IN THE FURROWS OF FREEDOM 



921 



humanitarian service. A report to the National War 

 Garden Commission from the Secretary of Agriculture 

 of the Philippines tells something of the way in which 

 they are planting gardens there. This work has been 

 well-organized and is being stimulated through district 

 and municipal campaigns so that everybody is reached 

 and encouraged to help in the food production effort. 

 Demonstration gardens are being planted throughout the 

 Island in the public squares and plazas of the different 

 municipalities to serve as a standing call to the Filipino 

 peoples to help in the world food war. The instance is 

 cited of a fourth grade school boy in one of the islands 

 in the Philippines who has taught a big lesson in food 

 production to the natives of the whole island. He en- 

 tered the contest which was held there and was given a 



but it is because of the beautiful flowers and landscape 

 effects for which they are famous not because of the 

 vegetables which they grow. 



The Victory Garden campaign in the United States 

 this year is in full swing and, in the widespread interest 

 shown and the number of gardens planted, bids fair to 

 surpass the wonderful work done in 1918. Hundreds of 

 organizations which were active in the movement last 

 year are again in the field, while new ones are taking up 

 the slogan of "Food F. O. B. the Kitchen Door," and 

 urging everybody to get into the furrows of freedom to 

 drive back the new enemy, General Hunger. Manufactur- 

 ing concerns have prepared to assist their employes again 

 this year by providing land for them to cultivate. There 

 is increased interest among railroad employes in the 

 work. State and city officials and garden com- 

 mittees are busy. Banks and libraries will 

 assist again by the distribution to their patrons 

 of thousands of garden books furnished them 

 by the Commission. The newspapers of the 

 country again are backing the movement and 

 lending it their hearty support. Big campaigns 

 are on in many cities and motion pictures are 

 being used to show what the "city farmers" 



Lettuce and eggplant are some of the specialties they raise 

 in their gardens at Singalong, Manila. 



small piece of land to cultivate. On it he 

 raised a variety of vegetables. He was told, 

 however, that it would not be possible for him 

 to grow a second crop of corn, as it never had 

 been done, and that the weather and other con- 

 ditions would not permit. But he did grow a 

 second crop of corn and it was larger than his 

 first crop. In this way he converted the 

 sceptics to the possibility and the value of rotation. 

 The Japanese Government is studying the methods 

 which have been carried out successfully in this country 

 by the National War Garden Commission. S. S. Honda, 

 trade commissioner of Japan and an official in the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, who was recently in the United 

 States, took back with him to Japan all the information 

 he could gather about home and community food pro- 

 duction, with the purpose of organizing a similar cam- 

 paign in his country. In discussing the subject he said 

 that a survey of idle land was then being made and that 

 his people, who knew virtually nothing about home gar- 

 dening, would be urged to cultivate all the land available. 

 Japan, of course, prides itself upon its gardens, he said, 



Photographs, Bureau of Agriculture, Philippine Islands 



AT CALLE TAFT, MANILA 



Everybody is a victory gardener in the Philippines and they are rounding up the 

 "slacker land" even under the shadow of- the cathedral dome. 



can do. As an illustration of what they are doing in 

 some of the cities, here is what C. E. Smith, garden 

 director of the Detroit Department of Parks and Boule- 

 vards, says in a letter to the Commission : 



"The work for the present year is well on its way and 

 we are anticipating a much bigger and better work than 

 the year previous. With a large number of gardeners 

 already enrolled with us and the present amount of 

 available land for garden purposes more than double that 

 of last year, we feel assured that the victory gardening 

 for this year will be well worth the most strenuous 

 efforts." In Detroit they are using the Commission's 

 posters on the street cars, particularly to call the attention 

 of the factory workers to the need of home food produc- 



