FARMERS' PART IN WORLD WAR 31 



addition of help from the cities. There was a 

 good deal of popular talk of how city men and 

 boys went into the country and saved the har- 

 vest and how business organizations formed 

 groups of men to work in the fields, but their 

 real value in helping the farmer was compara- 

 tively small. 



The work was speeded up more by the in- 

 genuity of the practical farmer in using machin- 

 ery and the farm women and children than by 

 all help from the outside. All this speeding up 

 increased the farmer's costs. Not only was it 

 more expensive to keep more horses and trac- 

 tors, but horse feed, gasoline and oil cost more 

 and the burden laid upon the farmer was ex- 

 ceedingly heavy. 



Added to the handicaps of shortage of labor 

 and higher cost of machinery was the grooving 

 scarcity of fertilizer which was a serious factor 

 in the eastern states and with special crops like 

 potatoes. The excessively high prices of fer- 

 tilizer added to the cost of production even more 

 than the increased cost of labor in many in- 

 stances. 



In the midst of the widespread campaign for 

 increased production which farmers were asked 

 to make in the face of increasing costs came the 



