 questions confronting you. In this discussion I can only touch upon a few 

 of the outstanding facts. 



A PROBLEM OF PRODUCTION. 



First, as to production: It would be folly for me to offer suggestions 

 to you practical men as to what improvements you can make in the produc- 

 tion of your products. But allow me to make just one brief suggestion. The 

 manufacturers of the country are organized into large units; they study de- 

 velopments in this country and throughout the world and the probable 

 demand for their products in the future. As a rule, the farmer has relied 

 too much upon his own personal choice and his individual experience as to 

 what he shall produce and what he shall not produce. The day has come 

 when he must collectively, with his associates, study, through the very best 

 experts obtainable, the world conditions, the tendencies of the times, what 

 other nations are producing, and what are the probable consumptive pros- 

 pects in this and other countries for all the principal crops. This is all true, 

 and yet you should not form an exaggerated impression of the necessity for 

 control of production. We find that the average production of livestock in 

 this country per capita thirty years ago was over 30 per cent greater than it 

 is today. We find that the production of grain per capita forty years ago was 



