THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 93 



These lessons began with the preparation of the soil 

 and the sowing of seed in the house for early vegetables, 

 and dealt with one or more vegetables daily, setting 

 forth in simple language the proper cultural methods 

 for the vegetables in question, and pointing out the 

 diseases and enemies of the particular products under 

 discussion, together with methods of combating them. 

 Though simple in language and shorn of all useless 

 technicalities, these daily gardening lessons lacked no 

 essential cultural directions; and even a beginner could 

 have become a successful gardener by following care- 

 fully the directions given. 



The publicity campaign did not end with telling 

 gardeners how to raise vegetables. As soon as the 

 garden season was well started, appeals were made 

 through the newspapers for the conservation of all 

 excess garden products. The necessity for such conser- 

 vation was first pointed out, and then methods of 

 canning and drying garden products and fruit were set 

 forth simply and completely. These publicity cam- 

 paigns in the public press went hand in hand with the 

 issuance of the Commission's various books, which 

 were offered free to any one upon request. 



Despite the wonderful response of the public to 

 appeals to raise garden products, it was apparent that 

 the need for food increased rather than decreased, 

 because production so constantly fell off in Europe. 

 The constant dripping of water will wear away even 

 the hardest stone, and the Commission believed that 

 the endless repetition of the garden appeal would 



