THE FEEDING OF THE NATION 9 



of nature have not been reached in any country and 

 that many times the present population of the world 

 can be adequately and comfortably fed by the use 

 of the knowledge already existing. 



Yet, despite all this expenditure of money and 

 effort, despite the discoveries of science and the 

 introduction of improved machinery, despite the 

 substitution of steam and gasolene for horse-power 

 and the increase in the effectiveness of human labor, 

 the question of feeding America becomes more acute 

 each year, while the high cost of living is a problem 

 which worries not only the worker but the middle 

 classes as well. The war has made this problem 

 acute, so acute, in fact, that the war has passed from 

 one of man-power and munition-power into one of 

 food-power. Not only is this true of Austria-Hun- 

 gary and Germany, it is true of England, Russia, 

 and France as well. And now America is confronted 

 with the same problem, which is becoming so acute 

 that the public-school classes have been dismissed 

 in order that boys and girls may be organized for the 

 planting and harvesting of crops. The whole nation 

 has been urged to cultivate its back yards and to 

 utilize heretofore neglected fields and parcels of land. 

 The people have been urged to economize, to hus- 

 band their food supply. Dietary statisticians sug- 

 gest the substitution of cheap cereals, and the worker 

 is solicitously informed that he can live upon a rice 

 diet if he but makes up his mind to do so. Even the 



