CHAPTER III 

 HOW WAR GARDENS HELPED 



Every Gardener Became a SoLDrER of the Soil 



'HAT the "three R's" mean to preparation for 

 a life of peace, the three M's become in the 

 conduct of war. These three M's stand for 

 men, money and munitions. In its broadest sense, the 

 term munitions includes everything needed by an army, 

 and of all an army's needs the basic and most im- 

 portant is food. 



The quantities of food required by our army are 

 huge. Dietitians estimate that the average man needs, 

 daily, food that will furnish 3,500 calories. The United 

 States army ration allows 4,700 calories to each man, 

 and the unusual exertions demanded of our soldiers make 

 it quite necessary that they have this generous allow- 

 ance of food. With less they might lack that abundant 

 supply of muscular and nervous energy upon which their 

 very lives depend. 



Stated in terms of avoirdupois, the United States 

 army ration is slightly in excess of four and a quarter 

 pounds of food a man per diem. Four pounds of food 

 does not seem like a great quantity. It allows each 

 soldier twenty ounces of fresh beef a day, or its equiv- 

 alent in fresh mutton, bacon, fish, turkey or other 

 meat; eighteen ounces of flour or bread; twenty ounces 

 of potatoes with proportionate amounts of other vege- 

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