“Food Emergency
Problem for All,” from the High Point Review, June 7, 1917
Raleigh—John Paul
Lucas, executive secretary of the North Carolina Food Conservation Commission,
in reviewing the food situation in this state gave out a lot of good advice in
his suggestions of ways every person can help improve the food situation.
Mr. Lucas wrote as
follows:
Too many of our
people are regarding the food emergency, which is really just in its
incipiency, as a problem for the farmer, the trucker, their neighbor or someone
else more or less remote from themselves. There is something of the spirit of
“Let George do it.” Fortunately, this spirit has been rapidly disappearing and
it is not too much to hope that all the people of North Carolina will quickly
realize that, while the farmers’ responsibility and opportunity are greatest
possibly, each person has an individual duty and responsibility.
A large number of
people who realize their individual responsibility have asked themselves and
others, “What can I do?” In answer to this question and for the information of
others who may have given the matter no thought I am giving below a list of
recommendations that are being made to farmer, housewife, gardener and citizen
generally. I can think of no one in any position or condition to whom some of
these suggestions are not applicable. Here they are:
Cultivate and
fertilize every available foot of tillable land that you can possibly take care
of. Cultivate more carefully and fertilize more heavily than under normal
circumstances.
Put stubble land in
corn, soy beans, peas, potatoes, or sorghum as soon as the grain is off. Here
lies one of our greatest opportunities for increasing the acreage of food and
feed crops.
Where there is a
poor stand of cotton, replant with soy beans or peas. Also plant these crops in
corn.
Save all the clover
and vetch seed possible. Both are going to be unusually scarce and high priced.
Vetch can e threshed with oats or by themselves. If you don’t know how to
harvest clover seed, write the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Farmers’
Bulletin No. 656.
Breed all sows and
gilts for fall pigs and be sure to raise sufficient feed for them—in the form
of pastures principally. Raise meat not only for your own demands but for the
market. Prices are sky-high.
Raise all the
chickens you can, whether you live in the country or in town. Shut up the cocks
and cockerels and preserve your surplus eggs in water glass solution.
Raise and eat all
the fresh vegetables you can and can all the surplus you can’t eat. See that
every glass jar is filled with vegetables and fruits and if you still have
surplus, buy more jars and cans.
Don’t throw away
scraps of meat and fat. Use meat in soup, hash, croquets, and fats for frying
and shortening.
Cook potatoes in
the peel. Tests have shown that 20 per cent is lost when potatoes are peeled
before cooking.
Don’t waste bits of
bread. Use them in puddings or in dressings for meat.
Don’t despise skim
milk and buttermilk. They have a high food value and are generally cheap. Use
them largely, especially for children.
See that all labor
as well as foodstuffs is properly used. The farmers are handicapped for lack of
labor. The people of town and city must see that available labor of men and
boys is offered to the farmers. This service is just as patriotic and effective
as that of the boys who don their uniforms and shoulder their rifles.
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