Page 6 



BETTER FRUIT 



December, i^iQ 



How the Ruined Orchards of France Are Being Restored 



A NATION'S progress, credit, the 

 health of her popuhice, the suc- 

 cess of her industries and man- 

 ufactures, largely depend upon the 

 condition of her agriculture. Four 

 years of war, during which the enemy 

 invaded the land, spreading desolation 

 and devastation, not to mention the 

 depletion of man-power, has woven 

 the agricultural problems of northern 

 France into a tangle which defies the 

 learned. The solution of her agricul- 

 tural problems is not charity; it is 

 merely the simple exercise of the 

 spirit of compassion toward a helpless 

 people in the hour of their need. 

 Moved by this spirit of compassion, of 

 fraternal duty, ; nd of patriotism, the 

 American Red Cross has pledged it- 

 self to serve the agricultural interests 

 of the impoverished country. 



Through generous contributions of 

 the American people, the American 

 Red Cross was enabled to send prac- 

 tical and theoretical men to France to 

 determine conditions; how they would 

 be met by the government and the 

 people; and what foreign aid was 

 needed and might be enlisted. George 

 B. Ford, deputy commissioner of the 

 American Red Cross in Paris, was 

 placed in charge of the research work. 

 He had formerly been a consulting 

 specialist on town planning in New 

 York City. 



In many sections of France the de- 

 vastation of its fine orchards by the 

 German troops was of the most 

 wanton nature recorded during the 

 entire war. Hundreds of acres of or- 

 chards that were not in the pathway 

 of troop operations and gun fire were 

 deliberately cut down and burned, and 

 the once blooming hillsides and other 

 land adaptable to orchards left scarred 

 and desolate. Like other phases of 



Written for Better Fruit by an Invalid Soldier 



agriculture in France before the war, 

 horticulture and fruit growing were 

 carried on by the most careful and 

 intensive methods. No matter how 

 small the acreage in fruit or how few 

 the trees under cultivation, they were 

 given the most tender care. In fact 

 such care as the American fruitgrower 

 with his greater resources of undevel- 

 oped land and larger acreages has 

 never attempted. Every fruit bud was 

 to the Frenchman an undeveloped 

 form of life to be cared for with the 

 solicitude of the unborn child. This 

 was due to the fact that it not only 

 meant an addition to his income so 

 thriftily looked after, but to the fact 

 also that the French are lovers of 

 nature — of flowers of the green for- 

 ests — of all the growing things of life 

 that are produced from the earth. 



Before the war many fine fruits 

 were grown in the part of France that 

 was overrun and largely destroyed by 

 German troops. These fruits were 

 given the greatest care in growing and 

 marketing, not only in the open, but 

 glowing them under glass was also 

 practiced. In fact Americans who vis- 

 ited France and were interested in 

 fruit often marveled at the perfection 

 of the fruits served at the high-class 

 cafes in Paris. Not a flaw in the 

 shape, coloring or the quality could 

 be found. And these fruits, such as 

 pears, peaches, plums and grapes, 

 brought extremely high prices — prices 

 that caused the American visitors to 

 marvel likewise until they were in- 

 formed as to the care taken of them in 

 the growing. 



It is little wonder, then that the 

 great destruction of the orchards of 

 France caused grief and hardship to 

 the French. But with that heroism and 

 patience for which they are noted, 



A inutile, with botli liands gone, wielding liis spade at the school established for French 

 mutilcs by the American Red Cross at Rannes, France. 



they are going to work to restore them 

 and the American Red Cross is helping 

 them. 



The belt of agricultural devastation 

 in France stretches for 150 miles and 

 is from five to ten miles wide. The 

 total invaded area includes about 15,- 

 000 square miles, five per cent of the 

 acreage of France, including about 

 35,000 communes with a population of 

 4,000,000. The devastated area, about 

 the size of Connecticut and Rhode Is- 

 land, comprises 6,000 square miles, or 

 about two per cent of France, and in 

 which 2,000,000 people lived. Accord- 

 ing to the report of the Minister of 

 the Liberated Regions, this was fifteen 

 per cent of the tillable area of the 

 country having an agrgicultural popu- 

 lation of about 807,000 persons. About 

 250,000 acres have been rendered be- 

 yond cultivation by the war. 



In this neighborhood there were 

 250,000 farms, of this number 110,000 

 were less than two and a half acres 

 each, 100,000 were upwards of twenty- 

 five acres, 26,000 were from twenty- 

 five to 100 acres each, and about 5,500 

 were over 100 acres, many of them be- 

 longing to factory workers. The origi- 

 nal capital investment was about 

 .$4,000,000, or $1,600 per farm, but 

 the value of farms in France has now 

 doubled. 



A government engineer, detailed to 

 inspect the loss of agricultural imple- 

 ments, placed the total number at 666,- 

 000, which included the various kinds 

 of plows, mowing machines, farm 

 wagons, hoes, fertilizers, reapers, bind- 

 ers, root-cutters, et cetera. 



There were 607,000 horses in the 

 country in 1914, prior to the war; 

 there were in 1915, 242,000, sixty per 

 cent having been lost. In addition, 

 380,000 of the 850,000 stock were gone, 

 or about fifty-five per cent. 



After a thorough investigation, con- 

 servative judgment being exercised, 

 the total loss to soil and crops was es- 

 timated by the French government at 

 two billion dollars. 



It was not only this initial loss, but 

 the agencies for commencing the till- 

 ing of the soil, the re-establishment of 

 farms, were gone. It would be im- 

 possible for the poverty stricken farm- 

 er to purchase implements because of 

 the condition of the mines and fac- 

 tories. The work must be done by 

 the government, which then appropri- 

 ated »60,000,000, with a revolving fund 

 of .$20,000,000. To further assist the 

 work of reconstruction, a tractor ser- 

 vice was organized with 15,000 ma- 

 chines. 



The part played by the American 

 Red Cross was an important one. A 

 Reconstruction Research Bureau was 

 opened and a Red Cross delegate 

 placed in every invaded department. 

 The work was especially concentrated 



