selves, but to our allies, it is the gravest aspect of a grave situation.

FOOD PRODUCTION DECLINING.

The relative volume of agricultural industry has been steadily declining, and the export of surplus foodstuffs and raw material was correspondingly decreasing up to the outbreak of the war. These facts are shown by the following tables. The first described the comparative diversion of population from agriculture to manufacture in the past thirty years:

Percentage increase in total populations, 1880-1910....... 83.3 Percentage increase in total wage earners in manufac

turing

.142.1

Percentage increase in total wage earners in agriculture 79.7

The same tendency is shown even more strikingly in the statistics of the distribution of urban and rural population in 1880 and 1910. Urban in this case refers to persons dwelling in towns of 2,500 or more population. In 1880, 29.5 per cent. of the American people was urban and 70.5 per cent. rural. In 1910, 46.3 per cent. was urban and 53.7 per cent rural. The movement of population appears in the following table: Percentage increase in total population, 1880-1910... Percentage increase in urban population, 1880-1910. Percentage increase in rural population, 1880-1910.. .... 39.4 The significant result of this tendency of Americans to concentrate in urban communities has been a decrease in the per capita production of staple food products. The per capita production of wheat in the United States thirty years ago in comparison with that of to-day is as follows:

83.3 188.5

To have had the same per capita production in the last nine years as in the earlier period, would have required an annual production of 73,600,000 bushels more than was actually produced. This falling off of eight-tenths of a bushel per capita is all the more significant because concentration of population in cities tends to increase the need of staple food products.

Statistics show an even more marked decline in the rate of increase of farm animals compared with the growth of population, during the four ten-year periods indicated:

It is seen that the production of cereals and food animals has for years failed to keep pace with the population. Especially has the rate of increase of animals been slowing down much more rapidly than the growth of population. In the

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case of sheep and swine, during the decade ending in 1910, there was an actual decrease. These evidences of declining per capita food production are the more grave because our common cereals and familiar animal foods must remain our chief dependence. To our allies they are even more essential, since they alone are adapted to overseas transportation.

FOOD EXPORTS DECLINING.

Because of the decreased per capita production, there has been a falling off in our relative exportation of staple food products. The proportion of our wheat crop exported in the periods indicated below, was:

This decrease is probable notwithstanding a record winter wheat acreage last autumn of 40,890,000 acres.

NEED OF ACTION.

The facts in reference to our food situation which have been presented prove conclusively the need of action. The aspect that has thus far received the most attention is the high prices and the burden these impose upon consumers. Many have jumped to the conclusion that middlemen and speculators were to blame, and that the remedy was to be sought in government interference with the normal course of trade, or by the expropriation of grain elevators, cold storage plants, and the other machinery for warehousing and distributing food products. Middlemen and speculators may have made unreasonable profits. This should be investigated. As a general statement, however, it is quite clear from the foregoing facts that the primary cause of the current high prices is an actual shortage of foodstuffs in comparison with the extraordinary demand for them. This being true, the remedy must be sought chiefly in masures that will cause an increased production of foodstuffs and an avoidance of waste in connection with distribution and consumption.

The

The Secretary of Agriculture has well said that this is not a time for hysteria. It is a time, however, for an aggressive, constructive policy led by the authorities at Washington and assisted by the authorities of every state in the Union. enthusiastic co-operation of the citizens of the entire country must be enlisted. To this end the traditional views that freeborn American citizens must not be interfered with, but must be left to work out their own salvation, must either give place to the principle that at a time of national crisis private preferences and conveniences must be sacrificed to the public interest. A wise national program must first be thought out. Then the full power of the government must be fearlessly exerted to bring the program into effective operation. For it must be recognized that food resources are fighting resources. Food mobilization is just as necessary as the mobilization of an army.

AID TO AGRICULTURISTS.

As a first step toward relieving the shortage of farm workers a survey should be undertaken in the principal agricultural states to determine the number of farm workers that will be required. The already existing machinery of public employment bureaus may then be utilized to address a nationwide appeal to all those competent to do agricultural work to turn to it this summer as the surest means of serving their country in its hour of need. If sufficient workers cannot be secured by these means, the same machinery which is being developed to enlist men for the army and navy may be employed to induce some of them to turn to agriculture as an equally important branch of the national service.

In addition to these measures, designed to increase the production of staples, every encouragement and assistance should be given to plans for increasing the production of green vegetables and other crops, by individual families who control vegetables and other crops, by individual families who control garden plots. Such products cannot be exported, but every addition to our supplies of these substitutes for staples in our own consumption, adds indirectly to our exportable surplus of staples. There is gratifying evidence from one end of the country to the other of a determination on the part of millions of families to produce, so far as possible, their own food supplies this summer. The only danger in this movement is that enthusiastic amateur farmers, with larger incomes to experiment with than our professional farmers, may hire workers and use up seed and fertilizers, without obtaining the crops that reguar farmers could secure with the same labor and materials. It is a period when everyone with land to cultivate should cultivate it, not by hiring farm workers away from competent farmers who wish to employ them, but by his own labor. A few hours weekly, devoted to garden cultivation by every suburban family, will add substantially to the year's food supply.

