American Notes of the Week
(By Cable)
FARM RELIEF.
The Farm Board recently appointed to formulate farm relief schemes, assisted by the $500,000,000 appropriation authorized by Congress, has now indicated the general prin- ciples which are to guide its work, and is applying them to the serious situation in Florida, caused by the depredations of the Mediterranean fruit fly. About thirty-four per cent. of the land area of Florida and seventy-two per cent. of its bear- ing are citrons fruit trees, and are involved in the infestation. The Department of Agriculture is waging a vigorous campaign to exterminate the fly, but the Farm Board has been asked for additional equipment. While sympathetic towards the immediate request the Board, nevertheless, insists that growers must help themselves, by combining in two separate co-opera- tive organizations, and agree on a unified plan for the future development of the industry. Thus the Board indicates its general policy, which aims not so much at providing palliatives as at the consolidation of the numerous farmers' co-operative groups (there are 12,000 of them altogether in the United States), with the object of achieving a thorough- going reorganization of American agriculture. The Board's plan for the formation of a $20,000,000 grain _marketing cor- poration, to merge the marketing activities of the numerous farmer-owned grain pools, co-operatives, and elevator associa- tions, is in line with this policy.
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