M.»y, 1914 



Tnh-^UAUUKN AND FIELD. 



555 



The Farmer and the In- 

 creased cost of Food. 



Much attention has been jjiven 

 durtiijj the past two or three years 

 to the matter of hu.rease<i cost ol 

 li\ini;. Inasmnch as the farmer 

 produces most of the [ood-sturts 

 used in the home he is given the 

 credit, or rather the blame, for 

 raisin<i; the cost of the family din- 

 ner. Let us look for a little at 

 this much-discussed topic and find 

 out, if we can, if the l)lame should 

 be lai<I on the shoulders of the far- 

 mer, writes the Journal of Agri- 

 culture and Horticulture. 



Before the days of centralized in- 

 dustrialism the towns and cities 

 were almost whoU}- suppUed with 

 food-stulTs from their immediate 

 surroundings, and the cost of 

 transportation was practically nil. 

 The number of persons who Hved 

 on the land and tilled it was, in 

 comparison with those who lived 

 in towns, proportionately large. 



Moreover, in those days it was 

 considered the fit and proper thing 

 for workers on land to be content 

 with small returns for their la- 

 bors. Their superiors had taught 

 them this lesson so well that both 

 parties believed it to he of divine 

 origin. Now and again lapses 

 occurred when the poor working 

 man so far forgot himself as to 

 demand an improvement in his 

 condition. Away back seven hun- 

 dred years we hear of a peasant 

 rebellion when the cry was : 



" AVhen Adam delved and Eve 

 span 



Who was then a gentleman ? " 



In France, too, tliis persistent de- 

 mand for redress of grievances cul- 

 minated in the .Revolution when 

 the cry was " liberty, I'.iiu.itlil y 

 and Fraternity." 



Under modern industrialism, 

 however, with crowded towns and 

 cities and fewer workers on the 

 land conditions have changed 

 greatly. The surroundmg country 

 no longer supplies the city with 

 most of its food materials. Great 

 steamship and railway lines bring 

 supj)lies from distant countries 

 where large tracts of land have 

 Tjeen broug-ht under cultivation. 

 For many >ears these new areas 

 produced crops suliicient for the 

 needs of the growing cities at a 

 low price, so that the cost of food 

 remained practically stationary 

 and no pinch was felt by the 

 working man. But we aU know 

 that these great crops from the 

 new regions were the result of 

 sodl-irwning and not the product of 

 intelligent farming. The crops 

 were sold at a price below the 

 normal cost of production. When 

 the land showed signs of impover- 

 ishment and the farmers adopted 

 rational methods of cultivation, 

 involving the maintenance of soil 

 fertility, the price of wheat rose. 

 It is unlikely that the price of 

 wheat will ever again fall to that 

 in the 70' s and 80' s when the new 

 lands of America were exploited. 

 No matter what the cost of trans- 

 portation may be the farmer of to- 

 day will demand a price that cov- 

 ers the cost of production and a 

 little over. 



While this is true of wheat it is 

 equally true of other food-products 

 such as vegetables, poultry, eg-gs. 



butter, cheese, beef, mutton and 

 pork. For too long have the far- 

 mers sold these products at too 

 low a price, often far below the 

 actual cost of i)roduction. Farmers 

 are now becoming liook-keepers 

 and are kee])ing account of every 

 item of the cost of production. 

 They are taking into account the 

 value of their own time and that 

 of their help, the rent of the land, 

 the N'atiie of feeds and manures, 

 etc. They are no longer content 

 to work for a mere i)ittance or 

 merely for their health's sake. 

 They "are demanding a fair profit 

 on all they produce. The days 

 of peasantry are past. 



If, then, the consumer finds that 

 the prices of provisions have gone 

 up in recent years he should not 

 harbor hard thoughts against the 

 hard-working producer who is get- 

 ting no more than that to which 

 he is entitled. Rather let him ex- 

 amine into other causes of the 

 great increase in cost, which are 

 not hard to detect. 



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 Inspector of Branches — James Wilkixwon. 



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Head Office: 18 King William Street, Adelaide. 



Wild Oats. 



A correspondent, writing to 

 " The X^eader " on the eradication 

 of wild oats, says, just as soon 

 as the crop is harvested, and be- 

 fore the surface soil gets baked, 

 we stir deeply with the scarifier, 

 and at intervals again scarify, tiU 

 the ground is stirred to a depth 

 of about three inches, so as to give 

 the wild oats a chance to germin- 

 ate, and when sufficient growth has 

 taken place feed ofi with stock. 

 Repeat the operation, and the sur- 

 face to a depth of three inches will 

 be clear of wild oats, but tmder- 

 neath that depth they will be the 

 same as when last ploughed down, 

 and they will retain their vitality 

 for any number of years UU again 

 brought to the surface. 



Therefore, after the surface has 

 been eaten off, plough the land to 

 the depth it has been formerly 

 ploughed, thus bringing up all the 

 buried wild oats to the surface. 

 Then, with occasional scarifying 

 and seasonable rains, those oats 

 that were buried, but now brought 

 to light and encouraged to grow, 

 can be fed off, and the land, if not 

 perfectly clean, will be safe to 

 crop with wheat for several years. 

 The reason many fail to eradicate 

 the pest is that they spell the 

 land, feed off all wild oats, get 

 the surface perfectly clean, but 

 neglect to plough up the oats that 

 are four or six inches vmder the 

 surface. They are under the im- 

 pression that they will rot or die, 

 but this impression is an errone- 

 ous one. 



