Returns from tke War Garden Campaign 



A Kaleidoscopic Summary of Some of the Tangible Results of the National War Garden Commission 



EVERY railroad in the country has an 

 enormous amountof land along its right 

 of way which could be made to produce, 

 but it has taken the necessities of war to 

 bring out this fact. In the South, " Right-of- 

 way Gardens" are to be seen from the window 

 of almost any passenger train. A field 30 

 feet wide and a half-mile long is not uncom- 

 mon, and innumerable little gardens are to be 

 found between the ends of the cross-ties 

 and the right-of-way fence. The Great 

 Northern Railway has sent out information 

 that arrangements will be made at any time 

 with any person who wishes to use their right 

 of way for war garden purposes — and no 

 charge for the use of the land. 



* * * 



W. P. Kenney, president of the Great 

 Northern Railway, having authorized the 

 planting of war gardens on the unusued por- 

 tions of the right of way, E. C. Leedy, 

 general immigration agent, sent a notice to 

 all the road's agents urging them to do every- 

 thing possible to rouse interest in the move- 

 ment and thus to help save cars. "If we 

 are to head the list in the amount of production 

 from war gardens," he said, "it will require 

 the cooperation of every employee along the 



line. 



* * * 



D. O'Hara, a station agent of the New York, 

 New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, 

 is an enthusiastic war garden booster. He 

 wants to see his town of Ridgefield, Conn., 

 make a record in home food production, and 

 for that reason he has been distributing man- 

 uals furnished by the National War Garden 

 Commission of Washington to help along in 

 the work. Thousands of railroad employees 

 are thus helping to raise food f.o.b. the kitchen 

 door and relieve transportation. 



War gardening will not end with the war, 

 in the opimon of W. W. Coe, manager of the 

 Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company of 

 Roanoke, Va., an enthusiast on war garden- 

 ing. "I feel," writes Mr. Coe, to the 

 National War Garden Commission of Wash- 

 ington, "that the interest taken in war gardens 

 will not only result in a greatly increased food 

 supply this year but will be continued for 

 succeeding years — even longer than the war 

 lasts." 



Because of their experience in beating 

 the high cost of living last year, employees of 

 the St. Lawrence Pyrites Co., at De Kalb, N. 

 Y., are raising big war garden crops this season. 

 Last year they planted potatoes in ground 

 furnished by the company and despite the fact 

 that many potatoes were frozen in cellars 

 owing to unprecedented cold, they saved 

 enough to bring down the local price to eighty- 

 five cents a bushel this spring. 



* * * 



The board of education in Ottumwa, Iowa, 

 detailed a trained man to devote his whole 

 time to the 600 school children who had war 

 gardens, and also organized clubs among 

 adults. Committees of practical gardeners 

 were formed and plowing was done by organ- 

 izations. The park board plowed up a large 

 tract, divided it into a hundred gardens and 

 distributed these among the poor. 



* * * 



Not to be daunted by the fact that their 

 war gardens are a mile above sea level, on 

 poor soil, Butte, Montana, High School 

 pupils are cultivating enthusiastically, led by 



Mrs. Bruce E. Millikin, wife of the principal. 

 Now the vegetables are raising their heads in 

 the patches around the mining camps, in spite 

 of cold nights and a short season. 



* * * 



A little persuasion from the Mayor of 

 Mason City, Iowa, Hon. T. A. Potter, induced 

 the owner of a "slacker" plot of land to allow 

 it to be cultivated. All vacant land was 

 listed and every piece of it taken up by a red- 

 blooded, patriotic war gardener. "Plant 

 every inch" is the motto of the town for the 

 season. 



* * * 



The Ohio State University, through its ex- 

 tension service of the College of Agriculture, 

 is cooperating with the National War Garden 

 Commission in a statewide "drive" to save 

 the products of war gardens by canning and 

 drying. Twenty-five thousand manuals con- 

 tributed by the Commission have been dis- 

 tributed. 



"Instead of working on the lawn after 

 business hours, the men here cultivate po- 

 tatoes," writes H. M. Robinson, secretary 

 of the Chamber of Commerce, Miles City, 

 Montana, to the National War Garden Com- 

 mission of Washington. The Chamber offers 

 #100 in prizes for war gardens. 



* * * 



Employees of the New York Telephone Co. 

 at Syracuse, have leased a farm and have 

 gone into war gardening on a large scale. 

