deprived themselves of large possible profits and obeyed the requests of the Food Administration. And the people all over the country voluntarily pledged themselves to the necessary program of food conservation. The task of feeding the nations of Europe and the armies of America, England, France and Italy became the task of the whole nation, and the whole nation, guided by and functioning through the Food Administration, took up the task with eager hands. We entered the war with our national stocks of cereals at a lower level than they had been for many years, due to the heavy demand made upon them by the Allied nations during the previous year. There had been also, for the same reason, a considerable lessening in the number of food animals. Beginning in the spring of 1917 and continuing through that and the following year the stimulation of production was carried on by setting before the farmers of the country and, indeed, before all the population, the urgent need for more food than the nation had ever before produced. The appeals to grow food went to the owners of back-yard gardens in cities and towns and villages, to all who had or could obtain the use of a few square feet or a few acres of soil, to farmers all over the land. The Agricultural Department used all its avenues of reaching the farming population, agricultural colleges aided the movement, newspapers and magazines published discussions of the subject and advice for the amateur. It has been estimated that during the first year of the war at least 2,000,000 “war gardens” were planted, over and above the usual garden planting, and that number was considerably increased during the second season. Most of them bore good results and their products added immensely to local food supplies and so lessened the drain upon exportable foods. The “war garden army” included men, women and children. Business men spent leisure hours hoeing and planting, thousands of women, in addition to those who worked in home gardens, turned their attention to agricultural labor and did what they could in the lessening of the serious problem of help on the farms. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts did efficient work, school boys who were old enough and strong enough to make their labor right and worth while went by the thousands from cities and towns to country districts to work upon farms.