The Garden Magazine 



"Our Object is ... to Win the War" 



FROM "over there" on the Western 

 Front, a letter by one of the Garden 

 Magazine organization bears this ap- 

 peal: "This is no time for sentiment! 

 Work, work, work, and send us men and men 

 and men as well as ships, more ships, and more 

 ships!" This is a direct appeal to each reader of 

 this magazine. It presses home the needs of in- 

 creased gardening activity during the year 

 before us. It urges the putting to work of 

 every bit of personal effort to make the earth 

 fruitful, because without food, what good are 

 men and ships ? During the past year 

 America took mighty strides toward becom- 

 ing a land of productive gardens. But let us not 

 rest on our laurels! Though much was done, 

 much yet remains to be done to make us truly 

 live up to every gardening possibility. Not 

 only must more individuals become active in 

 food producing gardens; but many, who al- 

 ready help to fill the world's larder, must 

 contribute more ! Small gardens must be 

 made larger or, precluding such opportunity, 

 must be made to yield more by more system- 

 atic planning and efficient managing. Large 

 gardens must be made more productive of 

 such foods as represent concentrated energy 

 in the highest degree. 



Put your garden on an efficiency basis as 

 never before, thinking always of how your efforts 

 affect the country and its conduct of the war 

 rather than how the work benefits you, individ- 

 ually. All garden plans for 1918 must embrace 

 the growing of more vegetables, fruits and 

 flowers; the planting of more shrubs and trees 

 that stand for permanency and real invest- 

 ment; the use of more modern tools to econo- 

 mize and shorten labor which thus becomes 

 available for the one big job confronting us as 

 a nation: the Winning of the War. Your 

 plans should include a careful study of books 

 on the subject of gardening, always keeping 

 in mind that The Garden Magazine calls 

 every month to help you score better results. 

 One important aid to successful gardening 

 efforts during the months to come will be 

 found in the use of more and better tools! 

 You must make more gardens and bigger 

 gardens in less time with less help ! This does 

 not mean devote less time to gardening! But 

 rather, to do in one hour what you have 

 hitherto been doing in two. If you learn of a 



better spade, a hoe that's easier to handle, 

 an implement that will do more things in less 

 time than could be done in the old-fashioned 

 way, get it; and if you already know of such 

 tell the Garden Neighbors about it. 



Gardening with plants, shrubs and trees of 

 a permanent character will assume a new 

 significance. Why not commemorate im- 

 portant events by planting living monuments? 

 Celebrate victories of "your boys" by setting 

 out groves and orchards: What finer monu- 

 ment to man's wisdom than stately nut 

 bearing trees, memorial shade trees, or ever- 

 greens, fruit laden avenues, or permanent 

 gardens in which future generations may 

 learn to forget much of the hate this war is 

 sowing ? 



And then, there is the 1918 flower garden. 

 Flowers are messengers from a world of cheer 

 —"triumphant assertions that a ray of 

 beauty outvalues all the utilities of man" as 

 Emerson has expressed it. Flowers are sent 

 to brighten somber days, to gladden the heart 

 on happy occasions. Flowers will play their 

 part as long as the world is swayed by human 

 emotions. Though the war seems to be one 

 of machinery, it still takes humans to use 

 the machines, and humans are still governed 

 by the eternal spirit of the race. Grow 

 flowers to carry your spiritual messages to 

 friends in need of companionship . 



The well balanced garden will yield food 

 for the body as well as for the soul. Grow 

 more fruit! Fruit is nature's gift of whole- 

 some nourishment served in most appetizing 

 form. Eat fruit and save sugar. Eat nuts and 

 save meat. By eating fruit from your own 

 gardens you will save food for the fighting 

 men. 



In the vegetable garden, exercise wise care 

 in selecting profitable kinds. Select varieties 

 that yield double the crop of obsolete sorts 

 in equal space. Grow such types only as 

 yield a maximum amount of food per square 

 foot. Grow more root crops for storage and 

 other vegetables suitable for canning and dry- 

 ing. Grow no more vegetables of a perishable 

 nature than you actually need. Above all, 

 help husband our seed resources! W hile 

 stocks on hand are ample to go around, the 

 patriotic gardener will save and economize in 

 seeds, for without them our last line of de- 

 fense is threatened; and the President has well 

 said "our object is, of course, to win the war." 



183 



But, Be Reasonable 



I^HE approaching garden campaign for 

 _more food will be better planned than 

 that of last year which was, so to speak, 

 caught "on the run." The season was al- 

 ready well advanced when the appeal for 

 more gardens was issued. The response 

 was immediate, wonderful indeed. Accord- 

 ing to the annual report of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture "The home-garden campaign of 

 last spring and summer, part of the effort 

 to increase the Nation's supply of war-time 

 food, stimulated, it is estimated, the planting 

 of from 200 to 300 per cent, more gardens 

 than ever before had produced food in the 

 United States in one season." But looking 

 backward it is now obvious that some of the 

 effort of last year was misdirected energy. 

 Lawns that had cost hundreds of dollars were 

 converted into second grade potato patches 

 yielding but a tithe of their cost; golf courses 

 were sacrificed in hysterical haste. These, 

 and similar spectacular things; the while 

 other and larger lands and fields behind were 

 left untilled and unproductive. There is no 

 excuse this year for even unintentional vandal- 

 ism, not even in the name of patriotism. The 

 problem before us is clear, and plans can be 

 made to have necessary cultivable areas well 

 in hand in due season. Equally as im- 

 portant as planning for plenty is accuracy in 

 gauging one's requirements. Remember that 

 it is just as bad economy to over produce and 

 waste as it is to under produce and want. 

 Space wrongly utilized is taken from effec- 

 tive production. Real economy lies in pro- 

 ducing the right quantities of the right kinds 

 at the right times, in which connection the 

 carefully worked scheme on page 195 will re- 

 pay studying. 



We Want Daylight Saving 



CONGRESS needs to be urged to pass the 

 Daylight Saving Bill introduced into the 

 Senate and unanimously passed by that body. 

 Every home gardener could use one hour 

 extra daylight every evening to great effective- 

 ness. It would add millions of dollars' worth 

 of produce to the country's yield. Daylight 

 saving is already adopted by twelve European 

 countries; Canada and Nova Scotia want it 

 and are only waiting for us to act. Turning 



