June, 1917 
15 
PUTTING THE 
FARM ON A WAR 
FOOTING 
The Food Supply for Ourselves and Our Allies—What We Have 
Done and What We Can Do to Increase Our Food Outj)ut 
F. F. ROCKWELL 
T LIE destinies of the nations of the 
world may be hanging by the micro¬ 
scopic threads of Phytophthora infestans! 
These two formidable words, translated 
into the language of the Irish potato, mean 
late blight, the disease which last year upset 
the calculations of the German Government 
by destroying a large percentage of the po¬ 
tato crop. To say that the potato will decide 
the war may be exaggerating, but there is 
little doubt that food, rather than gunpow¬ 
der, will ultimately be the determining fac¬ 
tor in conferring the laurels of victory. 
With modern methods of transportation 
and communication, national organization 
for war becomes such an intricate and far- 
reaching thing that every last individual 
capable of contributing to the national wel¬ 
fare is reached by it. And in every nation the 
army at the front and the army behind 
the front, the workers at home, must 
be supplied with three meals a day. 
Abroad every government that has 
entered the war, with the possible ex¬ 
ception of Germany, has been slow to 
recognize the importance of the food 
supply. Today this question is loom¬ 
ing up as the most gigantic of those 
which will demand immediate atten¬ 
tion. It is for us a problem not only 
of feeding ourselves but those with 
whom we are making common cause. 
Recognition of the seriousness of 
the problem has brought forth many 
schemes from organizations and in¬ 
dividuals. At the Conference for 
Agricultural Preparedness, held at 
Washington early in April by the Na¬ 
tional Agricultural Society, there were 
almost as many plans as speakers. 
They ranged all the way from the or¬ 
ganization of local societies to utilize 
every back yard for vegetable planting 
to plans for wholesale government 
operation by putting the farmers on 
the government pay-roll, either direct¬ 
ly, or indirectly by the guarantee of a 
minimum price for crops. 
Agricultural Progress 
My purpose in this article, however, 
is not to rehearse the various plans 
which have been proposed, but rather 
to sketch the lines of agricultural prog¬ 
ress which have been followed during 
the past few years, and to suggest how 
still further developments are possible 
In much of the work which has been 
done there is great potential value, but the 
information has not yet been put to use. 
Many of the discoveries are not generally 
known. It has taken a time of crisis to 
put us on our mettle as an agricultural na¬ 
tion. Yet it is only fair to say that it is 
not the farmer’s fault that he has been slow 
to adopt the new methods which the gov¬ 
ernment has placed at his disposal. Time 
after time the farmer has grown big crops, 
only to receive for them prices so low as 
to leave him without profit—often, indeed, 
with actual loss. We have given the farm¬ 
ers as a producing class every incentive to 
grow small crops rather than big—and have 
paid them much more for the lesser than 
for the greater service. 
The problem of making two blades of 
grass grow where one grew before is a very 
complicated one, and little will have been 
gained if in the solution it costs as much to 
produce the second blade as it did to pro¬ 
duce the first. 
The average person thinks of the problem 
of increasing crop yields as one to be solved 
by a long nosed chemist with a new fertilizer 
or by some wizard of horticulture who will 
outwit Nature and trick her into growing 
a cabbage plant with two heads or a stalk 
of corn with six ears. 
As a matter of fact, however, the business 
of insuring higher crop production is a slow 
and painstaking process. All the factors 
involved must be considered and developed 
together, for while concentration on one 
aspect alone may result in discoveries very 
interesting from a scientific point of 
view, it will fall short of bringing 
about an increase for the demands 
occasioned by war-time. 
Biology and Increased Production 
Probably the most important of the 
various lines of intensive effort—cer¬ 
tainly the most interesting from the 
layman’s point of view—is that of 
improvement by breeding and selec¬ 
tion. The biologist has played and 
must continue to play a leading role 
in making this country economically 
independent. Ilis position is an im¬ 
portant one, for in spite of our gigan¬ 
tic industrial corporations and our 
“war brides,” nearly 70% of our total 
national wealth is in agriculture— 
land, buildings and live stock. 
Let us look at our king crop—corn. 
A glance at the accompanying photo¬ 
graph will show what the biologist has 
done with this crop. (Incidentally the 
biologist usually did not call himself 
by that name. He worked in a pair 
of overalls out in a field, and was 
known by all his neighbors as a good 
farmer who was something of a crank 
on selecting seed !) In that photograph 
the biggest ears of yellow Dent corn 
are representative of two varieties 
largely grown in this country. The 
corn crop is a serious business with 
us. It occupies over 29% of the land 
given up to crop production. In 1915 
we grew over 3,050,000,000 bushels. 
from 
The PRESIDENT’S 
MESSAGE 
upon the fanners of this country 
. . . . in large measure rests the fate 
of the war and the fate of the nations. 
May the nation not count upon them 
to omit no step that will increase the 
production of their land or that zvill 
bring about the most effectual co-op- 
cration in the sale and distribution of 
their products? The time is short. It 
is' of the most impcratwe importance 
that everything possible be done, and 
done immediately, to make sure of 
large harvests. I call upon young men 
and old alike and upon the ablebodied 
boys of the land to accept and act upon 
this duty—to turn in hosts to the farms 
and make certain that no pains and no 
labor is lacking in this great matter. .. . 
Let me suggest, also, that every one 
who creates or cultivates a garden 
helps, and helps greatly, to solve the 
problem of the feeding of the nations. 
WOODROW WILSON. 
