Show MAR ETING WORLDS GREATEST PROBLEM WE ARE LONG ON production SHORT ON distribution by peter radford lecturer national farmers ajmera l armera union tho the economic distribution or of farm products is today the worlds greatest problem and the war while it has brought its hardships has clearly emphasized pha sized the importance ot of distribution as a factor in american agriculture and promises to give the farm pro era the co operation cooperation of the government and the business men the solution of their marketing problem this result will in a measure compensate us ua for our war losses for the ba alness interests and government have been in the main assisting almost exclusively on the production side of agriculture while the depart mont ment of agriculture has baa been dumping tons of literatures literature on the farmer telling him how to produce the farmer has been dumping tons of products in the nations garbage can tor for want of a market the world will never starve at no time imp since adam and eve wore were driven from the garden ot a eden edell have hao the inhabitants of this world s buffered tiff ered from lack of production but pome people have gone hungry from the day of creation to this good hour for the lack of proper distribution slight variations in production have forced a change in diet and one locality hns felt the pinch of want while another surfeited but the world as a whole has ever been a land of oc plenty we now have less than one tenth of the tillable land of the earths surface under tinder cultivation and we not only have this surplus area to draw on but it Is safe to tg estimate that in ID case of dire necessity one halt half the earths population could at the present time knock their living out of the trees treen of tile tho forest gather it from wild vines and draw it from streams no one should become alarmed tho the world will never starve thel the consumer has always feared that the producer would not supply him and his fright has found expression on the statute books of our states and nations and the farmer has been urged to produce recklessly and without reference to a market and regardless of the demands of the consumer back to the sol soil the city people havo have been urging pach each other to move back to the farm but very few of them have moved we welcome our city cousins hack back to the soil and this earths surface contains idle acres acrea of tillable land where they can malo make a living by tickling the earth with a forked stick but we do not need them so far as increasing production Is concerned wo we now have all the producers we can use the city man has very erroneous ideas of agricultural conditions the commonly accepted theory that we are short on production Is all w wrong ro n g our annual increase in production far exceeds that of our increase in population the world as a farm taking the world as aa one big farm we find two billion acres of land in cultivation of this amount there Is acres on the western and acres on the eastern astern hemisphere in cultivation this estimate of codray course does not include grazing lands forests etc where large quantities of meat are produced the worlds annual crop approximates fifteen billion bushels of ce eals thirteen billion pounds of fibre fabre ind sixty flie alve million tons of meat the average annual world crop for the past five years compared with the previous five years Is s as follows past half previous half crops decade decade corn bu wheat nu oats allu Cotton Bales the world shows an average increase in cereal production of 13 per cent during the past decade compared with tho the previous fave years while the worlds population shows an increase of only three per cent tho the gain in production far exceeds that of our In increase Orease in population and it Is safe to estimate that the farmer can easily Jn increase creaso production 25 per cent if a remunerative market can be found tor for the products in textile fibres fabres the world above an increase during the past halt half decade in production of 16 15 per cent against a population Iner increase easo of three per cent the people of this nation should address themselves to the subject of improved for distribution |