NATIONAL FOOD CONSUMPTION. 215 



The table and diagram bring out very clearly the effectiveness of 

 the Food Administration's campaign for conservation and substi- 

 tution in foods. It will be noted at once that the commodities show- 

 ing great increases in consumption in 191 7-18 over the preceding 

 years are, for the most part, those which the Food Administration 

 urged to be substituted for articles of which the supply was less 

 abundant, and for which the needs of the Allies were greater. 

 Thus, rye, which constituted the most popular of the substitutes 

 for wheat in the public mind, shows the greatest increased consump- 

 tion in 1917-18. Next to it stands the ''Other cereals" of our 

 classification, including barley and buckwheat. Nuts, rice and the 

 vegetables generally show increases beyond the population increase, 

 showing that the people very generally followed the suggestions of • 

 the Food Administration to consume more of these products and 

 save Vv'heat. The articles on which the Food Administration most 

 strongly urged conservation — namely, wheat, beef, mutton, pork 

 and the sugars — all show either a consumption actually below the 

 normal average, or else a very slight absolute increase well below 

 the population percentage increase. In either case a real and sub- 

 stantial conservation is, of course, shown. The decrease in con- 

 sumption of the most popular fruits, oranges, apples and bananas 

 is largely if not entirely explained by high prices for these products. 



We get now to the most interesting stage of any discussion of 

 food, namely, the per capita per day consumption. Calculating the 

 results on this basis puts them in a form where we may form a 

 better judgment of their meaning and compare them with accepted 

 dietary standards. In this connection it is to be remembered that 

 hitherto we have had no careful studies on a per capita basis of the 

 actual nutritional intake of the population as a whole. All dietary 

 standards are based not on the actual practice of the whole popula- 

 tion, but rather upon dietary studies made on restricted groups of 

 selected individuals. While a very large number of such studies 

 have been made by the United States Department of Agriculture 

 particularly from ten to twenty years ago, it must be obvious that 

 since such studies are made on selected small groups they can only 

 inferentially give any picture of what is taking place in the popula- 

 tion as a whole. The theory of random sampling makes it clear 



