THE FUTURE OF WAR GARDENING 



BY CHARLES LATHROP PACK 



PRESIDENT, NATIONAL WAR GARDEN COMMISSION 



A 



FTER-THE-WAR food needs must be regarded as 

 less vital than those with which conflict has 



no 



made the world cruelly familiar. Authorities are 

 in full accord that the cessation of warfare must needs 

 give even greater emphasis to the food requirements of 

 Europe and America. They are also agreed that there 

 must be no let up in food production and food saving. 

 Europe's food problems of peace cannot fail to be of 

 extreme gravity. In reclaiming vast areas of country 



vital truth that no increased production can be expected 

 in France and Belgium during the first year of peace. 

 Restoration will be long and laborious. Food Adminis- 

 trator Hoover has stated that there will be seven years 

 of food shortage in Europe following the declaration of 

 peace. His statement is in no wise exaggerated, and 

 this condition must be fully recognized in working out 

 the world's food problems. 



An added factor is that the population of Germany 



PRIZE WINNING GARDEN OF THE EASTMAN COMPANY 



The Camera works of the Eastman Kodak Company, at Rochester, carried on a systematic war garden campaign and followed it with a cam- 

 paign to can ami dry the surplus produce. This is the prize winning garden of one of the employes. Hundreds of such plots were planted and 

 is an example of what business concerns throughout the country have done to induce the workers to produce more food f. o. b. the kitchen door. 



which have for years been in the hands of the enemy, 

 France and Belgium have also reclaimed the vast popu- 

 lation and assumed the burden of feeding hundreds of 

 thousands of starved peoples thus restored to the rights 

 of citizenship. 



This, of itself, would be enough to intensify the food 

 problem of these countries. To this must be added the 



must be reckoned with. After war-time starvation the 

 German people will make demands that will have direct 

 and serious bearing on the food question. We may 

 not have to feed Germany as we feed France and Bel- 

 gium, but in one way or another we will have to face the 

 demand from this source. One phase of the German 

 demand will be the buying of foodstuffs in the European 



665 



