THE PATRIOTIC GARDEN 



FOOD FO-B THE 



He also Fights who 



KITCHEN DOOI<, 



* helps a Fighter Fight J 



HHOOVEIK.. 



EAT-FRUIT- 



EAT-NUTS AzvrrTs 



Making me Smallest Quantity Reach me Farthest 



GRACE TABOR 



METHODS OF SCIENTIFIC INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT APPLIED TO THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



Mr. P. S. Ridsdale, Secretary of the National Emergency Food Garden Commission, writes: "Let me compliment you on your feature for food gardens. This kind 

 of instruction is what so many people sorely need. Many made a great mistake this year (1917) in planting too many seeds in too small an area. It is essential that 

 people be taught next year how much (or how little) it is possible to plant in certain prescribed areas. 



[Editor's Note. — An experimental garden was conducted all last year by Miss Tabor with the object of ascertaining just how modern 

 scientific methods could be effectively introduced into the Patriotic Garden. She has worked out for us. to a nicety the essential problems of 

 efficiency in space, succession, and quantities of food crops for any definite number of persons without any excess going to waste; and succession 

 charts, plans, and all data for working any sized garden are given in this article.] 



IN EVERY household there is a de- 

 mand that is quite as definite as the 

 demand of world commerce, if we 

 choose to make it so, or rather, if we 

 choose to believe that it is so, and set 

 about ascertaining what it may be. Com- 

 monly the gardener is prodigal of material 

 — he plants too much of what he does plant; 

 and he fails certainly to organize; that is, he 

 fails to study his problem, and reduce it to its 

 lowest factors. 



Demand should regulate supply, invariably 

 — in gardening. It, therefore, behooves the 

 home gardener to determine to a nicety how 

 much he needs to raise of each thing he 

 proposes planting in order to supply his 

 market. If he raises more than enough, it 

 means that he buys just that much more seed 

 than he need to, and works more land than 

 he need work; therefore, putting in more 

 time than he should. And he has to put in 

 still more time harvesting the excess thus de- 

 rived, unless he allows it to waste. Actually 

 he simply increases his cost of production — 

 his overhead — to no advantage whatsoever. 



I" ABOR should yield certain returns. 

 -*— ' It should produce the maximum in re- 

 sult from the minimum in effort; and 

 neither effort nor result can be considered 

 independently, because they are each the 

 standard by which the other is judged. Care- 

 ful observation has established the fact 

 that only when labor is accomplished with 

 ease and comfort by the laborer is it possible 

 to maintain the highest standard in results 

 over a lengthened period. This high stan- 

 dard, so greatly desired, is being ; obtained in 

 many industrial plants by a careful study of 

 all conditions and factors having to do with 

 the work, and there has been given to this 

 new science the name of "scientific industrial 

 management." 



When the war garden became the great and 

 immediate necessity of last spring, I deter- 

 mined to make use of " scientific management " 

 in planting and tending a garden in order to 

 find out if it would not only increase our 

 garden output when increased production was 

 so vital, but also, at the same time show us an 

 easier way to work. It did both! 



ONE YEAR'S VEGETABLE RATIONS FOR FAMILY 



OF FOUR ADULTS, BY WHICH THE PLANT- 



ING OF THE EXPERIMENTAL GARDEN 



WAS PROPORTIONED 





SUMMER 127 DAYS 





VEGETABLE NO. ROWS 



SERVINGS 





14- 





10 





15 





40 





5 





10 





4 



*Eggplant 1 



25 





15 





Indefinite 



Okra 2 



15 





20 





SO 





15 



*Squash (crookneck) ... 4 hills 



36 





25 



Total number of servings grown 



299 



Required total (no. of days) 



127 



Surplus of summer vegetables (to be 





canned or dried) 



172 



WINTER 238 DAYS 





VEGETABLE NO. ROWS 



SERVINGS 





IO 





15 





20 





IO 





9 





18 



Winter Squash .... 2 hills 



10 





40 



Total number of servings grown 



132 



Required total (no. of days) 



238 



Deficit of winter vegetables .... 



106 



Hfnce there must be on hand for winter, 



in addition 



to the above winter vegetables, the following canned or 



dried, from summer's surplus: — 







25 servings 





25 



Greens (beet tops, etc.) . 12 



12 



Okra (dried) .... 250 pods " 



IO 





24 



Lima beans (dried) . . 10 pints " 



IO 





06 servings 



The summer's surplus shown above provides about 



half as much more, which allows a fair margin for extra 



service. 





The space given over to potatoes allows 40: 



hills; at a 



fair yield a hill a day, or 365 hills in all 



, should be 



enough for a family of four. This allotment of ground 



therefore may be considered sufficient, when 



the proper 



conditions of soil have been secured. 





Add i of the above amounts for each 



additional 



member of a family. 





*Not considered for canning (see text.) 





ET us consider the backyard vegetable gar- 

 - L/ den, for a moment — the most lament- 

 ably wasteful bit of earth on earth, as usually 

 conducted. String beans by the bushel, 

 when you can't give away quarts. Lettuce 

 daily — cabbage-head size — when half a head 

 furnishes enough for the family, and all the 

 neighbors have their own. Green corn by the 

 score ears — just at the time the beans are 

 most abundant and the beets need thinning 

 (and eating) and the okra is demanding to be 

 cut. 



This is the way it goes, until the gardener 

 is quite out of his mind with the worry of it; 

 and like as not sits down and gives up in 

 despair, letting everything go to seed or to 

 waste: — which is usually one and the same. 

 Very few had arrived at the stage of drying 

 their own beans and corn, and okra, up to last 

 summer. And in addition to the surfeit there 

 is usually the famine — the lack of certain 

 worthy vegetables that have either been 

 crowded out, or else have not been planted 

 in sufficient abundance to meet the needs of 

 the household. 



SO IN the last analysis, it is not how 

 much we raise but thow much we use, 

 that is important; and instead of being smart 

 we are simply stupid when we overdo. It is 

 nothing to boast of that we had "such a world 

 of tomatoes!" if a world of tomatoes was 

 more than we needed, more than we could use. 

 Rather is it something to be ashamed of, for 

 it reveals poor management. Prodigality 

 again; prodigality everywhere! — our besetting 

 sin. It is this assertion, taken as a warning, 

 that sounded the key-note of the war garden 

 that is the subject of this article. 



The "clearly defined ideal" was "just enough, 

 and no more!" Determining what would be 

 just enough meant, of course, ascertaining what 

 the year's market would be, first of all. In 

 other words, what would the family which this 

 garden was to be "tried out" on, eat during 

 the year — finishing up with next to nothing 

 left over when the garden products of next 

 year begin to be available? So many bushels 

 of potatoes, so many measures of beets, 

 and of carrots and parsnips and so on, 

 through the list, could be roughly guessed 



191 



