SLACKER LAND AND FOOD FACTS 



179 



on "How to Organize a Community for Production," 

 which will be sent upon request to anyone wishing it. 

 and which points out the way to set all these idle acres 

 to work. 



In putting these spaces and our back yards to work, 

 we must this year plant with particular reference to na- 

 tional and international conditions rather than with refer- 

 ence merely to our own needs. We can ship to our allies 

 only certain foods foods that contain large food value 

 in small bulk and we must ship such enormous quan- 

 tities of these that we shall inevitably run short our- 

 selves. Wheat, meat, sugar, and fats are the foods in 

 greatest demand for export. They meet the conditions. 

 As it was with the wheat, which we could ship only by 

 going without it ourselves, so it is with the meat, and the 

 fats, and the sugar. We must cut down our own con- 

 sumption of these articles in order to have enough for 

 our army and our Allies. And in our gardens we must 

 try to produce substitutes for the things we ship 

 abroad. 



So the potato assumes an importance in suitable 

 "slacker land" garden cultivation that it has never had 

 before. The potato is in many respects a substitute for 

 wheat. It contains various food elements and in fairly 

 generous quantities. It has good fuel value. It is a 

 bulky food, and above all, it is easy to handle and keep 

 in its fresh state. Many of our garden vegetables have 

 small food value and must be eaten at once or they 

 decay. Not so the potato. So the town gardener will 

 do well this year to try to raise a part or all of his own 

 potatoes if suitable "slacker land" is available. 



Dried or shell beans are a thoroughly desirable crop 

 for this year's gardens. So great is the food value of 

 beans that beans occupy a prominent place in the dietary 

 of the United States soldier. In fact, the Army Com- 

 missary Department has just commandeered the entire 

 bean output of the Pacific coast states, amounting to 

 many million bushels. Beans furnish both protein for 

 rebuilding worn out tissue, and motive power to drive 

 the human engine. With a large part of the bean crop 

 thus lifted out of the market, it is evident that there must 

 be some shortage of beans this year, and the home gar- 

 dener will do well to grow his own supply. It requires 

 no canning or preserving, as do some other garden prod- 

 ucts before they become commercially available. Of the 

 bean we might truthfully write, "Multum in parvo." So 

 plant beans for one thing. 



From still another point of view is it necessary to 

 develop our urban garden possibilities to the utmost, and 

 that is the point of view of transportation. The past six 

 months has furnished us with striking examples of traffic 

 difficulties. Ships were so scarce that we could not put 

 on shipboard the materials the railroads hauled to tide 

 water; so 26,000 carloads of materials were dumped in 

 the Newark meadows alone, in order to free the cars, 

 while thousands upon thousands of other cars stood for 

 weeks waiting for the day when ships became available 

 to take their loads. Then came cold weather, and for 

 lack of sufficient cars and locomotives we suffered from 

 lack of coal ; and while other freight was embargoed to 



let the coal come through, there piled up such mountains 

 of freight awaiting shipment that it will be months be- 

 fore the railways can catch up. And much that they 

 must transport is food. Every ounce of food that the 

 home gardener can raise for himself instead of having it 

 shipped to him from a distance, therefore lightens the 

 burden of the railroads. Thus, by producing his own 

 food, f. o. b. the kitchen door, the home gardener will 

 kill two birds with one stone. 



It has always been the case that a prophet is not with-, 

 out honor save in his own country. Distance still lends 

 enchantment to view. Only the near at hand, the com- 

 monplace, the homely, is mean and ignoble. So mankind 

 still yearns for other worlds to conquer and despises the 

 opportunities for service that lie ready at hand. To but 

 few of us is it given to do great things. And in fact 

 we are not qualified to do great things until we have first 

 learned how to do well the little things, "You have been 

 faithful in a few things, I will make you ruler over many 

 things," runs the divine order of progress. But few of 

 us, relatively, can do great things in this struggle for 

 righteousness ; yet each of us can do the small things, 

 which, taken together, make a great whole. In a very 

 real sense, then, the man with the hoe is a soldier of the 

 soil. And as this war must be fought and won, in the 

 last analysis, by the great body of privates, so the food 

 problem can be, must be, and will be, solved by home 

 vegetable growers. In a multitude of gardeners there is 

 safety. Let us remember, then, that America expects 

 every gardener to do his duty. 



DONATIONS TO THEJWELFARE FUND FOR 



LUMBERMEN AND FORESTERS 



IN WAR SERVICE 



(Continued from Page 177.) 



Russe & Burgess, Isola, Miss $10.00 



Sabine Lumber Company, Beaumont, Texas... 25.00 



St. Bernard Cypress Co., Arabi P. O., La 25.00 



Schwing Lmbr. & Shingle Co., Plaquemine, La. 25.00 



Scull, H. E 4.00 



Seidel, Julius 10.00 



Sherman, Jr., John Abner, Calumet, Mich 1.00 



Siller, E. J., Cleveland, Ohio 25.00 



E. C. Sondheimer Co., Sondheimer, La 15.00 



Southern Lumber Company, Myrtis, La 25.00 



Southern Lumberman, Nashville, Tenn 25.00 



Stahl.C. J 10.00- 



Stockton Members of Hoo-Hoo 50.00 



Sunflower Lumber Company, Clarksdale, Miss. 5.00 



Tallahatchie Lumber Company, Philip, Miss.. 25.00 



Texas Lumber Company, Shreveport, La 10.00 



The Tionesta Lumber Company 10.00 



Tremont Lumber Company, Winnfield, La 50.00 



Triangle Lumber Company, Percy, Miss lO.Ou 



Valley Log Loading Co., Memphis, Tenn 5.00 



Victoria Lumber Company, Shreveport, La 25.00 



Vosburgh, W. W., Pittsburgh, Pa 5.00 



Ward Lumber Company, Sunflower, Miss 10.00 



The H. Weston Lumber Co., Logtawn, Miss... 100.00 



Wetmore, George Peabody 150.00 



Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., Tacoma, Wash 500.00 



The J. R. Wheler Company 5.00 



J. W. Wheeler & Co., Oakgrove, Miss 10.00 



White Oak Lumber Co., Coal Grove, Ohio 25.00 



Whitecastle Lbr. & Shgle. Co., Whitecastle, La. 25.00 



F. B. Williams Cypress Co., Patterson, La 100.00 



Wilson & Cochran, Inc., Lottie, La 10.00 



A. G. Wineman & Son, Greenville, Miss 5.00 



Wistar, Underhill and Nixon 50.00 



Wolfe, H. E 100 



Total .$11,825.18 



