122 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



ELIMINATION OF WASTE A PATRIOTIC DUTY 



Collin Campbell, Director Editorial Bureau, Portland Cement Association 



Stopping waste will at once place this country 

 on a basis of war time economy. That act alone 

 would go far towards paying all war costs without 

 interfering in the least with customary expenditures 

 of the people. It is the logical thing to do and if 

 done business will go on as usual. 



Production is important. It is an urgent prob- 

 lem, and yet it is no more urgent than the problem 

 of conserving that production in a way that will give 

 to the people the fullest measure of use. Who will 

 say that fire loss is necessary? Who will say that it 

 cannot be prevented? When products on the farm 

 are needlessly destroyed by fire through neglect to 

 construct fireproof buildings, all expenditure in 

 both time and money towards greater production 

 has been destroyed. Stopping this stupendous fire 

 waste is a matter toward which efforts should now 

 be directed. Although fire is always calamitous, in 

 war times it is even more so, for the losses sustained 

 can be ill-borne and the burdens thereby developed 

 are added to the country's war responsibilities. 



Barns, elevators, warehouses, canning factories, 

 cereal mills and other places where the raw prod- 

 ucts are kept until turned into food for ourselves 

 and our allies should be so constructed as to insure 

 the greatest degrees of safety possible. It is just 

 as patriotic to exercise care in the sound construc- 

 tion of these buildings as it is to make our acres 

 produce greater crops. 



Waste may be eliminated in other ways. The 

 man who owns 80 acres of land and permits 20 of it 

 to remain idle because of poor drainage is wasting. 

 Drainage would very soon put that 20 acres in crop 

 producing condition and so increase the production 



of soil that the cost of the drainage system would 

 soon be paid for by the products of the soil, ulti- 

 mately placing the 20 acres in a condition to add 

 to the world's supply of food each season. Better 

 drainage will lessen land waste and is therefore a 

 patriotic duty. 



Still another way of eliminating waste is by 

 getting a greater amount of food value out of the 

 soil for livestock. The building of a silo on every 

 farm will make one acre of cornfeed twice as many 

 cattle and keep them in better condition. The sav- 

 ing from this source alone would amount to mil- 

 lions of dollars annually. If you have no silo, build 

 one ; if you have one, build two. 



The old-time fence strip is also a source of 

 waste that should be taken into account now when 

 every square foot should be devoted to crop pro- 

 duction. Fence strips that have been neglected and 

 allowed to grow weeds and patches that have been 

 overgrown with brush should be cultivated this 

 year. Good fences, and fences on which the ex- 

 pensive repairs are eliminated by good construction 

 at the start, will add their share towards greater 

 crop production. 



It is the patriotic duty of every American, 

 farmer or townsman, to take this matter straight 

 home to himself and see where he can stop waste 

 on his property. Putting time and money into 

 buildings that are easily destroyed by fire, or build- 

 ings that soon decay, buildings that fail to properly 

 protect grain, is a source of waste which undoubt- 

 edly can be stopped by better construction; and 

 better construction is a war-time economy which 

 will add to instead of hinder business. 



INCREASED SUGAR BEET ACREAGE IMPORTANT 



In view of the sugar situation, both domestic 

 and foreign, it is advisable to increase the beet 

 sugar output in the United States this year as far 

 as the seed supply and the farm and factory condi- 

 tions will permit. The indications are that in many 

 portions of the area devoted to sugar beets in this 

 country the acreage this year will exceed that of 

 any previous year and will be in many cases limited 

 only by the amount of seed now available. In other 

 localities, it is understood that there is consider- 

 able beet seed which is being held in reserve for 

 next year's planting in accordance with the usual 

 practice. Under the existing conditions in this 

 country and Europe, it may be advisable, says the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, to utilize 

 at least a portion of this reserve seed in those lo- 

 calities in which the farming and factory conditions 

 will permit the handling of a larger acreage of beets 

 than has at present been contracted for. 



Sugar, an important food in time of peace, is 

 doubly so in time of war, both because of the en- 

 ergy contained in a pound of sugar as compared 

 with a pound of other foods and because the con- 

 duct of modern warfare has developed many addi- 

 tional uses for sugar. Therefore the sugar com- 



panies and farmers of this country would be per- 

 forming a patriotic duty by increasing the sugar 

 output so far as practicable this season. 



Undoubtedly considerable increase in sugar 

 beet acreage could be brought about in some locali- 

 ties without interfering with the production of other 

 crops. In the sugar beet growing states, except 

 California (where the crop is already planted and 

 growing), many farmers who have contracted to 

 grow beets can undoubtedly increase their acreage 

 somewhat. Many farmers in the sugar beet areas 

 who have not yet contracted to grow sugar beets 

 could undoubtedly plant a small acreage, thereby 

 still further increasing the sugar production. Owing 

 to the fact that sugar beets can be produced to ad- 

 vantage for sugar making purposes only in those 

 areas where sugar mills are located, the areas in 

 which they can be grown for sugar production are 

 limited as compared with the larger areas that are 

 or may be devoted to the production of other foods. 



The sugar beet by-products, tops and pulp, are 

 of high value for stock feeding purposes. Arrange- 

 ments should be made, therefore, to utilize the sugar 

 beet by-products as an aid in producing an extra 

 supply of meat and dairy products. 