AVOIDANCE OF WASTE.

Quite as important as increased food production for a country so habituated to abundant food supplies as the United States, is the avoidance of the needless waste or misdirection of food materials. According to the "Times Annalist," we waste $700,000,000 worth of food in a year. European countries were never as profligate of food as we have been, and yet the necessity of conserving every particle of food, which the war has imposed upon them, has taught them new ways of avoiding waste that we will do well to copy.

One of the earliest and most sensible methods of economizing food was the introduction of war bread. This may be merely whole wheat bread-which utilizes some 85 per cent. of the wheat kernel instead of the 70 to 75 per cent. utilized in milling white flour-or bread made of mixed flour, containing rye, barley, and even potatoes as well as wheat. Our Agricultural Department should study European experience and, if satisfied that substantial saving could be effected along

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this line without detriment to national health and vitality, shoud urge upon Congress the prompt enactment of the measures necessary to bring us as speedily as possible to a warbread basis. A prohibitive tax on the manufacture of flour, not conforming to government specifications, would be a simple means of obtaining this end.

Even more serious than the consumption of white bread is the constant waste of food products of all sorts in most American families. Nothing short of a rationing system, like that of Germany, would stop this waste entirely, but much might be accomplished by a nation-wide campaign for food conservation. This might well be taken up by state and local health authorities, since food saving and sanitation and cleanliness go hand in hand.

SAVING IN ALCOHOL.

Besides avoiding all kinds of food wastes, Europe countries have been forced by necessity to curb the consumption of food materials in the production of liquor. A similar step, as a means of food conservation, may not become necessary in the United States, but the substantial additions to our food supplies that would result from the curbing or the suspending of the distilling and brewing business, ought to receive critical attention. Even if not sufficient to justify prohibitive legislation, they strongly reinforce the more familiar arguments in favor of this policy for a country at war.

In outlining the above program of Food Preparedness for the United States we have attempted rather to indicate than to advocate policies. The facts presented prove that a real food crisis confronts us. This calls as urgently for constructive national action as does the declaration that a state of war exists for the organization of the army. The National Defense Council has heard this call, and has signified its appreciation of the magnitude and importance of the task to be accomplished by selecting Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, the hero of Belgian relief, to head its committee on food supplies and prices.

(Columbia War Papers, No. 6.)

(c) [$260] Food Economy in Wartime.

BY PROFESSOR L. J. HENDERSON.

HOW TO BUY FOOD.

Economy in food depends first upon buying, at the lowest possible price, wisely chosen food products in the proper relative proportions. In order to buy at the lowest price, it is necessary to purchase somewhat large quantities, and it is imperatively necessary to avoid the package foods, especially those which are widely advertised. In most cases such foods sell for more than double a reasonable price.

One food alone should be bought in packages in order to insure the family against the dangers of disease, viz., milk. The second principle, that governing the choice of the food products which make up the family diet, is substantially the same for all classes who seek to economize at all.

All types of food stuffs should be included, but in very varying quantities. Thus for the sake of economy large quantities of cereal food, moderate quantities of dried beans and peas. and very small quantities indeed of meat should be used. In general similar foods are of equal value regardless of price. As a rule one kind of meat or fish is just as good as another and there is little to choose between the different cereals. The only qualification upon this statement is that some articles, notably milk, eggs, butter, white flour, are specially useful to the cook in the preparation of dishes made largely from cheaper substances, and for that reason should not be entirely dispensed with even though they may be expensive.

In the following table are presented the approximate cost in cents* of one-tenth of a day's ration (for an adult city dweller

*Retail prices in New York City in the year 1916.

of average weight and activity) of certain of the cheapest food stuffs:

COST OF ONE-TENTH OF A DAY'S RATION.

From this table it can readily be seen, for instance, that a day's requirements (10/10 of a ration) which may be satisfied with 2/10 of a ration of cornmeal, 3/10 of a ration of flour, 1/10 of a ration of sugar, 7/10 of a ration of beans, 1/10 of a ration of dried apples, 1/10 of a ration of cheese and 1/10 of a ration of butter, would cost about 12 cents. The greater part of the meal should consist of such articles.

But it must be clearly understood that the diet should not be restricted to this table and to similar articles except for short periods of time or in cases of dire necessity. Milk in particular, above all for children, but also small quantities of meat and fish and as much fresh vegetables and fruits as can be afforded, when they are sold at their lowest prices, are most desirable. Nothing but skill in cooking is then necessary to make the diet meet the requirements.

Economy without intelligence and shrewdness is impossible. If these qualities can be applied to the problem of feeding a family it is hardly necessary to consider the scientific principles of nutrition beyond the facts presented in the above table, for careful reflection will lead to a wise choice if it be understood that the actual fuel value of the food is to be sought in such cheap articles as those of the table and that flavor, variety, attractiveness, and certain necessary minute quantities of substances which favor growth and health are to be sought in such luxuries as can be afforded and in skillful preparation.

The third principle in food economy is to use every bit of food purchased for the nutrition of the family. Fat should