THE FUTURE OF WAR GARDENING 



669 



will remain in the cities and towns and they will require 

 food then as much as if they were still in the trenches. 

 It is not to be expected that there will be any great 

 flocking back to the farms, and the farmers will be short 

 of help as they were before. It will not be possible, 

 therefore, to look for any large increase in the quantity 

 of food produced on the farms. Broad plans are being 



swamp, arid and other waste land to work. It is figured 

 out that there are considerably more than 230,000,000 

 acres of unappropriated land which could be made to 

 yield valuable crops. 



But this other back-to-the-land movement that of 

 war gardening is an accomplished fact. It was estab- 

 lished simply and without any disturbance of existing 



Photograph by Paul Thompson 



YKS, THEY HAVE APPLES, TOO, AT CAMP DIX 



Gen. Hugh L. Scott samples the apple crop of the demonstration garden at Camp Dix for which the National War Garden Commission gave the 

 seed and implements. Next to General Scott is Charles Lathrop Pack, president of the Commission, discussing with S. W. Hartley, of the Motor 

 Transport Corps, the value of food f. o b. the kitchen door. 



made in the United States by Secretary of the Interior 

 Lane to provide land which can be reclaimed for settle- 

 ment and use by the soldiers. This back-to-the-land 

 movement is probably the biggest that has ever been 

 attempted and if it is carried out successfully will add 

 to the wealth of the country by putting much of its idle 



social, political or economic conditions. For a decade 

 or two before the war there was deep study and much 

 discussion of the problem as to how to check the exodus 

 from the farm to the city. There was a steady drain 

 cityward. Argument and discussion, however, availed 

 nothing ; and the exodus continued. In the "city farmer" 



