THE world war through which we have just passed has awak-'*' ened us to the importance of the theories of Malthus, long since expressed. In days of peace, with new countries opening up and extending their agriculture, new and improved methods of food handling and transportation we were inclined to regard the dangers of food shortage or starvation as imaginary and impossible, and to believe that our system of crop production and marketing, while not fully utilizing the scientific knowledge

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... ble, were at least sufficient to safeguard us from hunger or serious economic disturbance. Now the awakening has come, and we appreciate more fully than ever before the perils which may threaten through waste, unscientific methods and an improperly coordinated regulation of supply and demand. The four and one-half years through which we have just passed have, because of the war, caused us to study deeply the problems of food supply and food control. It has fallen to this country to be the storehouse from which enormous supplies of foods have been withdrawn for the use of the fighting forces and the civilian population of Europe. This demand upon our resources has been very largely for cereals and especially for wheat. Because of the necessity for sending enormous quantities of breadstuffs to the Allies, the conservation of food supplies has been studied with particular acuteness, and these studies have had their fruition in the movement for war gardens and for more careful preservation by canning, and particularly in the stimulation of drying as a means of protecting foods against spoilage and preserving them for future use.