The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-21

k Babies are being born in a most | unhealthy condition, sometimes with l out enough skin ,and even mothers l in the highest circles are experience | ing the effects of underfeeding ." %.. in Germany nothing is allowed | to be wasted, and the full use is made | of everything-spoilt potatoes, decay | ed vegetables and fruit, offal from | animals, waste from slaughter yards, | and even sewage from the scullery- | nothing is too disgusting to be con-
 verted into either food for human beings or fodder for animals"
 | The German people are now en- gagged in struggling through the lean
 months which precede the coming of 1 the new harvest. The outlook is
 gloomy. for everything indicates that
 there are worse times in store and in spite of drastic measures of regu- | lation and reQuistioning, they will have to pull in their belts still tighter
 before they can look for any relief. ! The supplies of grain and flour on 1 which they counted with certainty
 to carry them through are giving out, | and potatoes and ,meat-the promised l substitutes-threatent to fail them ere long. The government are moving in vicious circle-if they allow the | people to satisfy themselves with | bread the flour will not last till next harvest; if they make up the def1ci- | ency of bread with potatoes the same | thing will occur; while if they issue | a double ration of meat the live stock will suffer.
 There is a steady growth of food
 stringency, especially in grain and flour. The reasons officially assigned | for the shortage of the latter are the
 exaggerated estimates of the crops, | the wholesale forgery of bread tic
 kets, and the feeding of bread corn to | animals The press still endeavors | to comfort readers with promises of plentiful deliveries from Roumania, l but whatever may come true in re- t gard to next harvest it is now certain
 that the wel1-informed in Germany are under no illusion as to what to expect from that country in the near future. A good harvest for the Gen. tral Empires seems to be out of the
 question. Though the official crop re- ports are on the whole reassuring, the
 government are looking forward with
 anxiety to the harvest and food cam
 paign of the coming year, and there is every reason to believe that unfa- I vorab1e reports are carefully withheld
 from publication. Labor is far scarcer than last year. the want of
 manure makes itself more seriously
 felt with every year that passes, and seed has been scarce and of inferior quality.
 Grave injury to the autumn -sown grain must have been caused by the exceptionally severe winter, though it is not impossible that, should the l fCv, Ivy fov able, much of the damage may still be repaired. Another reason fod the forebodings is the fact that the last foodstuffs remaining over from pre- war times are being consumed, and also that last years crops will be ex- hausted before the harvest, so that the new year will be entered onI with
 absolutely no reserves.
 The supplies of foodstuffs from neu-
 tral countries are also steadily dimin-
 ishfng, and, with the energetic CO
 operation of Americay and the tndi-
 rect assistance afforded by the Ger
 man submarine campaign, should within the next few weeks be brought
 very near to vanishing point. The
 menace is by no means confined to
 bread and four, but already extends practically to all foodstuffs. It has 1, become evident that even the 5~ Ib : ration of potatoes. so faithfully prom ised by the government, can no long CT be counted on, notwithstanding the
 | drastic steps taken by the authorities . | in requisitioning the potatoes remain ' | ing in the hands of the producers and
 establishing a state control over al dealings in 'highly-priced early pota- toes. This control aroused angry pro. { | tests from the potato growers, but ! the Food Dictator pleaded necessity I adding that in the most favorable a event the crop could only be a smal . one, so that 1t was essential that its , distribution should be controlled bs . the Potato Offices. It is a curiou. fact that, in spite of the undoubtet | difficulty experienced by the govern a rnent in feeding their own people witt i potatoes, they are prepared to deliver = to Switzerland the balance of the DO 5 tatoeS due under the exchange agree d ment between the two countris. n With regard to meat, the latest ad
 dition to the list of strange animal n which are now offered for sale as foot e in Germany are squirrels, which, ac r, cording to the 'Lokalanzeiger," ar ] sold in Berlin as g. delicacy at 2.25 t, !. 2.50 marks apiece. There are sign s that the supply of meat will encoun
 
 if and in any case the extra allowance IT of 1-2 Eb. per head which was the sec tt ond substitute promised to make goo' !. the defiency of bread can only b
 maintained by excessive slaughterine a and must in time lead to dangerou ' depletion of the herds of cattle an q. pigs. Already cattle have been kill if ed which would not be fit for slaugh II ter befofe the end of July, and wer # merely skin and bone; while larg IT tracts of pasture land. especially f e Sch1eswig- -Holstein, are entirely with b out live stock. So great has been tn
 demand for pork that the stocks c
 pigs in Baden, according to a specia
 census taken in March. were onl
 326, 1928, as against 434,5S7 in Decem ,s ber last.
 With the shortage of edible fats tn
 Germans have been turning toward 'o substitutes to make up the defienc n and an inspired notice has appeare s- in several newspapers in regard t 70 ths great results already attained f E. the way of the extraction of oil an l. afbumen from gers of grain. A t- mi!ia are said to have introduced ms
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