IN THE FURROWS OF FREEDOM 



BY CHARLES LATHROP PACK 



PRESIDENT, NATIONAL WAR GARDEN COMMISSION 



A NATION is as strong as its homes. The purposes 

 of the various community efforts, which today are 

 occupying the thought of many leaders in civic 

 betterment work, is to knit together and make more 

 secure the home ties. 

 The greatest of all 

 community efforts is 

 that of home food pro- 

 duction. The garden is 

 the cement which helps 

 to hold in place the 

 foundation of the home. 

 There is scarcely a city 

 or a town in the United 

 States where the ques- 

 tion of bringing the 

 producer and the con- 

 sumer closer together 

 has not been discussed 

 and where some sort of 



plan has not been devised for bringing this about. But 

 the method which has accomplished the most and which 

 has proved 

 most success- 

 ful is that of 

 the home and 

 community 

 garden. No 

 other instru- 

 ments have 

 been found so 

 helpful to the 

 individual, the 

 unit of com- 

 munity life. 



"We Ameri- 

 cans ought to 

 be a nation of 

 garden ers," 

 says W. E. 

 Babb, a Chica- 

 go newspaper 

 man and apart- 

 ment-ho use 

 "cliff - dweller" 

 who cultivated 

 a garden last 

 year for the 

 first time in his 

 life and found 

 it not only 

 profitable from 

 an economic point of view but interesting and educational 

 as well. "Nature intended that we should be a nation of 



918 



THE DAYLIGHT SAVING LAW 



Here is the Daylight Saving Law which was in effect 

 in 1918 and will remain in force during 1919, and which 

 will settle the minds of doubters as to whether daylight 

 saving is a one-year proposition or not : 



"That at 2 o'clock ante-meridian of the last Sunday in 

 March of each year the standard time of each zone shall 

 be advanced one hour, and at 2 o'clock ante-meridian of 

 the last Sunday in October each year the standard time 

 of each zone shall, by the retarding one, be returned to 

 the astronomical time of the degree of longitude govern- 

 ing each zone, respectively." 



CABBAGES AND KINGS 



When a factory worker lias a garden like tins with the best of vegetables right at the kitchen door he 

 can feel as independent as an American citizen should feel. This is a corner in the one-acre garden of 

 an employe of Eastman Kodak Company at Rochester, New York. 



gardeners," he adds, "and this applies to the man in the 

 city as well as to the rural districts." 



He tells how after clearing all the "weeds, tin cans and 

 brick-bats from the vacant lot which he 'borrowed,' and 



digging up a carload of 

 junk," he succeeded in 

 raising "enough to sup- 

 ply a score of people 

 with vegetables all sum- 

 mer, while in addition 

 my wife canned a lot 

 for winter use." 



"And there was 

 something more," he 

 declares. "I learned 

 that vegetables are in- 

 teresting things to live 

 with. I tried raising 

 chickens once and got a 

 lot of real pleasure out 

 of it but it didn't compare with the joy and knowledge 1 

 got out of my war garden." He was awarded the first 



prize by the 

 State Council 

 of Defense for 

 his war garden. 

 Many thou- 

 sands of other 

 people have 

 1 e a r n ed that 

 war gardening 

 is not only val- 

 uable but inter- 

 esting. City of- 

 ficials and busi- 

 ness men have 

 learned that it 

 is a movement 

 worth cultivat- 

 ing permanent- 

 ly. That is 

 why, in addi- 

 tion to their 

 kno wledge of 

 the present 

 world need for 

 food, they are 

 backing the 

 Victory Gar- 

 den campaign 

 this year. The 

 com m unit y 

 with the largest number of gardens in proportion to its 

 population, other things being equal, is the most pros- 



