PINE ROOTS AND POTATOES 



By Arthur Newton Pack 



THERE was once a time before the war when cheap 

 German grown potatoes could be bought in the mar- 

 kets of New York, Philadelphia and other Atlantic points 

 for less than it cost to produce the American spud; but 

 we need not worry about its occurring again. Just now 

 the German potato is very much needed at home. Prior 

 to 1914, Germany was seldom able to produce more than 

 60 per cent of her entire food requirements, and indeed 



TRUNK, ROOT AND BRANCHES 



Here is a pile of corded pine to be rationed out by the governmental authorities 

 All small sizes are used so that no available fuel wood is lost. 



there were many who felt that starvation would force 

 her to end the great war long before she did. It will 

 always remain a miracle as to how her people managed 

 to subsist during those four lean years of war, and the 

 fact that they did not die in hundreds of thousands is 

 only attributable to Germany's marvel- 

 lous efficiency in the development and 

 distribution of such food as she was able 

 to produce or smuggle in. In many parts 

 of the country, the potato was during 

 that time almost the sole article of diet, 

 and every square foot of space which 

 could be made available for truck farm- 

 ing was put to work. 



Coal was always scarce in Germany, 

 and the struggle for the possession of 

 the regions where it might be found un- 

 doubtedly figured largely in her plan of 

 iipiperial domination. Nearly all her 

 home heating and cooking was by 

 means of wood fires. During the war 

 even the meager supply of coal available 

 for home consumption was comman- 

 deered for army and munition manufac- 

 turing purposes, and for all the forests, 

 a fuel famine was added to the other 



distresses of the people. Most of the towns and cities 

 of Germany own their own wood lots dating back for 

 five or six centuries, and they usually operate them 

 through state or municipal agencies on the principle of 

 a tree for a tree. It was not always so, for Germany 

 once almost completely exhausted her forests. So ter- 

 rific was the lesson that even the greatest war of his- 

 tory has never wiped it from the minds of the people. As 

 the government had no mind to permit 

 the destruction of the forests during the 

 past war, and thus involve the nation in 

 a future problem far more serious, wood 

 fuel soon took a prominent place upon 

 the list of daily necessities rationed out. 

 The municipal forests, more carefully 

 guarded than ever, stood between the 

 nation and famine. In the beech wood 

 lots, even the nuts, for there was a very 

 large crop during 1916-17 and 18, were 

 gathered and, because of their oily con- 

 tents, used in place of lamps and can- 

 dles in the homes. In the pine forests, 

 when an area was cut for fuel, even the 

 stumps and roots were tipped out and 

 split up to supplement the supply. 

 Then, immediately an area was cleared, 

 the ground was ploughed or dug up by 

 hand and sown with alternate rows of 

 pine seed and potatoes. Two or three 

 crops of potatoes could be obtained from the land before 

 the trees became large enough to interfere. Although 

 her nitrates had largely been re-allocated from agricul- 

 tural to war-time purposes, one thing that Germany did 

 have was fertilizing material. Of course, now the war 



FOOD AND FUEL FROM THE SAME FIELD 



Two years ago this was a city wood lot; twenty years hence it will again be pro- 

 ducing fuel. But in the meantime, successive crops of potatoes will alleviate the 

 food famine. 



(Continued on page 178.) 



