The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1917-10-27

mechanics
keep it'in repair and to the cessation
O. imports OF new machinery from the
United States. The deplorable situa-
ti ecr IS v Wy uolnted out in way to
Ing Of American farmers.
How many times I have heard SOL
diers on leave from the front say, II
would rather have. our bread at the
front than your bread here in Paris"
The same thing was true of coffee.
Soldiers would say, what do you call
this stuff? We get real coffee at the
'front.'
At the rear the civilians drink q.
compound from chicory, for the cof-
fee supply was short, while the real
coffee was reserved for the army. In
like manner, the soldiers get a purer
wheat flour than do the civilians,
The wheat supply being so much cur
tailed, two measures have been neces-
sary to increase the amount of flour.
A law has been passed requiring
the mixture of 80 per cent of other
grains with wheat in making flour.
while another law raised the per-
centage of extraction permitted in the
manufacture Of flour. Before the war
this percentage was 20; it has been
raised successfully to "a, II, 80 and IS.
Seventy-seven is the extreme limit of
nutritive extraction. After that the
flour becomes permeated with parti-
cles indigestible for human beings.
The result of mixing grains and
high extraction has been a flour that
is often not only unpalatable but in
digestible and it has cAused not a
little sickness, particularly gastric
troubles among the children. Adults
frequently throw away the soft in
side of the bread and eat only the
hard baked crust. Very often I have
found this war bread an unpleasant
dark brown in color with soggy.
glutinous inside. It is no ones fault.
1t is the best that can be done under
the circumstances
Shortage of all Cereals in France.
Another problem enters with the
authorization to mix other grains
with wheat in making flour It is the
shortage of the other grains. For it
is not only wheat that is short in
France but all cereals. We can have
recourse once more to the official
figures.
The annual consumption of barley
in France before the war equalled ap-
proximately 100000 tons, of which
about Is per cent was imported. The
production has fallen off to such an
| extent that nearly one-third of the
barley had to be imported last year.
This year, owing to special reasons,
| the production will be slightly higher,
but there will still be a deficit far
above the normal. Furthermore, the
deficit in barley must be considered
not only in relation to the normal
consumption, but with regard to the
fact that it must be used very largely
to supplement and replace wheat.
With rye the normal consumption
was about the same as for barley,
with imports of about 8 per cent Of
the requirements. In 1915 the pro-
duction was about 100000 tons under
the normal consumption and in 1916
it was about $4,000 tons under the
consumption, while in both of these
years there were practically no i'm
ports. Thus there was less rye than
was needed and rye could only help
out wheat by reducing still further
the amount given to it's normal uses.
The annual consumption of corn
averaged 1,150,000 tons, about one
half being imported. The proportion
of imports in 1916 had risen to two
thirds.
The annual consumption of oats be-
fore the war was 5,500,00O tons, of
which 100000 tons were imported.
In 1916 the imports rose to over
100000 tons and the stock was still
short 100000 tons.
Agricultural Labor Shortage.
When one travels over France, one
speedily learns. the reason for the
shortage in the grain crops. 1t is
because there is not the labor to do
the farm work. Cultivation has to be
left to the old men, the women and
the children. All others have been
taken for the armies and the defense
of the country.
In crossing and recrossing the
French agricultural regions it has
been a continual source of wonder to
me how the few workers in the fields
have been able to produce the crops
they have achieved. One sees plows
and the horses led by small boys,
women STOPPING among the long rows
of corn, cultivating the ground,
groups of women slowly crossing the
fields, creeping on their knees, pain
fully tending the newly planted crops.
Occasionally one sees a white bearded
patriarch among the women. I
should say that the proportion is
roughly one man to six women. This,
however, is by no means an official
figure. It is only my own rough
guess.
There is no wonder that with this
tremendous shortage in labor, fields
are left bare, while those that can be
cultivated produce less than the nor
NAL amount per acre. What would
our western farmers think of turning
the land In : the spring with long
bladed hoes? Yet I.:have seen this
very thing being done in many parts
of France because Of the dearth Of
agricultur lat machinery.
{. Farm implement Shortage.
Most Of: the farm. implements of
Frat1ce beforeethe:war were Of Ameri-
can make. One saw the American
mark on The Splows and harrows, the
rakes: and sreapers and binders and
threshers all 'over.F'rance. Since the