ooo 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



markets by wealthy Germans. The war has made many 

 people in Germany extremely rich. After years of priva- 

 tion these people will enter the open markets of the 

 world to buy heavily of foodstuffs regardless of price. 

 This cannot fail to create a heavy drain on the food 

 supply. 



Russia, too, must be taken into account. Evidence is 

 at hand indicating a serious food famine in that disrupted 

 country during the next few months. This will prove a 

 mighty factor in complicating the food problems of the 

 world. In all these problems, the United States must 

 regard itself as carrying the full burden of responsibility. 

 It is a burden that no American is willing to shirk. 

 Europe looks to us for food and must not look in vain. 

 The war has given us a full realization of our duty to 

 other nations. With peace this duty must be even 

 greater than before. 



Along with other business that of feeding the world 

 has undergone significant and vital changes with the 



Working Reserve in this country and other bodies 

 abroad, have furnished a certain amount of assistance in 

 solving the food problem. Some of these war-time plans 

 of operation will be continued. They have been found 

 to be practical and valuable. Furthermore, some of the 

 improvements in farm life will make agriculture a more 

 desirable occupation in the future than it has been in the 

 past, in many instances, so that many returning soldiers 

 may find it desirable to take up this method of making a 

 living. 



There is no other single business born of the war 

 which has affected a greater number of people than that 

 of war gardening. More individuals have engaged in it 

 than in any other line of work through which they have 

 been called on to help in the crisis. Starting from a 

 mere nothing before the United States entered the war, 

 this form of activity grew in less than two years into a 

 new occupation which counted its numbers by the mil- 

 lions and, in the statistics of labor employed, exceeded 



SOME STORES TOOK A DOUBLE SHOT 



Many were the ideas used in war garden windows, but this one by Goldenberg, of Washington, District of Columbia, _ took a "double shot" in 

 food conservation and devoted half the window to food production and the other half to food saving. 



passing of the years since Germany forced Belgium to 

 the point of starvation and spread desolation and death 

 from hunger and famine through Poland, Armenia and 

 other helpless dependent nations. Women have taken 

 their places on the farms, doing all kinds of work there, 

 just as they have in other branches of industry. New 

 methods for increasing the yield of the land, including 

 especially the application of more power through 

 machinery, have been applied. Means for getting the 

 produce from the farm to the urban consumer have been 

 improved, the extension of the rural delivery system and 

 the utilization of motor trucks having been the chief 

 factors in this step forward. Various organizations for 

 helping the farmer in harvesting his crops, such as the 

 Woman's Land Army and the United States Boys' 



any other branch of gainful employment with the excep- 

 tion of actual farming itself. 



The fact that such a vast number of American citizens 

 took up this work shows that they appreciated the merits 

 of it, and is one of the reasons for the confident predic- 

 tion that war gardening has come to stay. As the great 

 poet said of his writings, it is something "the world 

 will not willingly let die." Home food production will 

 continue because it has been found worth while ; and all 

 the things which this war has proved to be of value and 

 benefit to mankind will last. The practical lessons 

 learned, as well as the greater Freedom, the more per- 

 fect Justice and the truer Democracy born of blood and 

 battle, will remain to bless the world. 



War Gardening will establish itself as a peace meas- 



