THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 7 
milk and other foods very materially aided in cutting 
consumption generally. 
Lessened consumption, however, was not enough. 
There had to be increased production. Obviously Eu- 
rope could not raise any more food than it was raising. 
Since America was the only country from which it was 
possible for Europe to draw food, it became necessary 
that we should enlarge our yields. The children of 
Israel could not make bricks for Pharaoh without 
straw; and when we attempted to create food for fam- 
ishing Europe we experienced similar difficulty, though 
our shortage was of man-power. For a decade or more 
there had been a tremendous exodus from our farms. 
Our farmers cried for help, but their cry went unheeded 
until we found ourselves facing hunger. Then it was 
too late. It would have been as easy to put Humpty 
Dumpty together again as to bring back to the farm 
the thousands of boys and men who had been lured 
away by high wages in town and factory. How enor- 
mous had been this exodus from the farms we cannot 
tell accurately; but we know, from surveys made by the 
state, that, a decade ago, Pennsylvania had 160,000 
farm hands as against 80,000 in 1918; and that in New 
York State in 1918 there were 45,000 fewer farm hands 
than in 1917, and 40,000 fewer farm girls. Every agri- 
cultural section of the nation was short-handed. When 
the crisis came, when the production of more food was 
absolutely imperative if the forces fighting for freedom 
were not to be starved into surrender and submission, 
our farms were found stripped of helpers. Our agri- 
