CHAPTER XI 

 WAR GARDENS AS CITY ASSETS 



A THING OF BEAUTY Is A JOY FOREVER 



EVERY city aims to be as prosperous and progres- 

 sive as possible and nowadays most people realize 

 that the city beautiful is also likely to be the 

 city commercially worth while. Probably no other 

 one enterprise will add more to a city's beauty than 

 gardening. Gardening, therefore, has double value. 

 It both enriches and beautifies. By the same token 

 it develops civic pride and community spirit. 



For these reasons any community shpuld delight in 

 being called a "garden city," whether the name is 

 applied literally or merely in a figurative sense. One 

 result of the war-garden movement is that practically 

 any American community can truthfully be designated 

 by this term. 



It is fortunate indeed that this is true. Unity of 

 thought, of action, of ideals, is the crying need of the 

 hour in America. United, we stand; divided, we fall. 

 Probably nothing is more potent as a factor for build- 

 ing up community spirit than gardening, particularly 

 community gardening. A link to bind men together is 

 gardening. It creates common interests. It unites all 

 hands in the common end of producing food. Rubbing 

 elbows in their garden patches, lawyers and laborers, 

 tradesmen and housewives, speedily discover that they 

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