ii6 THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 



There is no question that the cultivators of our war 

 gardens, now become victory gardens, will continue 

 their labors. 



For a decade or two before the war, there was deep 

 study and much discussion of the problem as to how to 

 check the exodus from the farm to the city; but argu- 

 ment and discussion availed nothing, and the exodus 

 continued. In the "city farmer" has been found a 

 partial answer to the stay-on-the-farm idea. Ambi- 

 tious young men and women will not remain in the 

 country where comforts are denied and where advan- 

 tages of education and social life are few; but they will 

 be glad to farm in the city. The victory garden has 

 opened the way. By this means almost every one 

 becomes a food producer. 



Furthermore, increasing prices will make it desir- 

 able to the individual, and the growing demand for 

 food will make it desirable from the country's point 

 of view, that every one help to feed himself. The read- 

 justment which must come out of the war calls for 

 powers as Herculean as those it has been necessary 

 to put forth during the terrible struggle against "Kul- 

 tur." This reconstruction work calls for every bit of 

 man-power that can be found. It is a question not of 

 months but of years before this up-building is com- 

 pleted. In France, Belgium, Poland, Italy, Russia, and 

 other European countries, the rebuilding of cities and 

 churches, railroads and bridges, docks and roads, houses 

 and barns, the remaking of trench-scarred and shell- 

 torn farms, and many other big works, must be per- 



