THE WA R GARDEN 

 VICTORIOUS 



CHAPTER I 



HOW THE NATIONAL WAR GARDEN COMMISSION 

 CAME INTO BEING 



The Need of Making Every Garden a Munition Plant 



^ I "^HE war garden was a war-time necessity. 



I This was true because war conditions made 



it essential that food should be raised where it 

 had not been produced in peace times, with labor not 

 engaged in agricultural work and not taken from any 

 other industry, and in places where it made no demand 

 upon the railroads already overwhelmed with trans- 

 portation burdens. 



The knowledge that the world faced a deficit in food, 

 that there existed an emergency which could be met 

 only by the raising of more food, was apparent to every 

 well-informed and thinking man and woman during the 

 early months of 1917. 



The author, wishing, as every patriot wished, to do 

 a war work which was actually necessary, which was 

 essentially practical, and which would most certainly 

 aid in making the war successful, conceived the idea in 

 March, 1917, of inspiring the people of the United States 

 to plant war gardens in order to increase the supply of 

 food without the use of land already cultivated, of 



