Food for the Other Fellows

U.S. truck farmers--and canners--are going to have to break all production records in 1942. Besides feeding itself, the U.S. will have to keep Britain's pantry stocked, and Russia's. The Department of Agriculture gave a rough idea of the gigantic job ahead, by calling for an average 25% increase over 1941. Department heads said that next year's requirements would be at least:

Forty-four million cases of canned tomatoes; 42 million cases of canned peas; 14 million cases of canned snap beans; 25 million cases of canned corn. Probabilities were that figures would be revised upwards when new Russian Ambassador Litvinoff arrives in Washington with a full report of Russian requirements.

Growers and canners who gathered in Washington to hear lumbering Roy Hendrickson, Surplus Marketing Administrator, outline the Government's plans, agreed that they can do the job if they have to. All they asked was assurance that the Government would really take all surpluses off their hands, not leave them holding the bag.

Whether, in future Lend-Lease bills. Congress would provide enough for this gigantic program was another question which gave everybody some anxiety. Last week the Administration was buying surplus commodities for shipment to Britain and her allies at the rate of $5,000,000 a day. The last of the Lend-Lease food money that Congress has voted ($1,500,000,000) will be spent long before next spring's and summer's crops are in.

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