THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 
3 
At the same time the harvests were maturing or al- 
ready ripe for the sickle; and over these laden acres 
swept the millions of soldiers, trampling, burning and 
destroying vast stores of food. In Belgium and France 
on the west front, and in Hungary, East Prussia, and 
Russia on the east, thousands upon thousands of crop- 
bearing acres were devastated and laid waste. 
In a few short weeks this was the situation: the food 
supply was largely decreased, vast areas of farming 
land were rendered unproductive, and the farms were 
practically stripped of their accustomed tillers. The 
world’s food supply was thrown entirely out of balance. 
Ordinarily the food-supply system was as nicely 
adjusted as the parts of a watch. Production was 
balanced against consumption. Given markets were 
supplied from given sources. 
So unfailing was this system that each of the belli- 
gerent nations absolutely depended upon other nations 
for certain parts of its food, and had received its expected 
supply as unfailingly as our daily milk and newspapers 
are delivered at our doors. Thus England procured 
most of her sugar from Germany, and Italy got wheat 
from Russia, by way of the Dardanelles. At one stroke, 
this nicely balanced system was destroyed. 
Worse than the wrecking of the system of distribution 
was the unbalancing of production itself. Millions 
of farms, stripped of their male workers, necessarily 
became either wholly unproductive or able to raise 
but a fraction of their normal output. In a moment’s 
time, as it were, the food production of Europe was 
