4O THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 



tilled, nor meat animals from empty pastures. In- 

 creased food production must be stimulated. Con- 

 servation alone can not attain the desired end. 



To those who think a food crisis an impossibility, 

 I would say that based upon the Government and other 

 estimates there was early in 1918 a general belief that 

 a vast amount of wheat remained in the farmers' 

 hands, and a feeling that they should be compelled 

 to disgorge. Protests were particularly vehement 

 concerning the Nebraska farmers until in April, 1918, 

 when an invoice was made of the Nebraska farmers' 

 granaries. As a result, approximately 400,000 bush- 

 els of wheat were found. Quite a bit of wheat, but 

 not quite enough to feed her civil population for three 

 weeks about one-quarter enough to re-seed her 

 fields. With this condition in the second wheat pro- 

 ducing State in the Union, where for twenty years 

 wheat has of all cereals been the most profitable, what 

 must be the condition in other States where this crop 

 has been of little or no profit? An invoice of the corn 

 cribs of the country would, in my opinion, result in 

 a still greater surprise. Our armies and Allies can- 

 not subsist on exaggerated estimates and rose-colored 

 crop predictions. 



