THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 161 



vegetable saves tin, since it can be put up in paper con- 

 tainers. It saves labor in the small home where the 

 convenience of its use is apparent. It saves in wastage 

 at the point of production and in the home. We little 

 appreciate how gigantic the wastage of fresh vegetables 

 is, and this wastage is largely because the vegetables are 

 too cheap on the market in the height of the season 

 to warrant a grower to ship them to it, and it is here 

 that dehydration should play an important part. 



There is nothing in the vegetable situation which 

 confronts us to-day to assure us of cheaper vegetables 

 in the future. We must not forget the small proportion 

 of women gardeners in this country as compared with 

 the women field-workers of France and Germany and 

 even England, and vegetables require a large amount of 

 hand labor to produce. Where is the labor coming from ? 



Possessing as we do such remarkable food as Indian 

 corn, and having learned, as we have, to like it, there 

 would seem to be a danger that we depend too fully 

 upon it and, with the increasing price of vegetables, 

 fail to realize that as we increase our corn consumption 

 we require greater quantities of butter, milk, meat, fats, 

 or vegetables to supply the food essentials lacking in 

 corn. As the fresh vegetables become scarcer on the 

 markets, it would become more and more difficult to do 

 this, and the result predicted by dietitians is malnutri- 

 tion among those who think they cannot afford to buy 

 the vegetables. We should learn to use these dried 

 vegetables to supplement the grain ration. 



It is easy to see a hundred reasons why we should 

 not eat dried vegetables, but it is unscientific and un- 

 patriotic to shut our eyes to their possibilities. As a 

 people we should move ahead into the field of dehy- 

 drated vegetables, develop it, discard what is not good, 

 ii 



