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Show UTAH FARMERS TO " INCREASE ACREAGE Addition of 12.5 Per Cent, Including All Crops, Figured for 1918. ASSURANCES NEEDED Growers Should Be Overcoming Over-coming Difficulties of Labor La-bor Shortage. Thai. L'tah fanners are fully awake to the, iiripurtaifo of their efforts ju the scheme of national defense and that do j)ito many difficulties are planning to j iK-reuse their crop acreage neat sea-iun, sea-iun, arc assurances given by George T. Udell, general masager; H. T. Johnson, district manager at Salt Lake, and .1. K. Pike, district nianagor at Idulio Falls for the Consolidated Wagon & Machine company. "The farmer realises more thau ever before the relative position which he holds toward supplying foodstuffs to tin? American people as well as to the allies, ' ' M r. Johnson states. ' ' The farm labor situation is not to- be mini-mixed, mini-mixed, and -while it may appear that there are a number of people loafing around in the cities -who should be working on tho farms or in industrial pursuits, it is a fact that a great number num-ber of them will not work even though employment is offered. Seek High Wages. "In a number of instances wo have had men call, claiming they were without with-out funds. They wanted work and said their families wore suffering. When we offered them employment at what wo considered a fair and reasonable wage they have declined, stating that thev would not work for less thau fj-4.50. $(j and eveu as high as 7 a day and board. Aj a result, in preference to paying such high wages, which iu most cases are being demanded for farm labor, farmers will buy labor-saving labor-saving machinery to do as much of the work as possible. " Considerable notice has been given recentlv regarding increased acreage tor 1918," -Mr. Odell said. "I have in front of me letters from nearly all the ' counties iu Utah,, from which I gather there will be an increased acreage planted for 19 IS for all classes of crops of at least li'.o per cent. While a good many of those L have heard from do not give the percentage, but refer to it in acres, there is little doubt .but what this percentage is correct. Crops Satisfactory. "Notwithstanding the heavy losses of potatoes through early frost and scarcity of help and transportation facilities" fa-cilities" in southern Tdaho and northern l'tah, I am thoroughly convinced that the intermountain west still has a good crop of nearly everything, including potatoes. po-tatoes. If the food administration at Washington can render them some assistance as-sistance at the present time to relieve the transportation difficulties and assure as-sure them a reasonable price, I believe be-lieve no effort would be left unused to increase the acreage of 1918 more than 12.5 per cent. "Inasmuch as some of the crops do not encourage the farmers to raise another an-other big crop next season, it is onlv fair to the tillers of the soil that X should make public this information." Farm labor is extremely scarce about Idaho Falls, is unreliable though demanding de-manding $4 to $'3 a day and board; potatoes po-tatoes at so cents a bushel do not give a margin of profit to the grower, and farmers are discouraged and somewhat indifferent as to increased acreage unless un-less they are assured of adequate labor supplv, Mr. Peck states. "Taking the attitude of the farmers ns a keynote of the situation, a large pereentago will be more or leas indifferent indif-ferent to government appeal to cultivate culti-vate additional acreage of crops for 191S unless they receive assurance from a source upon which they can rely absolutely ab-solutely that tho many difficulties they have encountered this year on the labor question will be overcome," Mr. Peck asserts. Farmers Lacked Help. 1 ( I believe it can be proved from a'-tual figures that sO cents per bushel, f. o. bj. ears in this territory, harvested under this year's conditions, will not 'et the farmer out even. Scores of farmers in the Idaho Falls district, owning and operating considerable acreage, ac-reage, have been left almost entirely without reliable assistance because their sons have been called to the colors. "It is nothing but natural that these men should look for the same protec-tion protec-tion and assistance in this regard as thy have given and arc still willing to give to the army and navy to uphold the na rion in the war it has un tier-taken." tier-taken." . In speaking of the difficulty of harvesting potatoes, Mr. Peck says: "Farmers were obliged to pay t to .0 a day, also board and lodging, to get any assistance at all from the labor el em en t that was loa f ing through this part of the country. Kvcn at this prico the laborers seldom would work more than a few dayn. Tn many instances vornn and little children had to aid in the work of hurveting potatoes. The potatoes were dug and put awav safely as fn.-t as ad vers.'' conditions would permit. per-mit. There is not per cent of the los piiHtain'-d consisting of potatoes already al-ready dug." |