76 City Homes on Country Lanes 



The world war, which illuminated many dark cor- 

 ners, revealed the gardening instinct in all its original 

 vigor, and mobilized it for the service of the country 

 without the formality of the selective draft. We raised 

 4,800,000 soldiers and trained them for battle with 

 marvelous celerity; but, at the same time, an army 

 of 5,250,000 war gardeners grasped rake and hoe and 

 proceeded to do their part without the inspiration of 

 martial music, without hope of glory or material re- 

 ward. It was a remarkable demonstration, showing 

 that our people have not only the instinct but the 

 aptitude for this adventure. It was a great light 

 thrown upon the character, the capacity, the aspira- 

 tions of the American people. It is one of the war 

 lessons which has not been appreciated at anything 

 like its true value. 



The National War Garden Commission was not, as 

 most people suppose, a Government activity, though it 

 had its headquarters in Washington, and enjoyed the 

 moral support of Federal authority. It was the volun- 

 tary undertaking of a number of patriotic citizens, 

 headed by Charles Lathrop Pack, of Lakewood, N. J., 

 President of the American Forestry Association. For 

 more than two years he turned over bodily the activities 

 of that organization to the war-garden work, at a 

 cost of about $1,000,000 a year, raised by himself 

 and associates, and consecrated to the work of popular 

 education. The task undertaken was so extraordinary 

 that most men would have regarded it as impossible 

 of accomplishment. 



The problem was to bring about a vast increase in 

 the country's food supply: to do it very quickly, and 



