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Show Nation's Farms Provide Needed War Materials New Emphasis Placed on Crop Conversion. Much deserved publicity has been given to the converting of industries such as automobile manufacture to war production. Vivid pictures have been drawn of the "change-over" of machinery to new high-speed aircraft air-craft work, for example, and of the rapidity with which these changes have been made. Farmers have been making just as abrupt and often considerably more sweeping conversions to assure as-sure their best possible contribution to the war effort. Farm products have been utilized by industry all along, but new emphasis em-phasis has been placed on this aspect as-pect of agriculture since it became necessary to replace imports with things produced at home, and increase in-crease production of crops already in use. When the farmer starts raising hemp he is entering a new type of production that requires careful study and intelligent application of efficient methods. He's growing halyards hal-yards and hawsers for the navy, and it's up to him to replace the millions of feet of lines that once came thousands of miles from the Philippines. Drug plants, such as belladonna and henbane, and the trees from the bark of which comes quinine, are being raised in increasing quantities quanti-ties to take the place of former imports im-ports that are vital to the lives of soldiers and civilians alike. War activities used to refer mainly to muskets, bayonets and cannon. Not so today. Now in the front line is placed farming. Fod is not only a weapon in itself, but the farmers' farm-ers' fields, are also providing needed materials of war. |