I 



THE PATRIOTIC GARDEN 



FOOD F-O'B THE 



He also Fights who 



KITCHEN DOOB^ 



helps a Fighter Fight 



*• H-HOOVE\. 



EAT- NU TS^Nn TsXT^ 8 ^^ 



Over Here and Over There luther burbamk 



Member National War Garden 

 Commission, Washington, D.C. 



TO NO other nation in the world's 

 history probably has such a stupend- 

 ous task been given as that which has 

 been assigned to the United States in 

 the present titanic conflict. In this modern 

 battle of the giants the young Hercules of the 

 western world is called upon to perform what 

 seem like impossible labors. 



In addition to the military force which the 

 United States is exerting both by land and 

 by sea, there are other services it must render 

 to the common cause. The greatest of these 

 is the furnishing of food in vast quantities to 

 the Allies for their civilian populations and 

 for their armies. At the same time this coun- 

 try is obliged to send more and more wheat, 

 beef, and other staples abroad for its own 

 rapidly growing army in France. 



Food has become therefore the great out- 

 standing problem. Wherewithal shall we 

 be fed? is the question which has been on the 

 tongues of millions of men ever since the war 

 started. Old sources of food supply were 

 being used to the utmost; but it was evident 

 from the outstart that this would not begin 

 to take care of the food needs of the world. It 

 became necessary, therefore, to look for new 

 meansof increasing the amountof food on hand. 

 There were two ways in which this could be 

 brought about. One was by increased pro- 

 duction. The other by conservation. 



A S TO the former it was realized that the 

 -**■ farmer, handicapped by shortage of 

 labor due to the draft and his help going off to 

 work in munition plants, could not accomplish 

 all that was demanded. On this account a 

 new source of food supply was looked for. 

 There was an undeveloped field, it was ob- 

 served, in the uncultivated home yards, back 

 yards, vacant lots, and open spaces of our 



cities, towns and villages. This ''slacker land " 

 must be put to work, it was decided. And 

 so the National War Garden Commission 

 started on its nation-wide campaign to arouse 

 all our "city farmers" to their patriotic duty 

 of raising food. 



'XXT'HILE there always had been a few 

 * v. gardens here and there, with quite a 

 sprinkling of them in some places, never be- 

 fore had any effort been made to get this 

 work started on a national basis. The value 

 of the enterprise lay in the fact that these 

 small tracts of land numbered up into the 

 millions. They may range in size from a few 

 square feet up to an acre or more. None 

 individually large. It is only by taking them 

 in the aggregate that the immensity of their 

 power as a food producer is realized. It is 

 the same as with the other small things which 

 have gone to make the big forces of this war. 

 This is the day of stupendous undertakings, of 

 plans and projects which would have made us 

 gasp with wonder a few years ago. We speak 

 now of billions of dollars and of immense 

 appropriations with an unconcern which 

 would not have been dreamed possible less 

 than a decade ago. 



At the same time it is still the day of small 

 things. Many of the immense totals which 

 make up the hundreds of millions contributed 

 to the Red Cross and the Y. M. C. A., the 

 vast Liberty Loan and War Saving issues, are 

 composed of an overwhelming number of 

 small amounts. And so it is with the war 

 gardens — the little back yard vegetable 

 plots — now scattered by the million over the 

 United States from coast to coast. United 

 they can produce enough food to supply the 

 equivalent of all the rations needed by an army 

 of a million men for many months. 



THE other method by which the food 

 ■*• supply could be increased, it was seen, 

 was by conservation. There must be added 

 production but at the same time there must 

 be no waste. If the growing demands of the 

 Allies and of the armies were to be taken care 

 of, it was necessary that both means be em- 

 ployed to the utmost. The National War 

 Garden Commission, therefore, has been as 

 active in urging the conservation of food as 

 in urging its greater production. It has called 

 on the home food producers to save all the 

 product of their war gardens, to let no particle 

 go to waste; what could not be consumed at 

 the time it ripened they were advised to can 

 or to dry for future use. This campaign 

 too, like that for the planting of vacant lots, 

 has been nation-wide; in fact, it has become 

 international, for Canada and other countries 

 have appealed to us for assistance and advice 

 in getting similar campaigns started among 

 their people. 



U^OOD is the big word in the world war 

 *■ to-day. It is the basis and foundation 

 of everything else that is being accomplished. 

 A nation or an army might maintain itself 

 for some time without certain other factors 

 that are considered necessary to self defense. 

 But without food it would soon become neces- 

 sary to surrender to the enemy. Famine 

 stalking through the land would devastate 

 it more quickly than could the guns or the 

 gas shells of the other enemy. 



Few people realize the scientific fact that 

 all food and all clothing, without any excep- 

 tion, is first produced by the action of sunlight 

 on the foliage of plants and that were it not 

 for the wonderful chemical engines installed 

 in the foliage of plants no life could exist on 

 the earth. It is only by the improvements 



Over in England they are selling bones at the rate of 5 pounds for 25 cents, the police regulating a long line of patiently waiting purchasers anxjpus for a chance to enter the store. Over 

 here bones, fats and other scraps of food still go to waste in garbage pails. Grow more crops, save food, and carry on. (Official Press Bureau photographs, London). 



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