CHAPTER XII 



THE PART PLAYED BY DAYLIGHT SAVING 



How "City Farmers" Were Enabled to Take Time by the Forelock 



BECAUSE of the Daylight Saving Law war gar- 

 dens added far more to the nation's food supply 

 in the season of 1918 than would have been pos- 

 sible otherwise. This law was in operation during seven 

 months of the year, from the last Sunday in March 

 until the last Sunday in October. The impetus which 

 this gave to the movement and the material gain re- 

 sulting therefrom were almost inestimable. That the 

 measure increased by many millions of dollars the 

 value of the food grown is undoubted. 



An idea of what this extra hour of daylight meant 

 to the war gardeners of the country may be gathered 

 from the actual amount of working time it presented 

 as a free gift to the home food producers. This extra 

 hour given each afternoon to the war gardener meant 

 a total of 182 hours during seven months of twenty- 

 six working days each. Multiplying this figure by 

 the number of war gardeners in the United States — 

 5,285,000 — it gives the stupendous aggregate of 

 961,870,000 hours of time, or 329,407 years of eight- 

 hour days. 



More than 300,000 years were thus added to this 

 one industry alone by a single piece of legislation, laws 

 similar to which had been adopted by fifteen other 



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