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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



VOL. XXV 



JANUARY, 1919 



NO. 301 



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VICTORY GARDENS! 



BY CHARLES LATHROP PACK, 

 PRESIDENT, NATIONAL WAR GARDEN COMMISSION 



WE'VE won the war ! Now, keep it won and enjoy 

 the fruits thereof. To do this is going to require 

 continuing effort in order that what has been 

 acquired may be stabilized. Careless relaxation may 

 destroy some of the gains which have been secured. 



Much that has been 

 fought for and won with 

 the precious blood of our 

 best and bravest sons, may 

 be lost unless great care 

 is exerted to make the all- 

 important r e c o nstruction 

 days on which we are now 

 embarked and on whose 

 uncharted seas we will be 

 sailing for several years to 

 come, as complete with pa- 

 triotic effort and conscien- 

 tious devotion to high duty 

 as the war days through 

 which we passed so bravely 

 and so unflinchingly. 



Twenty million tons of 

 food to Europe in 1919! 

 That is the task which has 

 been assigned to the United 

 States as a result of Mr. 

 Hoover's promise to our 

 Allies and the other nations 

 abroad. He knew when he 

 said the word it would be 

 carried out. He knew the 

 American people, what they 

 have done and what they 

 would do. 



It is a big order but it 

 will be filled ; there is no 

 doubt of that. When that 

 amount was fixed it was 

 the result of careful study 

 of the minimum require- 

 ments of America's Allies and the neutrals who are nec- 

 essarily dependent on this country for a large part of 

 their food supply. Twenty million tons is not all they 

 need, but it is the least amount that will meet their 

 requirements. It was figured out that the American 



The Fruits 

 of Victory 



Write for Free Book to 



National War Garden Commission 



Washington, D.C. 

 Charles Lathrop Phck,ft-id en t P.S.Ridsdale.Secretwy 



people without any undue restrictions, without denying 

 themselves to the point of privation, could easily furnish 

 that quantity. It would be well to make it greater if 

 possible, for it would prevent that much more hunger, 

 suffering and starvation in Europe and Asia. It will be 



impossible to prevent a cer- 

 tain amount of starvation. 

 This pitiful toll cannot be 

 prevented. Before suf- 

 ficient quantities of food 

 can be supplied to them 

 from the present dimin- 

 ished granaries of the 

 world, thousands of wretch- 

 ed people who have been 

 near the point of starva- 

 tion for the past three or 

 four years, will actually 

 have died for lack of food. 

 The task of America is 

 to reduce this suffering and 

 death to a minimum. Con- 

 servation of food will help. 

 But the big problem is to 

 produce. There can be no 

 conservation when there is 

 no production. The war 

 gardeners of the United 

 States have made a won- 

 derful record during the 

 past two years. They can 

 always look back proudly 

 to what they did in the way 

 of increasing the nation's 

 food supplies. 



Now they are called on 

 for an even greater task. 

 This phrase, "an even 

 greater task," is used ad- 

 visedly. There are several 

 reasons why it is true, why 

 the Victory Gardens of 1919, as the home food producers 

 will now be known, have their biggest year ahead. War 

 gardening has been an evolution, a development. The 

 War Garden was the chrysalis. The Victory Garden is 

 the butterfly. It would be very easy to permit a let 



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