GARDENING AGAINST ODDS 11 



the war made very apparent the excellent work 

 done by the state colleges in the way of or- 

 ganization and instruction, in the country dis- 

 tricts especially. Great waste of food products 

 had for years been necessarily going on in the 

 country away from markets and out of knowledge 

 of the big needs of town and city. The war 

 brought the women of city and country together 

 in a new bond of common sympathy, in a new 

 knowledge of human needs. In the new years 

 coming, country women will be ready to meet the 

 city's need in a sympathetic, intelligent, generous 

 way. The great thing for the farmers' wives and 

 daughters to do, as never before, now that we see 

 so clearly beyond the measure of our own needs, 

 our own larder, beyond to our world-neighbors' 

 empty shelves, is to go ahead and make gardens. 

 Every country woman, in the older states at 

 least, is bound sooner or later to become a gar- 

 dener. Let us all do it this very summer. Let 

 us make up our minds to raise all our own 

 vegetables and more than we need, enough for 

 our own use during the entire season and some 

 over of the best for our city neighbor; enough, 

 also, for canning for winter use for our own larder 

 and plenty to help fill the empty shelves of our 

 world neighbors. Then let us, every one, make up 

 our minds to eat more vegetables and, in that most 

 satisfactory way, cut down our meat bills and 



