INTRODUCTION ix 



of food for her European Allies, The urgency and 

 abundance of this supply will remain the same 

 whether speedy peace is declared or war continues 

 to the end. 



Efficient, victory-winning aid, unaccompanied by 

 misery at home, is what the United States valiantly 

 hopes to extend. Limited aid, much less than we are 

 called upon to render, is all that our present plans, 

 patriotic as they are, make possible. 



Here in America, unless these plans are seriously 

 modified and radically extended, bread cards will be 

 inevitable. Already vast numbers of American cit- 

 izens seriously feel privation. 



One New York City butter house, distributing 

 from door to door less than a year ago nearly 

 100,000 pounds of butter weekly, distributes now less 

 than 60,000 pounds in the same period and this quan- 

 tity is constantly shrinking. Many people cannot 

 afford to buy butter and are seeking cheaper substi- 

 tutes, the supply of which is far below the demand. 



The same situation is true with respect to meat, 

 eggs, vegetables and fruit. To an ever-increasing 

 extent the plain people must depend on cereal foods. 

 For this reason the necessity of providing the max- 

 imum nutritive qualities of our highly milled grain 

 foods is obvious. 



We are promised ar^ enormous increase in vege- 

 tables. Our ability to conserve the surplus and carry 

 it over is alarmingly inadequate. Half our normal 

 yield of fruits and vegetables rots in the field and 

 orchard. Our hardiest vegetables, as far as their 

 keeping qualities are concerned, are none too hardy. 



What we have heretofore kept have been kept in 

 cans. But the canneries are now wholly unable to 