 Canning and gardening manuals have been 

 contributed by the National War Garden 

 Commission and Syracusans expect a large 



crop. 



* * * 



Rev. Herbert J. Glover, rector of St. 

 Stephen's Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, N. 

 Y., believes in helping his flock in practical, 

 as well as in spiritual ways; and has inspired 

 the members of his parish to plant war 

 gardens and to can as much of the surplus 

 product as possible. 



* * * 



Home gardens, ranging in size from a 

 square rod to ten acres were cultivated in 

 Parsons, Kansas, by several hundred persons 

 and when a heavy rain damaged the gardens, 

 the undiscouraged patriots went to work 

 right away and replanted. 



Gardens are to be seen all over Dubuque, 

 Iowa, where the War Garden Committee 

 has been active since early in the season. 

 Large tracts of suburban land were culti- 

 vated by city "colonies" and much produce 



is being gathered. 



* * * 



Fifteen hundred school children of Ashe- 

 ville, N. C, have war gardens ranging in size 

 from 15 feet square to large plots. The 

 Board of Trade plans to make the War garden 

 work a permanent part of the high school 

 curriculum. 



Representative Harry C. Woodward of 

 the fourth West Virginia Congressional dis- 

 trict, is an enthusiast on war gardening and 

 distributes canning and gardening manuals 

 of the National War Garden Commission 

 among his constituents. 



* * * 



Students of the Florida State College 

 for Women are matriculating in large num- 

 bers for the summer courses in canning and 

 gardening. More produce will be put up in 



20 



Florida this year than in any previous year of 

 her history. 



* * * 



Sweet potatoes grown in war gardens by 

 the children of Watts Mill Schobl (S. C.) will 

 be sold for the benefit of the Red Cross, so 

 Miss Daisy G. Harris, home demonstration 

 agent reports to the National War Garden 

 Commission. 



* * * 



Employees of the General Electric Co. at 

 Pittsfield, Mass., have formed a club to buy 

 food and raise and can fruits and vegetables. 

 They claim expenses are being appreciably 

 cut by the cooperative plan. 



* * * 



Posters, dodgers and pamphlets issued 

 during the war are being collected at the Cali- 

 fornia State Library at Sacramento by the 

 librarian, Milton J. Ferguson, who believes 

 they will be valuable to historians. 



* * * 



Of 2,900 students in the Salina, Kansas, 

 schools, 1,500 had fine war gardens within the 

 city limits. The Salina Chamber of Com- 

 merce conducted its campaign through the 

 schools. 



* * * 



Food posters from Great Britain, France, 

 Italy, the United States and Canada will be 

 shown by the Canada Food Board at the 

 annual exhibitions to be held throughout 



Canada this fall. 



* * * 



The Visiting Housekeeper Association of 

 Detroit will give demonstrations of drying and 

 canning all summer to show the women of the 

 city how to preserve the surplus of their war 



gardens. 



* * * 



The "city farmers" of Havre, Montana, 

 have stimulated the "real farmers" of that 

 vicinity to increase their acreage, writes 

 W. B. Pyper, secretary of the Chamber of 



Commerce. 



* * * 



In one section of Passaic, N. J., 400 window 

 hangers with "We Have a War Garden" con- 

 tributed by the National War Garden Com- 

 mission are displayed. 



* # * 



Two thousand employees of the Hartford 

 (Conn.) Rubber Works Company are con- 

 ducting a canning and garden campaign that 

 promises to fill every dinner pail next winter. 



* * * 



The Kobe Yushin Nippo a leading news- 

 paper of Kobe, Japan, recently devoted an 

 article to the work of the National War 

 Garden Commission of the United States. 



* * * 



B. R. Tillman, Jr., son of the South Caro- 

 lina Senator, who is clerk to the Senate Com- 

 mittee on Naval Affairs, has a war garden in 



Washington. 



* * * 



The Boys Division of the Denver Y. M. 

 C. A. requests all boys to devote their summer 

 vacations to productive work, preferably 



food production. 



* # # 



There are fourteen thousand inhabitants 

 and fourteen hundred war gardens in Ogdens- 

 burg, New York. 



Of 497 miners' families living at Logan, W. 

 Va., more than 300 have war gardens, although 

 last year there were only 50 gardens there. 



