ii8 THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 



tation of convalescent soldiers. Around the hospitals 

 in Europe, almost since the beginning of the war, vege- 

 table plots have furnished the means for providing easy 

 and pleasant outdoor work for convalescents, which 

 acted as a tonic to their shattered nerves and bodies. 

 Similarly, at the hospitals and army camps in the 

 United States this form of activity was employed to 

 help in the rebuilding of disabled and convalescing 

 soldiers. 



In the great reconstruction work at the Walter Reed 

 hospital, which lies in the outskirts of the nation's 

 capital, a fifteen-acre war garden proved of much thera- 

 peutic value in the treatment of men suffering from 

 various diseases. In addition to helping them regain 

 their health and strength, gardening trained these men 

 for the future and equipped them to make their own 

 living and become valuable citizens of any community 

 when they should leave active service. Part of the large 

 war garden at Camp Dix, New Jersey, adjoined the base 

 hospital; and potatoes and other vegetables were grow- 

 ing during the season of 1918 up to the very porches on 

 which some of the invalids had to sit in their wheel-chairs. 



Sailors as well as soldiers need fresh vegetables to 

 eat, but they cannot grow vegetables at sea. To over- 

 come this handicap a movement was started through- 

 out the United Kingdom to give naval men a supply of 

 fresh vegetables whenever they got to port. Navy 

 vegetable rations formerly consisted of potatoes only, 

 and a few dried or canned products which could be 

 kept a long time and stored in small space. The new 



