WAR, PATRIOTISM, AND THE FOOD SUPPLY 



255 



The people of the United States, how- 

 ever, have not yet come to appreciate 

 fully that our most important duty in this 

 war lies in still another direction, indi- 

 cated also by our economic and geo- 

 graphic position. I refer to the mainte- 

 nance of an adequate food supply for the 

 British and the French. 



The armies of France and the British 

 Empire must be well nourished. The 

 British and French industrial workers 

 who supply those armies with munitions 

 must be well nourished also. Within the 

 last few weeks Argentina has declared an 

 embargo on the export of wheat. More 

 than ever before, therefore, is it incum- 

 bent on us to maintain a wide and con- 

 stant stream of food supplies to France, 

 Great Britain, and to Italy also. If we 

 fail to do so 



But we shall not fail. Our duty is 

 clear. The task is large. Understand- 

 ing and organization will enable us to ac- 

 complish it. Understanding and organi- 

 zation are at work upon it. The United 

 States Department of Agriculture, State 

 agencies and county agencies, all are car- 

 rying the message to every farmer in the 

 country. 



OUR DEMANDS FOR FOOD ARE INCREASING 



MUCH MORE RAPIDLY THAN OUR 



PRODUCTION 



There are limitations, however, to the 

 amount of food that can be grown on 

 American farms, and none of these lim- 

 itations is more potent than the scarcity 

 of farm labor. Even in normal times the 

 supply of efficient agricultural labor is, in 

 general, inadequate. More land is avail- 

 able than can be farmed effectively. The 

 town outbids the farmer for his labor by 

 higher wages, or shorter hours, or fan- 

 cied superiority of recreation, or by all 

 these combined. 



In war times the attraction of agricul- 

 tural labor away from the farm becomes 

 greater than ever. Military service, mu- 

 nitions manufacture, and the other indus- 

 tries of war all tend to take their quota 

 from the farm. The establishment of an 

 ammunition factory near the city of 

 Washington has combed the labor from 

 the farms, either directly or by progres- 

 sive replacement in other pursuits, for 



miles around. The suburbs of many 

 other cities where munition plants exist 

 are having similar experiences. 



As long ago as 1898 it was contended 

 by Sir William Crookes, and the conten- 

 tion was sustained by one of our fore- 

 most agricultural statisticians, that by the 

 year 193 1 the increasing population of 

 America was likely to consume all the 

 wheat we raised. 



We are already more than half way on 

 the road to that destination. Increased 

 acreage and improved agricultural meth- 

 ods have, it is true, intervened to increase 

 our crops ; but our consumption of food 

 has also increased enormously, and the 

 difference between what we raise and 

 what we eat is shrinking year by year. 



PRODUCE SOME FOOD IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN 



One does not question that the Amer- 

 ican farmer will do his duty, or that the 

 wide-spread movement for city gardening 

 will contribute somewhat to the extension 

 of our food surplus ; but there remains a 

 large class of our population favorably 

 situated for food production and well 

 able to take part in it, whose contribution 

 is only a small fraction of what it might 

 be made. I refer to the man whose busi- 

 ness ordinarily is in town, but whose resi- 

 dence in the country gives him access to 

 an area of ground varying in size from a 

 small garden to an ample farm, used, 

 however, only in small part or not at all 

 for gardening or farming purposes. 



Usually such country dwellers have the 

 equipment for gardening or for farming, 

 but make only such limited use of it as 

 suits their convenience or their demands 

 for recreation. 



The time is now at hand when every 

 non-farmer who has unemployed farm- 

 ing or gardening land, and every summer 

 resident in the country, can contribute 

 patriotically to the welfare of his country 

 and the progress of liberty by producing 

 all the fruit and all the vegetables he con- 

 sumes, and in some cases also the eggs 

 and poultry that he needs. And I mean 

 not merely the fruits and vegetables that 

 he uses in summer, but those he will re- 

 quire in the following winter. 



Our grandmothers knew how to pre- 

 serve fruit for winter use by drying it 



