264 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



city production, the organ- 

 ization of the city millions 

 into avast agricultural 

 army for the creation of a 

 million food gardens, and 

 the campaign has assumed 

 proportions beyond even 

 the most sanguine expec- 

 tation of President Pack 

 and his colleagues. 



Since President Pack in- 

 augurated the garden cam- 

 paign the heads of all the 

 great Government depart- 

 ments have sent out warn- 

 ings of a national food crisis. President Wilson, in 

 his appeal to the united nation to undertake measures 

 of conser\'ation, dwelt ^^-ith much force on the imperative 

 necessity of home gardening. He pointed out that 

 "every man, woman and child must help," that the 

 "railroads must suffer no obstruction of any kind," 

 and that "everyone who creates or cultivates a garden 

 helps solve the problem of feeding the nations." 



President Pack and his co-workers, men of eminent 

 standing in the world of science and letters, had expressed 

 views similar to those enunciated by the President. The 

 Commission realized the significance of the crisis hovering 

 over the nation, — reahzed that no matter what the yield 

 of the farms, the great transportation systems of the 

 country would be powerless to transport the products, 

 and it was distinctly this view which found expres- 

 sion in President Wilson's appeal to the nation in its 

 greatest hovu: of need. 



Secretary of Agriculture David Houston, when reports 

 from his field agents and statisticians poured in on him, 

 was convinced of the menace which threatened the coun- 

 try. Prognostications from every source pointed to the 

 danger of a failure 

 of crops and conse- 

 quently the failure 

 of a nation to feed 

 its people. 



This situation 

 was foreseen by the 

 Commission, hence 

 the urging, the 

 pleading, and the 

 imploration that 

 the people as a 

 whole turn to indi- 

 vidu:d agricultural 

 pursuits; that they 

 convert back yards 

 and vacant lots 

 into vegetable gar- 

 dens, and that those 

 products be raised 

 which might take 

 the place of meat 

 and other food 



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I PRESroENT WILSON'S CALL TO SERVICE | 



j " W/ ^ must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our | 



1 VV armies and our seamen, not only, but also for a large i 



i part of the nations with whom we have now made com- | 



j mon cause, and in whose support and by whose sides we j 



I shall be fighting. • * * | 



1 " The world's food reserves are low. Not only during the i 



1 present emergency, but for some time after peace shall have | 



j come, both our own people and a large proportion of the people i 



j of Europe must rely upon the harvests in America. * * * | 



1 " Let me suggest, also, that every one who creates or 1 



I cultivates a garden helps, and helps greatly, to solve the | 



j problem of the feeding of the nations." | 



I President Wilson's Proclamation, April 16, 1917. | 



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THE FOOD G.-\RDE.\" H.\RVEST 



No, this is not the first prize table in the exposition building at the county fair. It is just a neighbor- 

 hood exhibit in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to show that the back yards are as fertile as the best farms. 

 Any market gardener would be proud of such squashes, such pumpkins, turnips, tomatoes, and beets 

 as these. To stimulate the Rrowing of tons of such crops this year on the idle lands of cities, the National 

 Emergency Food Garden Commission is urging civic organizations to conduct gardening competitions 

 with prizes for the best crops grown. 



products which the town 

 and city dwcUer could not 

 produce. 



Such was the far vision 

 of the Commission, and 

 such was the beginning of 

 a camjjaign which has 

 spread from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific, and from Maine 

 to the Gulf of Mexico. Gov- 

 ernors of the biggest states 

 in the Union, mayors of 

 the most influential cities 

 in the country (three hun- 

 dred mayors assembled in 

 New York during the past month for the specific purpose 

 of discussing and devising ways and means of mastering 

 the food situation) , great railroads of the East and the 

 West, the m"ghtiest corporations and industrial institutions 

 of the country, the most eminent men and women of the 

 social and official sets of thousands of communities, have 

 all taken up the campaign of garden planting. The cor- 

 porations and industrial and commercial institutions 

 have procured land for their employes to till, have shoul- 

 dered the expenses, that the food problem might be met. 

 The big railroads induced their employes and those 

 living along their lines to plant gardens and raise vege- 

 tables. Garden clubs, like a tented city rising during the 

 night, were organized in every community, and so the 

 movement spread, like a prairie fire until President 

 Pack and his colleagues were forced to send into the vari- 

 ous states field organizers, men who were experts in agri- 

 cultural fineness, who might unite the various forces 

 and inspire hearty and friendly cooperation that the 

 food producing gardens might be of real benefit . 



Nearly two thousand newspapers now are using daily 

 planting lessons which are sent out from the Washington 



headquarters of the 

 Commission. These 

 lessons are super- 

 vised by experts 

 from the Depart- 

 ment of Agricul- 

 ture, and tell how, 

 when and what to 

 ])lant, and what 

 must be done to in- 

 sure a full and 

 licalthy crop. In 

 scores of cities and 

 in hundreds of vil- 

 lages and towns 

 gardens are flour- 

 ishing, and already 

 fresh vegetables are 

 being gathered for 

 the i n d i v i d u a 1 

 households. The 

 tiny " f armlets " 

 are saving famiUes 



