THE FUTURE OF WAR GARDENING 



671 



Photograph by Paul Thompson 



THEY HAD GARDENS IN NEW YORK CITY TOO 



Here are 



school children 

 crop. 



n Thomas Jefferson Park, New York City, harvesting the war garden 

 This garden is along the East River at 114th Street. 



the men which acted as a tonic 

 to their shattered nerves and a 

 bracer to their recuperating 

 bodies. Similarly at the hospi- 

 tals and army camps in the Uni- 

 ted States this form of activity 

 was employed to help in the re- 

 building of disabled and con- 

 valescing soldiers. In the great 

 reconstruction work carried on 

 at Walter Reed Hospital which 

 lies in the outskirts of the Na- 

 tion's Capital a fifteen acre war 

 garden proved of much thera- 

 peutic value in the treatment of 

 men suffering from various 

 diseases, including war neuroses. 

 In addition to helping them to 

 regain their health and strength, 

 it is training these men for the 

 future and equipping them to 

 make their own living and be- 

 come valuable citizens of any 

 community after they are out of 

 active service. Part of the large 



will have become a habit fixed 

 and firmly implanted in the 

 hearts and lives of the people 

 of the country. 



It is a habit which makes for 

 better living all around. It 

 brings health and wealth to the 

 individual ; it creates a more 

 friendly and more democratic 

 community feeling ; and it adds 

 to the moral strength and the 

 material resources of the nation. 

 Everything possible must be 

 done to encourage and spread 

 the growth of a habit such as 

 this. On that account the pioneer 

 work which has been done by 

 the National War Garden Com- 

 mission in the two seasons since 

 the United States has been in 

 the war, must be continued and 

 expanded and intensified. There 

 must be no let up in the progress 

 which has been made. 



Gardening has been found to 

 be a health measure. It has 

 been used in the rehabilitation of 

 convalescent soldiers. Around 

 the hospitals in Europe almost 

 since the beginning of the war 

 vegetable plots have furnished 

 the means for providing easy 

 and pleasant outdoor work for 



FIRST WINNER OF NATIONAL CAPITOL PRIZE CERTIFICATE AWARDED TO BLUE RIB- 

 BONS BY NATIONAL WAR GARDEN COMMISSION IN COOPERATION WITH COUNTY FAIRS 



"We got all our vegetables from our garden, 100 x-150, this summer, canned 125 jars and stored 25 bushels 

 of potatoes. This is the message sent to the National War Garden Commission, of Washington, by Mrs. 

 Frank P. Brown, of Cincinnati, Ohio, who was awarded a National Capitol Prize Certificate for her 

 canned vegetable work. This National recognition. Certificate No. I, is the first award made by the 

 Commission to blue ribbon winners "cited" as worthy of National recognition by local fair committees 

 all over the country. The Commission is offering certificates and ten thousand dollars in THRIFT 

 STAMPS to such local prize winners. 



