Vol. XXXI, No. 



WASHINGTON 



June, 1917 



THE 



MATQOMAL 

 AGAZH 



REVIVING A LOST ART 



IN NO other field of endeavor have 

 German efficiency and German sci- 

 ence been so eminently successful as 

 in the conservation of that country's 

 limited resources to such a remarkable 

 degree that even after three years of iso- 

 lation from world markets, on which for- 

 merly it depended so largely for suste- 

 nance, the nation is not yet faced with the 

 alternatives of surrender or starvation. 



The United States can profit by this 

 economic success of its enemy. 



One of the most important features of 

 the food conservation movement in Ger- 

 many since the outbreak of the war, and 

 one which has been of material aid in 

 maintaining the physical fitness of the 

 German industrial worker and his family, 

 has been the practice of drying fruits and 

 vegetables. 



In the great cities all over the empire 

 the government, following the establish- 

 ment of an effectual blockade of food 

 supplies, put into operation the scheme 

 of collecting from the markets all un- 

 sold vegetables and fruits at the end of 

 each day. Those foods which would 

 have spoiled if "held over" were taken 

 to large municipal drying plants, where 

 they were made fit for future use at 

 a negligible cost. These drying plants 

 thus became great national food reser- 

 voirs, saving immense quantities of food 

 which otherwise would have gone to 

 waste. 



But the activities of the German Gov- 

 ernment did not end here. Communitv 



driers were established in the smaller 

 towns and villages, and the inhabitants 

 were instructed to see that all surplus 

 vegetables were brought in and subjected 

 to the drying process, which insured 

 against the great extravagance of non- 

 use. 



A third method of conservation by dry- 

 ing was inaugurated with the itinerant 

 drying machines. These vegetable dry- 

 kilns on wheels were sent through all the 

 rural communities, and the farmer was 

 admonished to allow no fruit to grow 

 over-ripe in his orchard, no vegetable to 

 spoil ungathered in his garden. It was an 

 intensive campaign for the saving of little 

 things, in so far as each individual house- 

 hold was concerned ; but it has totaled 

 large in the story of the nation's eco- 

 nomic endurance. 



Not only does the drying of fruits and 

 vegetables increase the supply in the win- 

 ter larder of the people at home, but 

 much of the dried product can be in- 

 cluded with the wheat, which must be 

 sent in a constant stream across the seas 

 to feed our own soldiers in France and 

 our Allies on the battle fronts of the 

 world. 



The practicability of sending dried 

 garden and orchard products to the fight- 

 ing men has been demonstrated already 

 in Canada, where fruits have been pre- 

 served in . this manner and shipped to 

 Europe. 



While the process of saving surplus 

 summer vegetables for winter consump- 



