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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1917)
THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: APRIL 15, 1917. 11 A The Department of:. Agriculture "The Job and the Machine rrWrfc J. HuUi Washington, D. C, April 12. This war will bo won in the wheat fields. It- will take nian power and money power in full measure. Blood and treasure are the price of victory; the greatest of wars does not fail to call . for its sacrifice. But behind the men who risk their lives, behind the guns that burn up treasure, here must be the mammoth, ceaseless flow of food for workers and fighters.- To see that the river of flood flows in flood, to assure that there is enough for America and a lavish sur plus for America's allies that is one of the greatest problems that faces the nation. The endless miles of rich farm land in this country and the ef ficiency of American farmers give good guarantee that the problem will be solved. , But the quicker and the better the solution, the sooner the victory. Every extra bushel of grain that the nation can raise, every pound of meat the nation can -save from waste, means a shortening of the struggle and a saving of life. There is no task more important today than the production and saving of food. Every man, woman and child in America has a share and a duty in- it. In the warring nations of Europe there is government supervision bf food raising, food buying and food cooking. Each nation has an elabor ately organized' government depart- - ment to look after, the . larder, We are a otq way fom needing a food dictator in America,1 but we are in honor bound- to a hungry world to raise and eat our food on a war basis. Moreover, we already have our gov ernment department, elaborately or ganized, to aid in the efficient produc tion of food, to pbint out how it can e most economically distributed and eaten. That department is the Fed eral Department f Agriculture. In the Department of Agriculture, "with the state college's and workers - who co-operate with It, the United States has 'an establishment for the ' working out of agricultural problems Which means food problems-great-er -than that of any other three na tions in the -world combined. The department today -stands con 'ronted by an immense task. In the next fewmonths it will play a greater i part in the life of the nation than ever before. It is far better fitted to play such a . part than the vast ma jority of Americans realize, ft has been growing and extending its actvi ties at such a rate in the last few years that the public has hardly kept up with it. As the common center of (organized American agriculture, the department is an asset not only to America, but to France, England, Belgium and the other nations who .look to His for food, whose value can hardly- be overestimated. This is a time for every American to under stand just what the department is, what it is doing and what it can do, so that he -will 'give due weight to . its advice, and by intelligent co-oper? ation help to solvt the nation's prob lem in the most effective way. , Vhe department is the largest scien tific establishment in the world. In the last ten years, its working force has shot up from 6,000 men and wom en to 1 17,000.- The work it does An plant and animal investigation is not surpassed anywhere. The effective ness of that work is reflected in the efficiency of the average American farmer. We hear a great deal about the remarkable efficiency of farmers in Belgium and Japan, where inten sive cultivation is-carried to a high degree, and the yield per acre runs large.. But the yield per acre is not the test of efficiency in this country, where we have many acres and few farmers. The American farmer can not afford to go in for itnensive cul tivation. His problem is to get the greatest possible yield, not per acre, but per man. Measured by this test, he is actually from two to six times as efficient as any other fatmer in the world. . -r This efficiency, which is guing to be taxed to the limit in the next year, is the result of several things the amount of land at Ourldisposal, the intelligence of American farmers as a class, the lavish use 'of labor-saving machinery, and not least to the scientific methods of cultivation as worked out by the department. The department has not only increased the yield of almost every staple crop, but it has sent out, exploring par ties and introduced from foreign lands crops fitted for American cul tivation. It has worked out methods for tilling and marketing such crops. On the list are such well-known names as. Durum wheat, navel oranges, Sudan grass, kafir corn, and a dozen other's. - The total annual .value of these plants introduced from foreign lands is estimated, at $265, 000,000. ' ' , v. ' :4 In getting the Tesults of its work before he people, the department continually faces a colossal task. It is an adviser with an aaudience of 100,000,000. . In a single year it has distributed as many as 39,000,000 publications. Unc-er the recently en acted Smith-Lever act, which .'pro vides for actual demonstration work on the farm by state and govern ment agents, the department became at 'a, stroke the largest single educa tional establishment in the "wtfrld, 'This extension of educatiqn, this na ' tioh-wide school whose student", are men, women and children going about their -work, is unique. There is nothing else like it anywhere. Al ready 1,300 counties out of 'the 2,850 counties in the United States are getting the -benefit of it. One of the biggest problems which face American agriculture is the an nual loss through disease, both plant and animal.' This annual loss is big enough to challenge the. best efforts of ;the. biggest agricultural depart ment in the world. According .to latest estimates the losses in crops' and animals due to different diseases amounts to $50,000,000 a year. That is enough to feed even a modern army quite awhile. The department is already winning its fight wita, disease. For a sin gle instance, there may be cited the case of Texas fever among" southern cattle a disease, which closes to cat tle raising great areas in the south ern states, which are very well fit for the business and thus strikes the .nation's food production at' the very root. The annual loss through Texas fever and the cattle ticks which carry it runs to $40,000,000 a year. But the ticks and the fever have been eradi cated from an area in the southern states larger than France or . Ger many, and that much land has been given back to beef production. There still remains an area twice the size of Germany to be cleaned up, and the deDartnient looks forward to do ing it in the next ten years. This gives some idea of the size of the problems that come up in a country as big asthis one, and the "way they are being handled. The work of the department has widened to include a dozen other inv nnriint branches. The federal aid road act puts the nation's road building- largely under its supervision, with $160,000,000 to be spent besides the immense amounts spent annually by the states. The study ot the prob lems of marketing has grown in inv nortance until it ranks with the study of production. Altogether the de partment, which in 1865 spent $152,- 000 and had $98,000 Jeft over which it apparently didn't know what to do with which scent $9,000,000 ten years ago-Jias just been granted ap propriation! totaling $37,000,000, with out including tne road ana extension funds. When these latter get into full swing in a few years, the depart ment will have authority over the spending of about $80,000,000 a year. There are still Americana to be found, especially among city dwellers, who have the idea that the Depart ment of Agriculture is a sort of super- seed-distributing agency. As a mat ter of fact, it is the largest scientific and educational establishment in the world, it has the administration of thirty of the most important national laws in its hands, and. working with its state co-operators, it'is three timet as effective in solving the problems of agriculture as the corresponding department in any other country. ' The department is facing what may well , prove the supreme test of its, history. The food problem lies in its hands, whatever the future may bring forth., It will have much to say to the nation, to city as well as to farm, in the hard 'months ahead. And its sayings should be heeded. We have three cabinet officers whose depart ments are war departments today. they are the secretaries ot war, avy and agriculture. Kaiser ExpecteH at;: Castle Near Borders, -"Of the Netherlands London, April 14. According to an unconfirmed report received at The Hague, Emperor William' either has arrived at or is, expected at the Cat tle of Middachten, near Arnhem, Hol land, says a dispatch to the' Times from the Dutch capital. The Castle of Middachten belongs to the Bentick family and the German emperor vis ited there some years before the war. Arnhem, near which it tituated the Castle of Middachten, is the capital of the province of Gelderland and is on the River Rhine, fifty miles south east of Absterdam. Arnhem it fif teen mile north of Cleves, the near est German city, with which it it con nected by a railroad. The German border realties to within ten miles of Arnhem; '- i ' THE PARISIAN CLOAK CO Located at 318-320 South 16th St., is very grateful to the public for the generout attention Its closing out sale has, been given. We still have on hand over $20,000 worth of beau tiful Spring Suits, Coats andTPresses. We urge you to make your selection as soon as possible. THE WRECK ERS ARE COMING.. ', Spuds and Onions Usurp the Bed of Dainty Flowers No more geraniuma and astert to give beauty to the front yard, but in stead the diamond-priced potatoes and oniont will flourish inerstwhile flower beds of the resident districts. The home owners around Twenty sixth and Saint Mary's avenue have come to the conclusion that in these high-cost-of-living days every inch of available ground ought to be used to raise truck vegetables. Comes now William Kennedy of 543 South Twenty-sixth street, who spaded up a -tart of the back