THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 7 



milk and other foods very materially aided in cutting 

 consumption generally. 



Lessened consumption, however, was not enough. 

 There had to be increased production. Obviously Eu- 

 rope could not raise any more food than it was raising. 

 Since America was the only country from which it was 

 possible for Europe to draw food, it became necessary 

 that we should enlarge our yields. The children of 

 Israel could not make bricks for Pharaoh without 

 straw; and when we attempted to create food for fam- 

 ishing Europe we experienced similar difficulty, though 

 our shortage was of man-power. For a decade or more 

 there had been a tremendous exodus from our farms. 

 Our farmers cried for help, but their cry went unheeded 

 until we found ourselves facing hunger. Then it was 

 too late. It would have been as easy to put Humpty 

 Dumpty together again as to bring back to the farm 

 the thousands of boys and men who had been lured 

 away by high wages in town and factory. How enor- 

 mous had been this exodus from the farms we cannot 

 tell accurately; but we know, from surveys made by the 

 state, that, a decade ago, Pennsylvania had 160,000 

 farm hands as against 80,000 in 1918; and that in New 

 York State in 1918 there were 45,000 fewer farm hands 

 than in 1917, and 40,000 fewer farm girls. Every agri- 

 cultural section of the nation was short-handed. When 

 the crisis came, when the production of more food was 

 absolutely imperative if the forces fighting for freedom 

 were not to be starved into surrender and submission, 

 our farms were found stripped of helpers. Our agri- 



