PUT THE SUN TO WORK 



465 



be reached. Drying of garden products, however, is 

 going to make the amount of food stored away for next 

 winter's use much larger than it would be otherwise. 



This old-new idea of food drying has taken forcible 

 hold of the American people. Revived at this time of 

 imperative need and great scarcity, it has appealed to 

 everyone through its practicality. Food so prepared is 

 wholesome, palatable, and extremely cheap. From being 

 the preoccupation of scientists, the subject of food drying 

 has come to be, next 

 to the war itself, the 

 biggest topic of the 

 day. 



Individuals and 

 communities are tak- 

 ing it up. Mrs. 

 Oliver Harriman's 

 big food-drying dem- 

 onstration in the 

 Grand Central Sta- 

 tion of New York 

 has attracted large 

 crowds who have 

 gone away, resolved 

 to "go into" the sub- 

 ject more deeply. 



John A. Orr, the 

 able and energetic 

 manager of the 

 Bridgeport Home 

 Garden Committee, 

 who has thoroughly 

 investigated the sub- 

 ject, set himself to 

 raise $10,000 for a 

 dehydrating plant in 

 his community, 

 where there are be- 

 tween 800 and 1000 

 acres in war gard- 

 ens, and where pota- 

 toes are being pro- 

 duced at a rate that 

 will materially cut 

 the cost of living for 

 the fortunate Bridge- 

 porters next year. 



In order to insure 

 themselves of a nor- 

 mal food supply next 

 winter the American 

 people must preserve 

 the excess this sum- 

 mer, and since dry- 

 ing is more economical than canning it is coming to play 

 a larger part this season than ever before. The ease 

 with which it is done is a strong point in its favor and 

 practically all vegetables and fruits may be dried. 



In addition to drying by the sun, the simplest method 

 of all, food products may be dried by artificial heat and 



THE WAR GARDENER ANSWERS PERSHING'S CALL 



Bread and Bayonets will beat the Boche so say the war gardeners of 

 the United States who have, according to reports received by the 

 National War Garden Commission, jumped the number of war gardens 

 40% over those in 1917. The war gardeners are eligible to compete for 

 the ten thousand dollars in thrift stamps the Commission at Washing- 

 ton is offering for the best canned vegetables grown in war gardens. 



by air-blast. Many persons insist that dried products 

 are the coming big factor in food conservation and that 

 they are superior to the canned preserved goods. 



Manuals fully explaining the three methods of food 

 drying issued by the National War Garden Commission 

 of Washington have been distributed by hundreds of 

 thousands all over the country. Indeed, the question of 

 food drying has taken the American housewife by storm. 

 The United States government is taking up the subject 



very thoroughly and 

 has experts who are 

 making it a special 

 study. 



A bill to appro- 

 priate money to 

 establish drying 

 plants throughout 

 the country is now 

 before Congress. 

 Community dryers 

 are an old story in 

 France, Belgium 

 and Germany. Were 

 it not for the big 

 food dryers in Ger- 

 many, where dehy- 

 drating plants have 

 been increased from 

 400 at the begin- 

 ning of the war to 

 more than 2,000 at 

 the present time, it 

 is doubtful if the 

 Kaiser's wretched 

 subjects could exist 

 at all. The Ger- 

 mans have found 

 this method ex- 

 tremely economical. 

 The establishment 

 of community can- 

 ning and drying 

 kitchens is one of 

 the most striking 

 changes which war 

 has brought about 

 and promises to be- 

 come a permanent 

 feature of our civic 

 life. The plan has 

 been thoroughly 

 tried out in a num- 

 ber of widely sep- 

 arated communities 

 and has been found to be entirely practicable and a great 

 saving of money, time and labor. 



The statement that $19,000,000 would be saved in 

 transportation each year as the result of the more uni- 

 versal application of the drying process to fruits and 

 vegetables in this country alone was made by Dr. F. F. 