yard lawn in order to increase the garden area. But. he did not stop there. Next he planted oniont in the back yard flower beds and now he is think ing of doing the same thing in front. The idea was welcomed by the oth er neighbors with the result that now the majority of back yards in that lo cality are already beginning! to show signs of farming. One. of the ladies of the neighborhood says that if the cost of vegetables keeps rising she will have the whole 61 her lawn plowed-up and planted into potatoes and beans. f American Schooner Shelled by Subsea Washington, April 14. The Amer ican schooner Edwin R. Hunt of New York was abandoned by its crew un der shell fire from a submarine near Cape Gata, Spain, in the Mediter ranean, April 7, according to a dis patch to the State department from Consul Gassett at Malaga. Persistent 'Advertising Is the Road mm MM B Ml ms mm r wt" - i r - t ttttttUUX . f Yffl w. Goes through v,vrith "Flying Colors- That txpresalon, "flying colors" abounds in whan applied to the AlUn Classic. The Allen com through any tear with "firing colon" ba th Allan 1 a staunch, enduring, comfortable and economical motor ear. Allen performance and Allen merit measure lam when com pared with other cart under 1 1 000. . , Allen Classic colortnjra Classic Brown. Blue or Maroon an no certainly "flying colon" when combined with the ear'a flashing, flowing line and its ability to gt then and back In record time. - . ' 5 Passeofbt Touring or lOQC " ' 4 PatMBgar Roadster 'OIO Crap SI US - Opa Sdaa $!1SS Price, tab. Fostorl, Ohio. 1 . . " Etry man who i buying a modem priced automobile owe p . djbihu an Alien uemonanauon. ' ' ; CARL CH ANGSTROM, Proprietor. ,. 2020 Farnam St. . OMAHA Phoa Douglas 1705 : ''Sfwtr, and - VI- . ' ;''"'' Here is the truck the big, powerful Acme that cuts your haulage costs. Quickest, lowest costing service is ' certain because of Acme proved units such as the Continental Motor, Tim ' ken Axles, Bearings and Worm Drive and Other hichest tfrade nnrrs. Oil and gas consumption surprisingly low, , A Phone Call Brings A -Demonstration Write to Obtain This Truck Book To iee and to know Acme excellence, simply ring; Ui up today. A demonstration- over your own routes if you .wish! We want you to know how the Acme can put new profit into you business. Phone us todayt . ' - Acme Auto Truck ' Sales Co. ' J. MeWhlnw. Mm. ' I01S Park Ave. Phone rUruy S1SI OMAHA 2 Get this rltal data on truck. Writ today for thltVal-; uable collection of truck facts and figure. Know how quality la built Into very -Acme truck. A letter or postcard bring you this truck-users' book tone. Writ to obtain It Cadillac Auto Truck CadUk,Mick, , Co. Timch" ' if '- T, 1 ( '' '- ..''. - . !'.' '. Two Ppwer Ranges Combine These , Opposite Virtues in the Peerless Eight ' -v Economy! Cheapest power is that which makes best use of Nature's resources. With the gliding drive of a'full rigged ship plus a speed no craft;; ever had the twelve agile . and powerful cylinders of -the. Packard motor will carry you anywhere in greatest security arid comfort at least possible cost ! The econom ical use of gasoline is onexf the major, advan tages of the Twin-six. "i? There are twenty and more Packard body styles, to choose rrom. Prices, open carsv , tirrce thousand fifty dollars and thirty-five hundred dollars, at Detroit. 1? "$ See the Orr Motor Sales Co., FortietK sod Farnum Sts Omaha also Lincoln and Sioux City. A 5 k 'the. man -tu h i owns one ' . The delectable purr of an ideally soft, smooth, flexible motor may now-be had in a car capable of stupendous feats of power and speed.' v-i ' Two Power Ranges make the Peerless iEight a car of "dual personality" of un believable contrasts of performance. 1 , ; A "Loafing" Range For all ordinary driving you win use Its "loafing" range. In this range it perform all those featt of smoothness which distinguish the really fine from the ordinary car in the every day service of an exacting - , owner. And in this range it is on half rations, con ' suming fuel so sparingly as to shame many a lesser powered six even many a four. I A !' Sporting" Range Among the finer cars of the day, there are a few which pretend no compromise with the demand for the gentler virtues of soft, smooth flexibility. Such . cars are out and out exponents of the more rugged virtues of brute power and speed. In its "sporting" range the Peerless is ready to vie with such cars in their own chosen field. ' , . ' ''Let us demonstrate how, much more (.your motor car will mean td you when you can run the whole gamut of motor car performance with one and the same car the Peerless Eight. , , W. T. HAUSE AUTO CO. , 2509 Leavenworth St, Omaha, Neb. 1 Phone Douglas 376 The Peerless Motor Car Company Cleveland, Ohio a-4ar . M name implies" Ntw Piict Lilt Effectivi April 9, 1917 -. $3090 ' ' . tiour, Touring Roadster Sporting Roadster Cotip v . Sedan ,- . Limousine '. . $2250 ' $2750 $2890 $3590 : Pricttf.o.'b.Clevtland Subjict to Chang Without Node t . r . , (Peerless (Ei abf ' '' ." -. ' : : , i- '',.-; ' . ' "'.I-' 'Tl ,-A' , ' r :' 1 jjU