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