46 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 191 



This panoramic view of the military reconstruction farm at Guelph, will give some idea of the scale of operations in Canada 



ialized agriculture is to occupy a prominent place 

 in reeducational curricula. 



There is, undoubtedly, something deep down 

 in most of us which impels a love of the soil and 

 of growing things. It is largely undeveloped in 

 city folk — dormant, so to speak, as is the germ in 

 the seed, but needing only proper influences 

 and conditions to waken it into life. The 

 genuineness, the worth-while-ness, as it were; 

 the actual companionship and peace gardening 

 affords those who love it, make it peculiarly an 

 occupation of exceptional merit for those whose 

 foundations have been sorely shaken by the hor- 

 rors of the devil's nightmare in France. The 

 grateful turning to creation, instead of destruc- 

 tion, at once grips and fascinates most natures 

 to whom the processes are shown. 



The experience of our troops and workers in 

 Prance, observing that land of tiny farms and 

 intensively cultivated patches, is undoubtedly 

 going to have its influence upon thousands of 

 our men whose interest in growing things has 

 not heretofore been awakened. City men, 

 billeted in villages in France have been laboring 

 voluntarily in the gardens and fields in order to 

 help the old people whose sons are on the battle 

 line. These men have been impressed with 

 the wonderful amount of foodstuffs that can 

 be produced upon an infinitesimal acreage. It 



is going to result, after the war, in a mighty 

 exodus to the suburbs of American cities, the 

 outskirts of towns and to the semirural life along 

 our interurban and railroad lines. 



Especially is this life going to appeal to the 

 injured and disabled man. If he can return to 

 his former occupation, he will also have his 

 disability compensation, and the knowledge of 

 how to help out on expenses by a small piece of 

 land, effectively used. There will be many of 

 this class of men who with their disability com- 

 pensation to lean upon, are not going to labor 

 as hard as formerly, but will substitute their 

 knowledge of gardening and growing things in 

 place of unremitting activity in some other line. 



The training classes set up by the Federal 

 Board for Vocational Education will be free. 

 The man who is wounded but not sufficiently 

 disabled to keep him from his former occupation, 

 may take the course if he wishes to, except that 

 he is not given his pay and family allowances 

 while taking it. If he chooses after discharge to 

 take it and maintain himself, or depend upon his 

 disability compensation, he is welcome to enter 

 the classes. Many of them are going to take up 

 the study of gardening, impelled by the object les- 

 sons they have seen in France. These will per- 

 suade the men of the worth of intensive horticul- 

 ture, and will also make easy the task of the voca- 



tional advisers in inducing them to take up 

 gardening as a course of instruction and future 

 livelihood. 



The Government has not yet formulated its 

 policy of getting the disabled soldier on to the 

 land, as has Canada, Australia, New Zealand, 

 and other countries, but there is manifest at 

 Washington a strong sentiment in favor of accom- 

 plishing this object. The public domain in the 

 West still affords some land available for home- 

 stead, but as against this type of heavy farming 

 may be urged the limitations of the disabled man, 

 so that there is not much likelihood of a ma- 

 terialization. 



But, as an alternative, there has been sug- 

 gested that an amendment be passed to the 

 Federal Farm Loan Bank Act, applicable to all 

 disabled soldiers enabling them to obtain loans 

 up to nearly the full value of a piece of land, 

 advantageously located with respect to markets: 

 this loan to be used as the bulk of the purchase 

 price: and then loaning an additional sum on the 

 security of the soldier's disability allowance, for 

 the purpose of completing the purchase price and 

 furnishing working capital to begin on. It is 

 very likely that legislation along these lines will 

 be proposed at the next session of Congress, and 

 quite probable that something of the sort along 

 these general ideas will be passed. 



Dried Vegetables as a War Garden Economy 



CHARLES LATHROP PACK Pre ~ sid --~ N — 1W - 



Garden Commission 



HANDS Across the Sea," never before 

 meant quite what it means to-day and 

 as President Wilson said in his message 

 to the French people on their National 

 holiday "the ocean seems very narrow." So 

 to-day the hand of the United States is held 

 'nit to the nations of the world through the dark- 

 ness of war in countless ways. Our men go 

 gladly. The Red Cross works patiently and 

 Other humanitarian agencies unite to lighten 

 the burden, but back of them all must be food. 

 It is for food particularly that the rest of the 

 world is looking longingly and trustfully to 

 America. 



Much that has been done in the United 

 . in the direction of increasing the world's 

 food Blipply, is furnishing an example to other 

 IS. I hey are studying the methods which 

 an being applied here successfully; they sec the 

 universality of the response to the nation's appeal 

 to produce and to save food, and it inspires them 

 to do likewise and encourages them to keep on 

 in the good fijiht which they have undertaken to 

 rid the world of the oppressor. 



There has been nothing that this country has 

 started in the food production line which has 

 perhaps attracted more world-wide notice and 

 example than war gardening — a distinctly war- 

 born undertaking. The idea of getting every- 

 body in the nation aroused to the importance of 

 putting to work every bit of vacant land in the 

 country — back yards, commons, parks, open spaces 

 around mills and factories, and all other available 

 space — spread over the United States like wild- 

 fire once the people were made to realize what 

 could be accomplished in this way. Other na- 

 tions, some of which had attempted something in 

 this direction, have come to the United States to 

 learn of the manner in which such national inter- 

 est was stirred up in this work here. 



War gardening in the United States has as- 

 sumed colossal proportions. It has produced 

 almost immeasurable quantities of food for 

 summer use; and in addition is leading to a stock- 

 ing up of pantry shelves in almost every home 

 with a vast amount of canned and dried vege- 

 tables and fruits for winter use. 



I he drying of foods has not yet assumed the 



proportion it deserves. It is not a new art, hav- 

 ing been practised to a certain extent from the 

 days of the ancients and everyone is delightfully 

 familiar with grandmother's famous dried apple 

 pies. But on a large scale dehydration is still 

 in its infancy. It is taking hold this year, how- 

 ever; and many tons of garden products will be 

 conserved by this process. The value and the 

 importance of this method can hardly be over- 

 emphasized. [See article on page 54 for practical 

 directions; also watch for October Garden 

 Magazine. — Ed.] 



Not long ago some dried products which 

 had been saved since the time of the Boer War 

 were opened by the British War Office and found 

 to be just as good as the day they were put up! 

 They had been shipped from Canada for the use 

 of the British army in South Africa, but had not 

 been used because of the sudden termination of 

 that campaign. And so they were sent over to 

 France for the pressed British Expeditionary 

 Forces there. The British and French govern- 

 ments have purchased more than 50,000,000 

 pounds of dried foods from Canada since the 



