A MILLION AND MORE FOOD GARDENS 



g XN order to " Do Its Bit " in answer to the call for the mobilization of the nation's resources in this war period, the American 



M I Forestry Association has decided to cooperate with the National Emergency Food Garden Commission. The work to be done 



= is to secure the planting of a million and more food gardens. If successful, and there is every indication that it will be, this work 



g will be of tremendous service in relieving the food deficiency and solving the vitally important problem of feeding the nation and 



J helping the nation's allies. The earnest assistance of every member of the Association is requested. — The Editor. 



HOME gardens, small, inexpensive but abundantly 

 productive, today are flourishing in every city, 

 town and village in the United States. There are 

 thousands upon thousands of them. Men and women, old 

 and young; boys and girls, debutantes, college students 

 and workers, are toiling in the army of "universal service " 

 to the nation. Hoes and rakes, spades and sprays, hold 

 equal honor with rifle and sword. Corporate wealth, the 

 greatest industries of the land, the most eminent of states- 

 men, scholars and scientists have enlisted in the army of 

 food producers. States and cities, with their legislatures 

 and city coimcils, governors and mayors aiding, have re- 

 sponded to the home garden call. In truth, the virgin soil 

 of the nation is being put to the greatest test in all history. 

 For two months the nation-wide campaign for the plant- 

 ing of a million and more vegetable gardens in back yards 



and vacant lots, conducted by the National Emergency 

 Food Garden Commission, of which Charles Lathrop Pack, 

 president of the American Forestry Association, is presi- 

 dent and which is working in cooperation with the Conser- 

 vation Department of the Association, has been in full 

 swing. In that period war between the United States and 

 Germany has been declared, the coimtry's resources mobil- 

 ized, industrial and commercial conditions revolutionized 

 and, through presidential proclamation and governmental 

 plea, the people have been urged to aid in the production 

 of food that this country may escape a food crisis such as 

 has afflicted the war-rent nations of Europe. And the 

 people have responded. The one great menace — the lack 

 of food — was early appreciated, and while the Government 

 sought to stimulate farm production, the National Emer- 

 gency Food Garden Commission directed its attention to 



HOME TOMATOES 



This is not a view of a nursery, but one of tfie home gardens in Danville, Illinois, where home gardening is encouraged by the Civic Federation. The response 

 of public-spirited societies to the appeal of the National Emergency Food Garden Commission this year is putting such gardens as this in hundreds of American 

 municipalities. This is a patch of exceptional tomatoes, with clean and sturdy stalks, trim tops and heavy with fruit, and staked and cultivated with the 

 precision of an expert florist. Yet a scliool boy did it. 



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