endeavor to provide for the organization and development of as many boys' and girls' sheep and lambs clubs as possible. In the old days, too, there was no proper, scientific recognition of the value of breeding. The influence of pure bred stock and its value was not appreciated. The further purpose of our work is to develop an improvement in the breeds of sheep by the use of pure bred stock in breeding, and in connection with this, to obtain a better standardization in communities, in the same way that the various sections of England have developed a standard production, the value of which is known and recognized. It is recognized also that there is an evident necessity for an improvement in the system of marketing and distribution, both for lambs and for wool. To effect this, it seems highly desirable that there should be developed to the greatest possible extent coöperative associations of the farmers. This has been found difficult to obtain in the past, and will undoubtedly be a slow process, but will surely be accomplished in time.

In order to develop better marketing facilities for the wool product for the farmer, the Philadelphia Wool and Textile Association has established The Philadelphia Wool Auctions, the purpose of which is to provide the means whereby the individual farmer or such coöperative associations may be able to sell their wool in one of the great primary markets of distribution at public sale under open competition to the highest bidder. The development of this proposition, like others intended for this purpose, must naturally be slow, but it seems sound and logical and should win out in the end.

The stage has been reached, however, at the present time, where the value of sheep is being recognized by the eastern farmers, and they are desirous of obtaining breeding stock. There has been but one source of supply for this and that is from the western range. It will be readily understood that there is a big hiatus between the farmer in the east, who desires to buy a small flock for his farm, and the far distant range, where the sheep are maintained in flocks of from five thousand to fifty thousand. In order to bridge this gap and to afford an agency by which a transfer could be made of the western sheep into the east, and the distribution made as wanted to the farmer, the Interstate Livestock Company has been organized and incorporated, which is acting as the financial agency for this

purpose.

The capital of the Interstate Livestock Company has been subscribed by public spirited men who are operating this company on non-profit basis. Through this agency breeding sheep have been brought in large quantities from the western range, and are being distributed throughout the eastern farming sections.

The effort to restore sheep husbandry to the eastern farms has therefore reached a definite, practical stage of operation. There is evidence that there will be a greater appreciation of the value of this industry by every one. Though there are many obstacles and problems in the way to be solved before sheep husbandry will attain its full development in our farming sections, there is every hope and assurance that it will obtain its rightful recognition and be restored to its proper status in connection with eastern agriculture. It will not be accomplished in a day nor in a year, but the logic of events and its imperative necessity, are bound to bring about its ultimate establishment.

THE WAR AND OUR POTATO INDUSTRY

BY LOU D. SWEET,

Potato Expert, United States Food Administration; President of the Potato Association of America.

Our entrance into the war against Germany brought us face to face with serious economic problems-greater problems than we were ever confronted with before in the history of this country. One of the greatest of these problems was that of our food supply. Not only did it become necessary for us to produce crops sufficient to take care of our own needs, but coincident with our alliance with the Entente Allies we were called upon to supply in great measure the foods needed by soldiers and civilians of the allied countries.

Our federal Department of Agriculture appealed pointedly to the farmers of this country for an increased production of all food crops. This appeal met with immediate response, often accompanied by great sacrifice by farmers themselves who had to finance their operations with borrowed capital. Particularly in the case of our potato crop has this response been tremendously patriotic; an additional seven hundred and seventeen thousand acres were planted to this crop, which early this season was forecasted by our federal

Bureau of Crop Estimates to yield something like one hundred and seventeen million bushels above the average yields for the period 1911 to 1916.

However, this emergency crop of potatoes did not have the benefit of any too great care in its planting, and this is absolutely no reflection upon the farmers themselves. Owing to the high price of seed potatoes and the inadequate supply, seed was planted which was totally unfit for use as such. One might say that culls and even peelings were planted. On top of this the price of fertilizers was so abnormally high as to make their use well nigh prohibitive. Consequently, the 1917 potato crop has been produced from poor seed, poorly nourished, and therefore does not give any too great promise of exhibiting high keeping qualities. At this writing the harvest season is about on. Meanwhile droughts, late blight and insect damage have greatly reduced the crop in sight below that which was estimated early in the season. And yet with all these setbacks we are certain to have a crop considerably in excess of the average harvest of this country.

