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Show Let's Face Facts Container Shortage i A Primary Headache For Farmer in 1944 By BARROW LYONS j I WNU Soff Correspondent It is the advice of this correspondent correspond-ent that every farmer and shippei who requires wooden or paperboarc containers to ship his crop to mar-ket mar-ket make at. rangements as soon as he car I with used container con-tainer dealers tc i supplement his supply ol new containers. con-tainers. It would be well to get those used containers con-tainers into his possession just as soon as possible. Barrow Lyons Lm! " given because the demand tor containers, both new and used, is certain to exceed the supply this year. If you do not know the address of a used container dealer, deal-er, hunt one up in the nearest ter-minal ter-minal market, or if you cannot dc so yourself, get your commissior. house to send you the address of one. The reason for this caution is the fact that for several years consumption consump-tion of forest products has exceeded production, and stockpiles in mosl instances are at an irreducible minimum. mini-mum. Yet military and industriai requirements this year will be at an all-time peak. Lumber has be come one of the scarcest commodities commodi-ties in general trade, and it is going to be scarcer. The War Production board has announced an-nounced a system for allocating lumber lum-ber to each type of user according to the importance of that type tc the war effort. No doubt adjust ments will be made as experience indicates errors that have beei made in this allocation. Use Local Committees Coordinating with this order, loca' committees under War Food administration admin-istration will determine speciiicallj what each shipper will receive within with-in the quotas for packaging of various va-rious classes of fruits and vegetables. vegeta-bles. Quotas of containers for the less essential vegetables will be cut down on the basis of a percentage of what the shipper used in the 194i crop season. Each shipper will be expected to offer proof of the quantity quan-tity of containers used in 1942. The general situation was outlined by R. A. Palen, chief of the Containers Con-tainers and Packaging Branch, Office Of-fice of Materials and Facilities, WFA. "It is impossible at this moment to know just how short of foresl products we shall be," said Mr. Palen, Pa-len, "because it is impossible to calculate cal-culate exactly what military demands de-mands will be. "We do know that inventories have been practically exhausted. Although Al-though we expect to get some addi- tionai nelp m lumbering from wai prisoners, this will not compensate for the loss of men drawn into the armed services, and additional numbers num-bers that will leave the forests foi shipyards and industrial plants. "There will be no relief from this situation, so far as we can foresee, fore-see, except when direct war requirements require-ments decline, or men return to the woods after their release from th army and navy. Military Needs High "So far as machinery goes, tractors trac-tors and trucks will be required in greater numbers for beaching operations op-erations and military transport, and the tires on this heavy equipment are the same as those used on gun! and military trucks. "Packaging of food requirements for the army and navy are way up, and are likely to continue very high. We shall have to move vast quantities quanti-ties of foods off shore for lend-lease and other governments. Of course, we must preserve a flow of essential civilian supplies but the word essential es-sential will come to have a new meaning to most of us. "Restricting the less essential crops that require a large amount of containers, implies getting the maximum use possible from the. con. tainers we have. However, the size of containers must be increased and lighter materials must be used. "While the demand for pulpwood has mounted enormously, production is not sufficient. The amount avail-able avail-able for essential uses is far below minimum requirements. Huge quantities quan-tities of paper are now being used for waterproofing purposes by the army." The greatest deficiency, Mr. Palen said, would be in hampers and baskets bas-kets to supply growers in the Middle West, Northeast and Middle Atlantic sections, although scarcity will be felt from Florida north, including the Mississippi valley and New Eng. land. There will be no more con. tainers than last year, but a considerably con-siderably larger crop will be harvested. har-vested. In one area farmers cooperaicu with box manufacturers to insure their supply of containers by bring, ing the lumber into the mills them-selves, them-selves, and then helping out in the mills by processing the lumber. It is hoped that in the fall many other sections will adopt this plan. In the meantime, it will be well for each farmer and shipper to obtain ob-tain used containers if he can do so. The next best plan is to contract for supplies, not overlooking the used container dealers. If one cannot be located, write Mr. Palen in Wash-UiaHon. |