A MILLION AND MORE FOOD GARDENS 



267 



eisure before their toil and your lusts above their need." 

 Twenty millions of men have been withdrawn from pro- 

 duction, and today three million women in England and 

 more than four million in France have been drawn into 

 employments hitherto monopolized by men. Why cannot 

 the women in this country through the home garden per- 

 form the same patriotic service their sisters over the seas 

 are offering up to their kindred sufferers ? 



Within the past month there gathered in this country 

 for consultation leaders of the British, French and Amer- 

 ican peoples. Our allies at Yorktown, our enemies at Lex- 

 ington are both in accord in the presence of a common 

 enemy, and their common cause the feeding of their 

 embattling forces perhaps was the most momentous topic 

 of the deliberations. Food makes the sinews of war. To- 

 day the food yield is insufficient for the 100,000,000 who 



SOME PRIZE GARDEN CABBAGES 



This determined-looking young gardener is Clif Morton, who has the distinction 

 of being the best farmer in a certain fertile county in the West. The camera 

 caught Clif in the act of defying the world to raise better cabbages than his. 

 His farm is an acre within the corporate limits of the town where he lives and 

 goes to school. The National Emergency Food Garden Commission calls atten- 

 tion to the waste land on the outskirts of cities and towns which might be donated 

 for the garden use of those who can cultivate larger spaces than the average 

 back yard. 



populate the land; yet, this country not only is expected to 

 feed itself but to provide food in abundance for its allies in 

 arms. "Can this be done? " the world asks. 



The National Emergency Food Garden Commission, 

 which means President Pack and every single member 

 thereof, feels that we are in this war, and we must win it. 

 Victory in this war means ample FOOD SUPPLIES. An 

 army is just as strong as its food supply, and not one bit 

 stronger. Men who have not plenty to eat, cannot march 

 and cannot dig trenches or fight. Our allies are pleading 

 for food, but we have little food to spare and can only pro- 

 duce a surplus above our own necessities by the swiftest 

 organization of labor and definite mobilization of an agri- 

 cultural army on the firing line of the farms. 



Thus with the winter crop of wheat a disappointment, 

 with the wheat crop of the great northwestern states, 

 called the "granary of the world," which soon will be 



reaped, and which already is predicted a failure by Govern- 

 ment experts ; with Russia, the second largest producer of 

 wheat in the world, with twelve million men under arms, 

 barely able to produce enough to feed her mill'ons; with 

 England, France and Italy looking to this country for suc- 

 cor; with Argentina, upon which the consuming world ha's 



OVER THE FENCE FROM THE FACTORY 



The toiler who has hard work making his pay keep the family in food need not 

 worry if he has a back yard as deep as these in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 

 The fence acts as a windbreak from the north, giving early maturity to plants. 

 All these back yards are cultivated as gardens this year. The National Emergency 

 Food Garden Commission is trying to turn every back yard of this sort into a 

 vegetable garden. 



long relied, placing an embargo on wheat and flour to pro- 

 tect her own people against the high cost of living; with 

 the financial resources of all Europe almost exhausted; 

 with the man resources of Europe failing the great war in 

 truth has brought the whole world, neutral nations as well 

 as belligerent, to the very verge of economic exhaustion. 



The concrete situation before the American people 

 today is this ; What will be the result when the Government 

 begins transferring our millions of stalwart laborers from 

 the wheat fields to the battlefields? The calling out of the 

 National Guard means a loss of 30,000 men to the agri- 

 cultural states alone. What will it mean when the needs 

 of the regular army and .navy are supplied and universal 

 training takes away from the farms the youth of our land ? 

 Shall we impoverish ourselves by this action? 



The answer to this problematical situation, in the opin- 

 ion of the National Emergency Food Garden Commission, 

 and coincided in by the most important Government offi- 

 cials, from the Secretary of Agriculture down to his clerk- 

 statistician, is home gardening. It is recognized that the 

 agricultural yield of the farms must of necessity be utilized 

 by the Government for military and industrial purposes, 

 that the city millions then must endeavor to cope with the 

 situation through individual effort, through the trans- 

 forming of back yards, vacant lots and all unfilled land 

 into small productive vegetable gardens. In this man- 



