KEEP THE FOOD COMING 



199 



"DOIXG HIS BIT" 



Even the children at many of the big manufacturing plants throughout the country are helping their fathers in the war garden work. Hundreds 

 of companies are assisting their employees and at the same time helping their country by providing the land for the men to cultivate, in most 

 cases plowing and preparing it for them and aiding them also in other ways. 



ica needed the food. As soon as they saw this need and 

 realized that they could make up the shortage in food 

 through home garden cultivation the only new and un- 

 used source of supply they rolled up their sleeves, got out 

 their broad-brimmed straw hats and began to dig in the 

 garden trenches. 



In the campaign of education by which the National 

 War Garden Commission got this message over to the 

 American people and by which it is instructing them how 

 to proceed, daily use is made of garden lessons furnished 

 to the newspapers of the country, while posters, garden 

 instruction booklets and much other literature is dis- 

 tributed. One of the big factors in the campaign has 

 been the slogan. Of these the Commission has used a 

 number at different times. 



"Every Garden a Munition Plant" is the one which 

 appears on this year's beautiful garden poster, which is 

 the work of the well-known artist, James Montgomery 

 Flagg. "Sow the Seeds of Victory" is another striking 

 phrase which appears on the poster, above the head' of 

 the striding figure of Liberty who, clad in a dress made 

 of the American flag and with a red cap on her head, is 

 scattering seed over a rich brown field. 



Among other slogans which have sent their .elari.011 

 call through the nation, calling on the home gardener 

 to step into the breach and fill up the vitally necessary 



supply of food, have been the following: "Food Must 

 Follow the Flag," "Speed Up and Spade Up," "Hohen- 

 rakes versus Hohenzollerns," "Plan to Plant and Win the 

 War," "Keep the Home Soil Turning," "Get into the 

 Garden Trenches," "The Hoe is the Machine Gun of the 

 Garden," "Spade for Your Life and Liberty," "Let There 

 Be No 'Slacker Land,'" "Food F. O. B. the Kitchen 

 Door," "Make the Pantry Shelves Sag and Break the 

 Kaiser's Back" and "The Battle Cry of Feed 'Em." 



"This morning I just turned in, on my 87th year, to 

 cultivate three lots in vegetables," wrote Paul Williams, 

 a Civil War veteran, of Shelby, Indiana, in a letter to 

 the Commission, requesting a copy of the War Vegetable 

 Gardening Booklet. He declared that he wanted to grow 

 "his bit of ammunition." 



After the war one of the questions which is going to 

 be asked most frequently, will be, How did you help.'' 

 No matter how old one lives to be that will still be a sub- 

 ject of inquiry. 



To+his question many millions of Americans will have 

 the satisfaction-of replying: 



"I planted a war garden. I helped to feed myself and 

 thus to feed the army." 



No matter in how many other ways one may have 

 helped, the importance of food is. so great. that. anyone 

 who had the opportunity of growing a garden and did 

 not take advantage of it, will always have something to 