The pressing question is: now that we have raised it, what are we going to do with it? This late potato crop, which is harvested over a period of six weeks, must serve as a great factor in our food supply over a period something like nine months. It will not serve as food over that period if the greatest care is not taken in its harvesting, storage and distribution, and this brings up one major problem in the war-made economic situation, to aid in solving which the United States Food Administration is devoting no small measure of its energy.

Let me make it perfectly clear that the Food Administration does not plan to handle this crop in the sense of acting as purchaser or distributor. Only in the case of wheat has the administration taken these extreme measures. With regard to the potato problem, the Food Administration plans to assist all normal machinery having at do with the handling of this crop and toward securing an equitable distribution of it.

An equitable distribution means more than most of us imagine. It means that the farmer who has produced this crop must receive for it a price which will repay him for the heavy expense of its production; otherwise you cannot expect him to plant heavily another year. The consumer must be able to buy potatoes at a price which

does not put them in the class of luxuries. Between those two extremes lies many a pitfall which can wreck the hope of securing these justices for either producer or consumer, or both.

I have tried to make it plain that the Food Administration is attempting to cooperate with normal business agencies for securing the best possible disposition of this potato crop. It has called to Washington a large number of growers and distributors to discuss with these gentlemen the best plans toward that end. And it has endeavored to impress upon these gentlemen that the only way under the sun that these results can be achieved is through a wholehearted spirit of service on their part. The Food Administration is using no club, it merely extends to every factor its right hand of cooperation.

It has been definitely decided that potato distributors will be licensed. The trade, generally, seems to heartily approve of this plan. This license acts as a safeguard for the efficient coöperating distributor's efforts against unscrupulous practices which occasionally break out and now would nullify the best endeavors.

The Food Administration does not discountenance the storing of potatoes for the purpose of assuring the market an even, steady flow of that food product. Only in the case of storage for the purpose of bringing about an abnormal shortage in the market to the end of influencing prices, will the Food Administration seek recourse to laws which will enable it to correct such abuses. The policy of the Food Administration is strictly a constructive one. Its legal powers have been provided simply to protect the coöperation entered into by it and the whole trade.

While there is no cure-all for the problems arising in connection with the disposition of this potato crop, yet there are a number of steps which may be taken and which have been taken, to make the solution of these problems just a bit easier. For example, it was my privilege, in a measure, to influence the recent ruling of the Federal Reserve Board under which potatoes properly sorted and graded and properly stored, will furnish adequate security for warehouse receipts negotiable at member banks at a rate not to exceed 6 per cent, including all commissions.

To make such a ruling work out successfully rather than develop into a flat fiasco, we must have some standard rules for grading to tie to. In cooperation with the federal Department of Agriculture,

the Food Administration has worked out these official grades which have been approved, and which will serve as a basis for the efficient operation of the Federal Reserve ruling.

Many of us are familiar with the story of the reclamation projects; many of us know of the near-tragedy which has surrounded the settlement of many of these areas. Pioneering in America was not ended in '49. It goes on today on these projects, and I know of no more beautiful example of American aggressive fortitude than exemplified in the daily life of many of our reclamation settlers. So many of these settlers are heavily in debt that I am taking this opportunity to record what to my mind is typical of America's response to the President's appeal for increased production of food crops. As I say, many were heavily in debt, but they have borrowed money to increase their production of potatoes-borrowed money for seed, implements and labor. Their crops have been good, for many of the projects consist of the best potato soil in this country. When harvest was about to come, they faced inadequate storage facilities for this crop. For any government agency to advise these people that the thing to do was to erect sufficient storage capacity, would have been about as helpful to them as a treatise on dietetics would be to a starving man. They would have built additional storage facilities if they had had the funds to do it. Secretary Lane, of the Interior Department, with the Reclamation Service officials, stepped into this breach and loaned government money to the project settlers to take care of this problem. The large shippers of potatoes off these projects throughout the country assure us that there will be little or no loss on this crop due to lack of storage facilities. This, of course, is good to know. It takes a load off our minds.

Early this season, and even now for that matter, there has been a more or less general thought that in view of our increased production of potatoes it would be necessary and highly economical to put great quantities of these through processes of dehydration. The dehydrated potato is merely one which has been sliced or shredded, dried of practically all its moisture, and so put in a form to keep well nigh indefinitely. Dehydrated products lose nothing of their original nutritive value, but they do lose bulk and therefore economize in the matter of freight charges and storage space.

During the Boer War the British government had prepared for