ENLISTING SOLDIERS OF THE SOIL 



335 



tant, but as a fundamental it must be recognized that the 

 shortage actually exists. That there may have been manip- 

 ulation and an exploitation of the country's needs may be 

 determined by those in authority, but regardless of this 

 phase of the matter the one thing clearly indicated as a 



tuted, the methods of cultivation were not intensive 

 and the money value of the product was small. Training 

 of the children in the school work showed how this value 

 could be increased and the Commission has data to show 

 that the average school child of reasonable age can produce 

 from $50 to $ 100 worth of vegetables on a . 

 piece of ground 50 x 100 feet in size 

 equivalent to about an eighth of an acre. 

 Let this be done on a considerable scale 

 in every community and it will be readily 

 seen to what extent this will simplify the 

 country's food problem and its transporta- 

 tion problems in the bringing of food to 

 each city or town by railroad freights. 



While the school children are the nucleus 

 of the nation's potential army of food 

 gardeners, the work appeals to grown 

 people with similar force. To the man 

 or woman who works eight hours a day 

 in store, shop or office, the making and 

 care of a garden can be made to afford 

 recreation that is not only healthful and 

 financially remunerative but of distinct 

 pleasure as well. Without expert guid- 

 ance this would not be easily achieved, 

 for gardening is a work that must be con- 

 ducted along lines of exact science. With 

 the instruction and helpfulness of the 



"SOW AND YE SHALL REAP" 



Mrs. J. Chester Pyles and Mrs. M. E. Rafter, troop cap- 

 tains of the Girl Scouts of Washington, planting the first 

 handful of seeds on the girl scouts' one-acre farm. The 

 seeds for the f armlet were donated by the National Emer- 

 gency Food Garden Commission. If a million other 

 American women would follow the example set by these 

 women, the production of food in this country would be 

 increased to such an extent that not only would food 

 prices be much lower but we would be able to supply our 

 Allies with all the food they need. 



national duty is to produce more food and 

 do it as quickly as nature makes possible. 

 This is Thrift of vital worth and mean- 

 ing. It will give the people more food, 

 better food and at a distinct saving in 

 financial outlay. It will release for other 

 uses a vast number of freight cars that 

 would be required to carry to market the 

 foodstuffs which will thus be at hand 

 without transportation, or "P. O. B. 

 the kitchen door, "as President Charles 

 Lathrop Pack aptly phrases it. These cars 

 will be available for the transportation of 

 other merchandise, the tremendous move- 

 ment of which helps create a deficiency 

 in food supplies. In case of military 

 necessity for the use of the railway facili- 

 ties of the country this phase of helpful- 

 ness will be increased several fold. 



The development of school gardens 

 in various cities throughout the country 

 has given the Commission a basis for actual figures as 

 to what may be accomplished. About thirty per cent 

 of the families outside of the large cities have home 

 gardens, but, until the school garden work was insti- 



-" ' ''- *'Jr* 





DOING A MAN-SIZED JOB 



Hard work is play for these girl scouts when the cultivation of their farmlet, on the D. A. R. grounds, 

 Washington, is at stake. These young huskies work like Trojans to grow food to help feed Uncle Sam's 

 fighting men. They are aiding the National Emergency Food Garden Commission in its campaign 

 for a greater food production. 



Commission the technical difficulties are removed and 

 a nation of amateur gardeners immediately becomes a 

 nation of experts. 



If there is demand for Thrift in connection with the 



