16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



number of these boys on his farm, and believes that there is a 

 great future in this kind of help, provided it has the proper 

 supervision and the farmers are sympathetic. 



It is the hope of the State Committee on Mobilization of 

 School-Boy Labor to place very large numbers of boys from our 

 schools upon the farms this year under similar arrangements as 

 last year, and in anticipation of the demand the work is being 

 now organized upon an extensive scale. The United States 

 Department of Agriculture is planning to place a labor agent in 

 our State this year whose work will largely be in listing and 

 placing all possible labor on farms. In this work towns and 

 cities should assist b}^ appointing agents to list all labor, even 

 though such persons may not be able to work all the time. 

 The use of women on our farms should be encouraged, for in 

 much of the work they can certainly take the place of men. 

 If many non-essential industries were given up during the sum- 

 mer season this would release large numbers of both men 

 and women who could undoubtedly assist greatly in our agricul- 

 tural production. 



Another source of labor which should receive attention, par- 

 ticularly from the national government, is that of the Chinese 

 coolie. Already over 10,000 of these laborers have been sent to 

 France on a labor contract. There is an unlimited supply of 

 these men in China who could be imported under a contract 

 system for the duration of the war, and good results obtained. 



Some of the things of which I have spoken are decidedly 

 radical, but war imposes conditions upon us of which in times 

 of peace we think but little. Our big job now is to win the war. 

 War demands large quantities of food. Food production de- 

 mands, above all, labor. Are we going to sacrifice the winning 

 of the war to conservative notions about labor? If we do we 

 are more than likely to prolong the war to such an extent that 

 it will result in a draw, and our children will have this all to 

 do over again. 



Fertilizers. 



That the prices of fertilizers for the coming spring are to be 

 advanced about 50 per cent there is no doubt. Whether such 

 a large increase is justified is a question which could be de- 

 termined only by very careful study of all the circumstances in 



