As food grew scarcer the German army began to cultivate the fields in
the occupied territories to lessen the burden of the food-producer at
home.]
Taxes were higher, of course. On the other hand, he was getting a little
more for his products, but not enough to make good the loss sustained
through bad crops. While the production of his land had fallen to about
one-half of normal, he was getting on an average 15 per cent. more for
what he sold, which was now a bare third of what he had sold in other
years, seeing that from the little he had raised he had to meet the
wants of his family and the few animals that were left.
Neighbors of the man told a similar story. Some of them had done a
little better in production, but in no instance had the crop been within
more than 80 per cent. of normal. They, too, were not satisfied with the
prices they were getting. The buyers of the commission-men were guided
by the minimum-price regulation which the government was enforcing, and
often they would class a thing inferior in order to go below that
price--as the regulations permitted. These people felt that they were
being mulcted. But redress there was none. If they refused to sell, the
authorities could compel them, and rather than face requisition they
allowed the agents of the food sharks to have their way. The thought
that the government was exploiting them was disheartening, and was
reflected in their production of food.
This was the state of affairs almost everywhere. The able-bodied men had
been taken from the soil, just as they had been taken from other
economic spheres. Labor was not only scarce, but so high-priced that the
small farmer could not afford to buy it.
And then, I found that in the rural districts the war looked much more
real to people. There it had truly fostered the thought that all in life
is vain. The city people were much better off in that respect. They also
had their men at the front. But they had more diversion, even if that
diversion was usually no more than meeting many people each day. They
had, moreover, the exhilarating sensation that comes from playing a game
for big stakes. When the outlook was dreary they always found some
optimist who would cheer them up; and the report of some victory,
however small and inconsequential, buoyed them up for days at a time.
Out in the country it was different. The weekly paper did its best to be
cheerful. But its sanguine guesses as to the military future were seen
by eyes accustomed to dealing with the realities of nature.
I visited many Austrian villages and found the same psychology
everywhere. The Austrian farmer was tired of the war by December of
1914. When I occupied myself again with him a year later he was
disgusted and had come to care not a rap who governed in Budapest. Of
course, it was different should the Russians get to Vienna. In that case
they would take their pitchforks and scythes and show them.
The Hungarian farmer was in the same mood. If the war could have been
ended with the Italians getting no farther than Vienna things would have
been well enough, but to have the Russians in Budapest--not to be
thought of; not for a minute.
Meanwhile, the Austrian and Hungarian governments, taking now many a
leaf from the book of the Germans, were urging a greater production of
food next season. Highly technical books were being digested into the
every-day language of the farmer. It was pointed out what sorts of
plowing would be most useful, and what might be omitted in case it could
not be done. How and when to fertilize under prevailing conditions was
also explained.
The leaflets meant well, but generally overlooked the fact that each
farm has problems of its own. But this prodding of the farmer and his
soil was not entirely without good results. It caused a rather thorough
cultivation of the fields in the fall of 1915, and also led to the
utilization of fertilizing materials which had been overlooked before.
The dung-pits were scraped, and even the earth around them was carted
into the fields. Though animal urine had already been highly valued as a
fertilizer, it was now conserved with greater care. Every speck of wood
ash was saved. The humus on the woodland floors and forests was drawn
on. The muck of rivers and ponds was spread over the near-by fields, and
in northern Germany the parent stratum of peat growth was ground up and
added to the soil as plant food.
V