Guaranteed prices for wheat, established in accordance with the conclusions of the Food Administration and its committee of expert advisers, prevented the sky-rocketing of prices and assured the farmer a staple return for his labor. This, in addition to what the farmers already knew of the need for food, resulted in the planting of immense acreages. In 1917 there were planted 35,000,000 acres of leading crops beyond the average of the five-year period immediately preceding the war, and 22,000,000 acres in excess of the previous year. But 1918 exceeded even this vast acreage with a planting of 289,000,000 acres, an increase over the preceding record of 5,600,000 acres. The bitter winter of 1917-1918 killed much wheat and the next summer drouth withered much corn. Nevertheless, the aggregate yield of the leading cereals in each of these years exceeded that of any preceding year in the nation’s history except that of 1915, when unusually favorable weather produced a more bountiful harvest from a smaller acreage. With the expectation that the war would continue until at least well into the next summer, the Government appealed in 1918 for a still greater production of wheat for the following year. The farmers responded with a planting of winter wheat amounting to over 49,000,000 acres, which, it was calculated, with average winter weather and an average crop of spring wheat, would insure for 1919 a wheat production of over a billion bushels, an excess over that of 1918 of probably 200,000,000 bushels. All the principal kinds of live stock--horses and mules, in spite of the big exportation to Europe for army needs; milk cows, other cattle, hogs, and even sheep for the first time in many years--were increased in number by from one to twelve millions. Meat, milk and wool production showed signal increase, that of beef of a million pounds and of pork twice that amount. The zeal of the whole country for increased food production appeared not only in the multiplied thousands of war gardens, the desire of every one who had access even to a few feet of soil to make something eatable grow upon it, and the immensely increased acreage devoted to the sorely needed cereal crops, but also in a striking growth of interest in agricultural matters of all sorts, whether of farm or garden. To all such subjects newspapers and magazines began devoting much more than usual attention, while for books dealing with them publishers noted a sharply increased demand.