November, 1918 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



115 



Not a hand grenade but a war garden cabbage in Minn- 

 eapolis. Miss Dorothy Primm reports 35,180 other war gar- 

 deners there with crops worth $1,500,000 



are afoot for next year's production of it close to 

 the camps. With them it is "get ready" just as 

 it is with the individual gardener for with an army 

 of five million men, and the average cost of feed- 

 ing a soldier at forty cents a day, it means that 

 two million dollars' worth of food must be handled 

 every day for the army alone. 



But what the soldier can do, the citizen big and 

 little feels that he can do. For example there is 

 the work of Irene McMahon of the Lowell 

 School at Missoula, Mont., who never canned 

 anything before but her work was so good that 

 Mr. Frank S. Lusk, a banker of Missoula sent 

 samples of the girl's work to the National War 

 Garden Commission. The war garden army in 

 Montana is making plans for next year too just 

 to show that they have something besides copper 

 and sheep out there. Examples of this kind have 

 come to the National War Garden. Commission 

 by the thousands. One armed men and men with 

 one leg have battled the bugs just as valiantly as 

 the man in the trenches battles the boche. 

 * * * 



Marion, Indiana, claims the record for war 

 gardening work as a municipality. Lewis de 



/olf of the Marion War Garden Association, has 

 turned in figures to the National War Garden 

 Commission which show that Marion had 14,000 



7zx gardens with a population of 27,000. This is 

 one garden to every two people and Mr. de Wolf 

 defies the world to beat it. In thousands of towns 

 and cities campaigns were carried on that pro- 

 duced great crops but the National War Garden 

 Commission has not yet received figures that 



touch this mark based upon similar population. 

 Of course there are smaller towns, and a lot of 

 them, where "everybody has a garden" as the 

 saying goes. For instance Secretary Mantor of 

 the Commercial Club of St. Cloud, Minn., 

 reports 2,500 gardens in a population of 16,000. 

 * * * 



One of the heartening things about the cam- 

 paign was the Foreign Inquiries as to war gar- 

 den work. The home food production idea has 

 spread throughout the world. Under the plans 

 of the Allied Food Controller who held a confer- 

 ence in London, seventy per cent, of the deficiency 

 in essential foodstuffs of the Allied countries must 

 be supplied from North America. A statement 

 by the Canada Food Board issued after this 

 conference declares the food situation still de- 

 mands "that the greatest possible use be made of 

 the produce of war gardens and of vegetables of 

 all kinds." To help meet this demand the war 

 gardener is making bigger plans for 1919. 



It is probable that in 1919 intensive war garden 

 campaigns will be conducted in many other 

 countries and an immense amount of food added 

 to the world's production. Canada has made 

 marvelous strides in this work; and Frederick 

 Abraham, honorary chairman of the war garden 

 and vacant lot section of the Canada Food 

 Board, places the amount of home grown food in 

 the Dominion this year at approximately 

 #50,000,000, which is more than double the value 

 in 1917. 



"The garden campaign has succeeded beyond 

 the fondest anticipations of those who witnessed 

 and participated in its inauguration in the United 

 States early in 1917," says Charles Lathrop 

 Pack. "The increase this season both in the 

 number of gardens and in the value of the prod- 



Extra Daylight Helped Gardeners 



K War Garden records were smashed in 1918 and a 

 great deal of the credit is given to the Daylight Savings 

 Law by the National War Garden Commission. 



^[ "War Garden crop values were increased by millions 

 of dollars as a result of the law," said Charles Lathrop 

 Pack, president of the National War Garden Commission 

 whose demonstration garden at Camp Dix produced 

 $25,000 worth of food. 



*tt "Figuring 26 working days in each of the seven 

 months," continued Mr. Pack, "you have 182 extra 

 hours in which to work. Our nation-wide survey shows 

 there were five million, two hundred eighty-five thousand 

 home food producing plots. If only one gardener worked 

 this extra hour in each plot it means nine hundred sixty-one 

 million, eight hundred and seventy thousand hours of extra 

 time. Since there are 8,760 hours in a year we find credited 

 to food production work the staggering total 109,803 years 

 of 24 hour days. 



T[ "However, there are eight hours in a working day and 

 to get the real figures we multiply by three and find 329,409 

 working or eight-hour-day years available. Importance 

 of this cannot be over estimated. We are to have an army 

 of five million men and it averages forty cents a day to 

 feed a soldier. In other words two million dollars' worth 

 of food must be handled every day. The big question is 

 transportation for that food. The war gardener who 

 produces close to the kitchen door does a great work and the 

 demonstration garden at Camp Dix teaches a big lesson in 

 feeding the army." 



f (ft 



-,: i 



u .* 





II; M * V*-». it * 4H^ 



if---" v "" ■ ." 





The boys at Camp Dix are also successful as farmers and the 

 harvesting has been no small task. 1000 bushels of string beans 

 is just one item 



uct, has been most inspiring. The consequent 

 conservation movement has swept the country. 

 The knowledge that other nations have started, 

 or are preparing to profit by this new source of 

 food supply, has added to the satisfaction of the 

 workers here. 



"Then too, in the opinion of those who are in a 

 position to know, the war garden is a new econ- 

 omic factor, it has come to stay. The United 

 States to-day is confronted with the problem of 

 feeding its 100,000,000 people in addition to sup- 

 plying part of the needs of its allies and their 

 armies. But when the guns of the war have 

 ceased to sound there will be another 100,000,000 

 or more of people in the world who will demand 

 food. They will be the neutrals and the other 

 unfortunate nations who have been struggling 

 along on scant, often actual starvation diet, 

 either because of shortage or because the food 

 would have fallen into German hands. It will 

 be years after the war's end before the normal 

 food stock reserve of the world will be restored. 



"The war garden must continue to give its 

 widespread, economic, and efficient aid in supple- 

 menting the supplies obtained from the farm and 

 other fields. The amateurs of 1917 have become 

 the veteran war gardeners of 1918, and 1919 

 will see their numbers increased. 



"Like the American soldiers in France the 

 people back home would not understand an order 

 to retreat. They will go forward continuing to 

 supply the needs of the men at the front and to 

 those who are with them in the battle for democ- 

 racy." 





&# ' 



The cliff dwellers of Manhattan Island are successful war gardeners, too. The Park Commissioner helped them utilize all the vacant, flat land. This is not a common conception of 90th Street and 



Lexington Avenue, that's the spot 





