THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 77 



original colors, of the poster by Maginel Wright 

 Enright, which has become known as the pictorial trade- 

 mark of the Army. This poster presents Uncle Sam as 

 the Pied Piper of the Gardens, at the head of an army 

 of children bearing garden tools as their weapons. As 

 an introduction the books carry an official proclamation 

 to the schools of America, calling on them for further 

 work in the cause of food production and conservation. 

 In his proclamation Director Francis says : 



The food problems of peace give renewed emphasis 

 to the demand for food production. With the ending 

 of the conflict came the necessity for feeding many 

 millions more of the people of Europe. Food Adminis- 

 trator Hoover tells us this country must send 20,000,- 

 ooo tons of food overseas during the year ending July 

 i, 1919. To make this possible it is essential that pro- 

 duction be carried on to the utmost of our possibilities. 

 The farms have lost a large proportion of their man- 

 power. Some one must take the places of the men who 

 have left the farms and of the women who have gone 

 into channels of industry in which they were not pre- 

 viously employed. 



The boys and girls of America must help to do this. 

 There is a mighty army of them, thirty to fifty million 

 strong, who have heads, hearts, and hands, leisure time 

 and patriotism to spare. There are also hundreds of 

 thousands of acres of tillable land uncultivated. The 

 problem is, therefore, to get these two factors together. 

 It is a problem requiring careful, efficient organization. 

 The organization is here, one of the most powerful in 

 the country the public school system of America. To 

 build another capable of doing the work in hand would 

 require years and cost millions. School gardens and 



