WIDESPREAD ACTIVITY IN HOME FOOD THRIFT 



By CHARLES LATHROP PACK 



President of the American Forestry Association and President of the National Emergency Food Gardens Commission. 



An inspection trip of community canneries was recently made by Charles Lathrop Pack, president of the National 

 Emergency Food Garden Commission which is affiliated with the American Forestry Association. In these canneries, 

 where neighboring families work together on a co-operative basis, Mr. Pack sees a splendid example of productive thrift. 

 He makes plain in the following statement that the work of food gardening, of canning and of drying from Maine to California 

 and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf has justified all expectations. 



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ET us consider what our home gardening signi- 

 fies. It means that 1,100,000 acres of city and 

 town land are under cultivation this year much 

 of it heretofore non-productive. The country- 

 wide survey made by the National Emergency Food 

 Garden Commission located nearly 3,000,000 food gar- 

 dens, but this is not the best of the story. The canning 

 and drying movement has brought back to thousands 

 of American households an art almost forgotten since 

 the days of our grandmothers. This is particularly true 

 of the drying of vegetables and fruits which this year 

 is being done by good housewives on a vast scale. 



There is much evidence that our food gardens are 

 helping our people to feed themselves more reasonably 

 and will continue this helpfulness throughout the 

 winter. The editor of the North American Review 

 says in the September number: "Last spring, at 

 garden planting time, we urged the increase of produc- 

 tion partly through intensified culture to increase the 

 yield per acre and partly through the increase of acre- 

 age by the cultivation of neglected fields and even 

 small plots in suburban and urban areas. How well 

 this policy was executed is seen in the reports of the 

 National Emergency Food Garden Commission that 

 the gardens of the country were this year more than 

 trebled in area. Beyond question this achievement 

 has much to do with the fact that the increase in price 

 of garden products in the year was only 22 per cent, 

 or less than one-fifth of that of bread stuff." 



The results will this winter mean much for food 

 F. O. B. the homes of America, and help us, by feed- 

 ing ourselves, to feed our boys and our allies. We 

 already have a million men under arms in our army 

 and navy. There will be two million by spring. They 

 must all be fed and the soldiers and people of France 

 and England must be fed, and to a large extent fed by 

 us and we are going to see that this is done. In the 

 canning and drying of vegetables and fruits the homes 

 of America are contributing an important share. 



The glass jar manufacturers of this country have 

 delivered, to September first, about 119,000,000 quart 

 glass jars. A survey of the household supply of jars 

 in some twenty typical towns throughout the country 

 shows that the housewives of America this year will 

 use but one new jar to over three and one-quarter old 

 glass jars on hand, and all of them, old and new, have 

 been filled or will be filled. This makes possible the 

 conservative statement that the home women of the 

 country will conserve more than 460,000,000 quart 

 glass jars of vegetables and fruits certainly three 



times what has been accomplished before. The drying 

 has also added several million dollars worth to the 

 food supply by preserving vegetables and fruits. 



All of us can contribute our share in fighting the 

 battles of the great war by doing our part in food con- 

 servation. This war is as much our war as it is the 

 war of Europe. Unless we can keep the soldiers of 

 the allied armies properly fed and can prevent hunger 

 among the women and children of France, Russia and 

 England, the western line of defense may be thrown 

 back toward the Atlantic seaboard, and it is well 

 within possibilities that in that event we would see 

 the army of the enemy on our own shores. 



Much has been said about food thrift and food 

 economy, but I want to come to the defense of the 

 good women of this country because it is the women 

 who really understand what thrift means. It is my 

 experience that the patriotic women of America have 

 been practicing thrift all along and that they know 

 how to practice economy without parsimony. This 

 year they have added to their duties the patriotic work 

 of food production and food conservation. A thrifty 

 woman is a blessing to mankind and the women know 

 very much more about real thrift than the men. 



We are going to win this war, and we are going 

 to win it by fighting with food. You cannot starve 

 Germany. Ambassador Gerard has told us so. But 

 we will starve our allies if we are so short sighted and 

 small and mean and unpatriotic as not to deserve the 

 name of Americans. This must not be and I feel safe 

 in saying that it will not be. We face a race of people 

 under a government intent upon the mastery of the 

 world. The war seems far away to most of us but 

 we are in reality fighting for our national existence 

 and our national fate. We will realize this more fully 

 when the great stream of wounded and maimed of our 

 soldiers are sent back to us from France. But none 

 the less, we are going to win this war. Our soldiers 

 are going to do their part. We are sending our sons 

 to the front and we who are at home, men and wo- 

 men, can carry on the good fight and do our part 

 quite as well as the man with the gun. I feel sure 

 that the men and women of America are doing their 

 duty. I feel sure of victory, and when that victory 

 comes there may be erected a monument commemor- 

 ating the greatest event in modern history, bearing 

 these words: "FOR DEMOCRACY AND CIVILI- 

 ZATIONA WAR WON BY FREE MEN AND 

 FREE WOMEN FOR HUMANITY." 



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