e?--The effect of the shortage--In
place of sugar--The price of sugar--To cut down on sugar

CHAPTER VII. MILK--FOR THE NATION'S HEALTH

The valuable constituents of milk--Our milk problem--Our milk
abroad

CHAPTER VIII. VEGETABLES AND FRUITS

In the war diet--Canning and drying vegetables and fruits

CONCLUSION

A FEW REFERENCES

INDEX

CHAPTER I

THE WHEAT SITUATION

Wheat is as much a war necessity as ammunition--wheat is a war weapon.
To produce it and distribute it where it is needed and in sufficient
quantities is the most serious food problem of the Allied world. The
continent of Europe, with her devastated fields, can raise but a small
fraction of the wheat she needs, and ships are so few that she cannot
import it from many of the usual sources.

Not one of the warring European countries has escaped serious
suffering, and the neutral countries have suffered with them.

THE WORLD'S SUPPLY OF WHEAT

France, always an agricultural nation, was the most nearly
self-sustaining of the western Allies. Now one-third of her
wheat-fields are barren. Thousands of her acres have been taken by the
enemy, or are in No Man's Land. Much of the land that has been fought
over these past four years is now hopeless for farming, and will
be for years to come. Even the territory still under cultivation
cannot be expected to yield large returns, for laborers, tools, and
fertilizers are lacking.

The men who have left the fields to fight have been replaced chiefly
by women, children, and old men, while furloughed soldiers at times
help to bring in the crops. To get adequate return from the soil
which has been tilled for centuries, tons of fertilizer are necessary.
Fertilizers are an absolute necessity, and nitrates, one of the
most important of them, can no longer be imported from Chile. The
work-animals have been driven off by the enemy or slaughtered for want
of food, and mechanics are lacking to repair and replace the worn-out
farm-machinery. As a result of this, in 1917 France raised only enough
wheat to supply 40 per cent of her need, instead of 90 per cent, as in
pre-war years.

In England the situation is not much better. Unlike France, England
has always imported far more wheat than she raised. But now through
vigorous effort she alone of all the European countries has increased
her cereal production so that it has actually been doubled. Being free
from the devastation of war at ho