4 
THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 
lessened by millions and millions of bushels. Since food 
production is not, like Aladdin’s palace, the creation of 
a night, this inevitably meant a shortage in the world’s 
food supply. Before the European deficit could be made 
good by increased production elsewhere, months and 
perhaps years must elapse. 
Then came the submarine, further to complicate 
matters. By hundreds of thousands of tons the world’s 
shipping was sent to the bottom of the sea, so that in a 
short time the food situation wore an entirely new 
aspect. No matter what mountainous piles of proven- 
der might accumulate in the distant parts of the earth, 
it was not available for the nations at war. Ships 
could not be spared for long and distant voyages. If 
the 120,000,000 people of the Entente nations were to 
have food, if they were to procure enough to keep them 
from actual starvation, that food must come from the 
nearest markets. Only by sending their ships back and 
forth from these markets, back and forth like shuttles 
in a loom, could food be transported rapidly enough 
to keep this great population from starvation. Prior 
to the war England had produced but one-fifth of her 
own food supply, France one-half of hers, and Italy 
two-thirds of what she consumed, and now their home 
production was fearfully decreased. The nearest possible 
markets where food could be produced were in North 
America, and principally in our own country. Thus the 
burden of feeding the Entente fell very largely upon the 
United States. Whether we wished to undertake the 
task or not, Fate had saddled the burden upon our backs. 
