I am addressing you as a member of the Food Conservation Commission for your county to request that you write this office giving the names of the officers and members of your Executive Committee without delay. If you have not yet organized and selected the members from your various school districts let me urge you personally to take the initiative, get the other members together and get in working shape promptly.

It is the desire of the State Commission that the president of the Farmers’ Union, or some member designated by him, be included in the Executive Committee of your County Commission. We have not a list of these gentlemen and I am asking you now to notify them and secure their effective co-operation.

With regard to the activities of your County Food Conservation Commission: We must work earnestly and vigorously not only to increase the acreage in food and feed crops upon our farms by the reduction of the cotton and tobacco acreage and the putting into cultivation of additional areas; but we must work just as determinedly to increase the acreage in staple food and feed crops through the cultivation of idle lands in our cities and towns and country districts.

I have written to the mayors and commercial organizations of our cities and towns urging them to take steps to cultivate all vacant lots and lands available. You gentlemen are on the ground and the State Commission is going to have to depend upon you to push this matter energetically. Where areas of considerable size can be secured in the country these should be utilized, either by the county road forces or through other means. Road work, as important as it is, is not as vital at this time as the production of the food and feedstuffs necessary to keep our people from want during the coming year, and our county authorities should not stop at producing sufficient food and feedstuffs for the use of their own establishments, but should raise as great a surplus as possible for their local markets. The money thus secured can in turn be used effectively in road and other construction work. The Governor and Attorney General have eased the fears of the timid by stating that the County Commissioners have ample authority for such operations.

Get on your toes! Put all the pep and ginger and earnestness and vigor into this campaign that you can command!