URBAN AND SUBURBAN FOOD PRODI CJ ION 



TTS FUTURE 



ITS PAST AND 



T 



BY CIIAHLES LATTIROI' PACK 



President of the National Emergency Food Garden Oommission and President of the American Forestry Association. 



I IIS is the time for Stock taking' in coniicTtiun with papers of England, France, Italy and South America 

 the food situation. We have had a growing season The significance of this planting does not end with th'.- 



which broke all records and was genera'ly beyond 

 expectations. The work of gardening, of canning and 

 of drying vegetables and fruits has been under way in 

 the land, from Maine to California, and from the Lakes 

 to the Gulf, and has justified all belief as to success. Ft 

 is important to consider what this means. It means one 



summer season. The war gardens will exert their in- 

 fluence on the cost of living during the winter months. 

 Their value is a thing of the future as well as the past. 

 Conservation has been practiced on a national scale. In 

 the homes of .'\nierica there lias been earnest recognition 

 of the importance of looking ahead. The individual citi 



million one hundred and fifty thousand acres of city and zen has realized that the over-supply of the growing sea- 

 son must be translated into terms of abundance for the 

 winter. This realization has brought about such activity 

 in household conservation as America has never before 

 known. Food saving and food conserving are becoming 

 national characteristics. From a wasteful nation .America 

 is being transformed into a nation alert to the needs of 

 the future. The keynote of this new national spirit has 



town land under cultivation the i)ast season for the first 

 time. Urban and suburban America became a vast gar- 

 den as the result of the impulse given to the nation by 

 the National Emergency Food (harden Commission. 

 This area of productiveness embraced back yards, vacant 

 lots and hitherto untitled tracts of land in and around 

 nearly every city, town and village. Our nation-wide 



survey located nearly three million such gardens. This been that nothing should be allowed to go to waste — 

 is only a beginning. What shall the harvest be next 

 year? What have we learned this year? 



Germany reports that its town war gardens prodttced 

 more in 1917 than any year since the war started. This 

 shows the value of experience. In our one year of ex- 

 [lerience, it is conservative to state, that by the planting 

 of gardens the nation's food supply has been increased 

 to the extent of more than $3.50,000,000. Next year we 

 will do even Ijcttcr. We will then have more war gardens 

 and the average irroduction will be larger. With a bet- 

 ter knowledge there will be fewer failures. 



.\ny inventory of the food situation must reckon this 

 great garden fruitfulness as a vital factor. As its first 

 duty, already accom])lished, it has been of great value in 

 keejjing down the cost of living for the people of 

 America. Household expenses have been bad enough as 

 it is. That they would have been far worse without this 

 garden crop is obvious. There is nuicli evidence that our 

 food gardens are helping our people to feed themselves 

 more reasonably. The editor of the North American Re- 

 view, in the issue for September, 1917, says: "Last spring 

 at garden planting time we urged the increase of produc- 

 tion, ])artly through intensified culture, to increase the 

 yield i)er acre, and partly through the increase of acre- 

 age by the cultivation of neglected fields and even smali 



that nothing useful should be thrown awav. 



The result will mean much for food F. O. I'., the j)antry 

 shelves in the homes of America this winter and helj) us. 

 by feeding ourselves, to feed our boys of the Army and 

 Navy and to feed our Allies. Our soldiers must all l)e fed 

 and the soldiers and cixilians of France and England 

 must be fed, and to a large extent fed by us. and we arc 

 going to see that this is done. The gardens of next year 

 will exceed those of the past season. In the canning and 

 drying of vegetables and fruit our women have been con- 

 tributing their share. The canning and drying move 

 ment has brought back to thousands of American house- 

 holds an art almost forgotten since our grandmothers' 

 day. This will be continued next year on an even larger 

 scale. 



War has made Uncle .Sam the biggest buver of food in 

 this country. The board bill for his soldiers will soon be 

 at least ,$1,000,000 a day. ^^■e are to have 2,300,000 or 

 more men under arms shortly according to Secretary 

 Baker. .\t forty cents a day food cost |)er man it will 

 be seen what that means. True, these men ate before be- 

 coming soldiers to make the world safe for Democracy 

 Each of them doulnless ate more than forty cents' worth 

 daily. But you nnisl remember that these men have sud- 

 denly become non-product;rs, and they nnist be fed by 



plots in suburban and urban areas. How well this policy the rest of us. The army is making great ]ilans for 



was executed is seen in the report of the National Emer- 

 gency Food Garden Commission that the gardens of the 

 country were this year more than trebled in area. Beyond 

 question, this garden achievement has much to do with 

 the fact that the increase in price of garden products ir 

 the year was only 22 ])er cent, or less than one-lifth the 

 increase in the jjrice of brcadstuffs." 



The war gardens of .America have been extensivelv re 

 ferred to as a valual)le economic agencv bv the news- 



camouflage to deceive the eyes of the enemy, inn von 

 cannot deceive a soldier's stomach. He must have real 

 food. 



I am 1(j1(1 that the reserve stock of foodstuffs at each 

 camp is worth $125,000, and there are 33 camps in the 

 country today. This means that food valued at $4,125,- 

 000 is taken out of (he regular channels of trade ]jro- 

 duction and consumption. These figures give but a small 

 idea of the need of food conservation on the part of the 



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