6 
THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 
soldier was sharply reduced — a measure to which resort 
is had only in situations of direst necessity. Indeed, 
many well-informed persons attribute the disaster of 
1917 on the Italian front to the lowering of morale con- 
sequent upon the cutting of the bread ration. The 
soldier well knew that if his food was cut his family 
must be well-nigh starving to death. 
All Europe had to resort to meatless days. French 
milk production, as early as 1916, had fallen off sixty 
per cent. Dairy products were so scarce in England 
that cream could be secured only upon a physician’s 
certificate declaring it necessary to the health of the 
recipient. Sugar consumption had to be rigidly re- 
stricted. The English, who before the war were the 
greatest users of sugar in the world, with an average 
consumption of something like ninety-three pounds a 
person a year, were restricted to twenty-six pounds per 
annum, and this ration was later cut to twenty-four 
pounds. The French were limited to thirteen pounds a 
year, and the sugar ration of the Italian was drastically 
cut to nine pounds a year. That is to say, persons of 
these nationalities were allowed to buy the quantities 
named when the foods were to be had, but often the food 
was not to be had . There were entire districts in F ranee, 
for instance, where for days no bread at all was to be 
obtained and not much else. The actual consumption, 
therefore, was less than the ration allowed. Our own 
consumption, too, was sharply reduced. Through meat- 
less and wheatless days our use of wheat and flesh was 
greatly lessened, while the high prices of butter, eggs, 
