THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 3 



At the same time the harvests were maturing or al- 

 ready ripe for the sickle; and over these laden acres 

 swept the millions of soldiers, trampling, burning and 

 destroying vast stores of food. In Belgium and France 

 on the west front, and in Hungary, East Prussia, and 

 Russia on the east, thousands upon thousands of crop- 

 bearing acres were devastated and laid waste. 



In a few short weeks this was the situation: the food 

 supply was largely decreased, vast areas of farming 

 land were rendered unproductive, and the farms were 

 practically stripped of their accustomed tillers. The 

 world's food supply was thrown entirely out of balance. 

 Ordinarily the food-supply system was as nicely 

 adjusted as the parts of a watch. Production was 

 balanced against consumption. Given markets were 

 supplied from given sources. 



So unfailing was this system that each of the belli- 

 gerent nations absolutely depended upon other nations 

 for certain parts of its food, and had received its expected 

 supply as unfailingly as our daily milk and newspapers 

 are delivered at our doors. Thus England procured 

 most of her sugar from Germany, and Italy got wheat 

 from Russia, by way of the Dardanelles. At one stroke, 

 this nicely balanced system was destroyed. 



Worse than the wrecking of the system of distribution 

 was the unbalancing of production itself. Millions 

 of farms, stripped of their male workers, necessarily 

 became either wholly unproductive or able to raise 

 but a fraction of their normal output. In a moment's 

 time, as it were, the food production of Europe was 



