The authorities rationed stockings to two pairs per person every three months, introduced a rule on maximum dress-length, and requisitioned old blankets, table-cloths and handkerchiefs for recycling – even the linen on which old maps were printed. "An appeal was made to the patriotism of German women to maintain a simplicity of dress 'more in keeping with the seriousness of the times'," noted a trade report written in 1918 for the US Department of Commerce. In 1916, the German clothing industry was urgently placed under state control, and the private trade of second-hand garments was forbidden. The British Navy had introduced a blockade of European ports to starve Germany and Austria-Hungary of goods and raw materials, including cotton, so the scarecrows' garments had become too valuable to be left for the birds. It wasn't that they had gone for a wander, it was because there was a serious shortage of clothing. During World War One, the scarecrows of Germany began to disappear from fields.
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