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a basic commodity. I “Much could be said about the cost price squeeze. According to information provided by the Economics Branch of our Department, in 1949 (a base year frequently used for com- parison purposes) prices for good steers and grade A hogs in Toronto were $20.65 and $30.42 per cwt. respectively. No. 1 hard wheat averaged $2.05 per bushel and corn sold for $1.35. “By the spring of 1965, sixteen years later, the yield on three-month Treasury Bills had increased 725%. The average weekly wage for automobile and other transportation equipment workers increased 131%. Prices of commodi- ties and services purchased by farmers inâ€" creased 51%. The price increase for farm products during these sixteen years was one percent. It agricultural prices had kept up with the Treasury Bill yield, the average prices for live- stock and grain in the spring of 1965 would have been: good steers $170.00 per cwt.; Grade A hogs (dressed) $250.00 per cwt.; No. 1 hard wheat $16.90 per bushel and corn $11.15 per bushel. Had agricultural prices kept up with increased wages for automobile workers, prices in the spring of 1965 would have been: good steers $47.70; Grade A hogs $70.30; No. 1 hard wheat $4.70; and corn $3.10. “Consumers must be realistic. In the 1961 Census. 121.333 were listed as farmers in On- tario. We are now told there are less than 80,000, and this may be reduced in the next few years to 60,000. For the past five years, 1,917 Canadian farm workers have been leav- ing agriculture each month. In 1965 there were less than half as many farm workers on Cana- dian farms than there were at the end of the war. Thousands of efficient farmers have gone out of business in the last 10 years; others have continued to stay on the farm because farmers are proud of their soil, their homes and their way of life. On the farm they are pretty sure of their meals. You have heard about rural poverty. It is now a major prob- lem. In recent months you have probably heard more than ever before about unrest in rural areas. If We lose production, imports will cost more money. Shortages of some foods have already become a reality; and there will be more!“ Modem Milk Marketing Mr. J. L. Baker, Ontario Dairy Commisâ€" sioner, explained why a single Milk Marketing system is being set up to take the place of a system for each product â€" butter, cheese, fluid milk. “In Ontario,” Mr. Baker said, “there are over 30,000 milk producers. Without some system of marketing control, each of these 30 producers would be throwing his prodiict .. the open market and in effect, would have :0 take what he could get for it. At times. r .. much milk going into one kind of product . 1. sulted in Overproduction of this product v... a weakening of prices; while at the same i. we could have produced and sold mort- other dairy products, had the milk been p essed into themâ€"into cheddar Choose example . . . A new authority will provide the diversion of milk away from thOse prod in overproduction to those in underprod uc: and thus provide a more stable market in dairy industry." Mr. Baker said the new system will provide for the control and regulation ol marketing of milk as well as for the qu. It will establish prices which the purch. plants must pay the province for both milk and for cheese. It will also devel more efficient system of transporting v doing away with some of the overlappin milk routes. Of special interest to the w. was the statement: “The Milk Mark. Board is aiming for the production and of the highest quality milk it is possit‘ produce.” F1 1‘ . ti. ‘k * * TIED By Mabel Freer Loveridge They let my brother go where fancy led They gave, to me, a. little house to sn-m "He's like his restless dad,” they always 5:1 While I had hens to feed and bees to ken Through all the years I played a quiet r- In that small town with all its rigid hm While all my brother’s letters hurt my hL' With talk of ships and roving caravans. I braided mats and stitched the endless seams; I washed the dishes, and I brushed the crumbs; And no one knew that, in rebellious dreai I heard a temple bell and jungle drums. They never thought, though it may well true, A daughter can be like her father, too. * ‘k '1' OBSERVATION By Elizabeth-Ellen Long On wings of gossamer goes the fly. The hopâ€"toad wears a jeweled eye, Lizards are carved from greenest jade, T-he serpent's back is rich brocade, In veils of lace the spider hides And fish have sequin-patterned sides, The mouse's coat is velvet-soft, Twin rainbows lift the moth aloft. The beetle‘s shell is ruby glass, The snail trails silver through the grass The caterpillar has gold bars And glow-worms shine like little stars. For howsoever small or low They are, or in what paths they go, You’ll find but few live things abroad Without some beauty-mark of God! 42;; HOME AND co"- in"