EVIDENTLY com- 

 munity gardening 

 has come to stay. 

 In almost every 

 section where it has been 

 tried it has proved success- 

 ful, and has been the means 

 of many an "unskilled, unpractis'd" man or wo- 

 man attaining to a creditable production in 

 thrifty, well-grown vegetables — an achievement 

 which otherwise would have been wholly beyond 

 them. Best of all, these new recruits have ended 

 the season with a feeling of encouragement and of 

 high enthusiasm for another venture next year. 



* * * 



The University of Nebraska made a fine con- 

 tribution to the cause of democracy in its im- 

 proved drier. This was an enclosed cabinet, 

 screened at the end, and provided with many 

 trays, and so arranged that an electric fan swept 

 over them a constant current of air; it was ef- 

 fective, quick, clean — but also expensive. The 

 matter, however was taken up by the Lincoln 

 Rotary Club, which provided the funds and or- 

 ganized the establishment of one of the first — if 

 not the first, community driers in the country. 

 Any housewife could take her product, properly 

 nared and sliced to the drier, call for it when done, 

 and for the service pay a few cents per bushel. 



Mayor Dahlman of Omaha, observing the 

 advantages of the community drier, urged it on 

 Omaha and one was established under the direc- 

 tion of the Omaha Welfare Board. People from 

 all around brought their garden stuff to be dried, 

 more than twenty varieties of vegetables were 

 handled, volunteers ran the plant, and the public 

 was charged the cost of operating — twelve cents 

 for each bushel dried. Drying vegetables in 

 Omaha was made so cheap and easy that every- 

 thing was gathered and conserved. I doubt if 

 garden clubs can perform a single service more of 

 benefit to the community than the establishment 

 of a community drier and running it for the public 

 at a nominal cost. In the individual effort there 

 is a chance of failure. 



Interesting experiments in community mar- 

 kets to take care of the surplus products have 

 been an interesting by-product of this year's 

 gardening enthusiasm. These, in most cases 

 have been organized and operated by women. 

 Markets have been established in all sorts and 

 conditions of places — city curbs, Court Houses, 

 in old school houses, in back yards — in short 

 in any convenient place where consumer and 

 producer could get together. 



* * * 



The county officials of Wilmington, N. C, 

 started a community market in the Bethany 

 County Court House. Lancaster, Pa., has a 

 market twice a week along the curb of a street 

 in the heart of the city. In Brookline, Mass., a 

 community market was organized in the old 

 Bethany Sunday School building. These and 

 other small markets were extremely well patron- 

 ized. Salt Lake City early established a muni- 

 cipal market where all growers might bring their 

 produce, and the Women's Committee on Food 

 Conservation supplemented this with a cannery, 

 which is operated in the market building. Mrs. 

 W. F.Adams, President of the Federated Women's 

 Clubs of the city directed the work, and six 

 other women made themselves responsible 

 for furnishing ten helpers one day a week. Equip- 

 ment was installed sufficient to can a goodly 

 amount of produce a day and the work has 

 gone merrily on. Many women came as volun- 

 teers, market produce was bought. Boy Scouts 

 brought in produce which was given. Canning 

 demonstrations were held and women who came 

 for the products learned how to do the thing 

 themselves. 



Under the chairmanship of Mrs. Eloise Vi- 

 mont the women of St. Louis conducted a muni- 

 cipal cannery, impelled by the necessity of pre- 



UNCLE SAM'S GARDENING 



A News Feature of National Current Activities 



venting the waste by the commission houses. 

 Surplus products, instead of being thrown away 

 were purchased at a low figure daily and canned in 

 a large building lent for the purpose. This is 

 typical of what has happened in a great many 

 cities: women are very much in earnest in the 

 matter of stopping the waste by commission 

 houses. Possibly another year will find the 

 whole business of the middleman in women's 

 hands and the men who manipulate prices in 

 potatoes and onions will be better employed in 

 growing them. 



* * * 



The Woman's Land Army made good this 

 summer to an astonishing extent. It was hard 

 to go anywhere that the "farmerette" in her 

 attractive costume was not an important figure 

 on the landscape— not only that, but she has won 

 the respect of the community. Even in those 

 most conservative of communities, the New 

 England hill towns the farmerette has in many 

 cases come to the rescue of the crops and done 

 admirable work not only at the lighter parts of 

 farming — weeding, berry-picking and the like, 

 but the units have gotten in hay, brought in oats 

 and done creditably other man-size jobs, and 

 without their aid, with the extreme scarcity of 

 labor and the depletion of the countryside of its 

 young men, many a crop would have been lost. 



* * * 



A very valuable side-crop due to the farmer- 

 ettes' activity, is the enthusiasm for the work 

 among the country girls themselves. Many 

 young women, farmers' daughters, who previous 

 to this summer have sought summer employ- 

 ment at the great summer resorts, have gone into 

 farm work and found a genuine liking for it and 

 immense increase in health. Perhaps the Land 

 Army will have the credit of breaking down the 

 ancient New England tradition that field work 

 is improper for women and that the woman's 

 "sphere" should keep her glued to the house and 

 the cook-stove. If so it will have done an immense 

 work and be a tremendous influence for health 

 among New England girls. Country girls who 

 never thought of doing such a thing before have 

 camped and worked in the fields — and liked it. 

 Small units are planning bigger things for next 

 year — as the unit at Cornish, N. H., in charge of 

 Miss Jameson, recruited almost wholly of the 

 young girls of the neighborhood, that unit is 

 expecting to raise $1,000 for next year's equip- 

 ment, for the purchase of tools and machinery 

 which they propose to own. 



* * # 



The central office of the Woman's Land Army 

 of America reports that wherever its units have 

 been established, success has been the invariable 

 record. Thirty-nine states are now organized 

 under the Woman's Land Army of America. 

 Of these seventeen have placed active units in 

 operation, while others are canvassing the farm 

 labor situation and strengthening their organiza- 

 tion so that they may be ready to meet the de- 

 mand another season. 



* * * 



As many as one hundred and twenty-seven 

 units of women have been at work — these units 

 ranging in size from twenty to a hundred and 

 forty women. And a conservative estimate of 

 the women serving on the land this year is about 

 15,000. This does not include emergency units 

 organized by the various cities and towns, or wo- 

 men working in their own locality and not joining 

 an agricultural unit — if these were added the total 

 would greatly exceed the figure given. 



* * * 



Women everywhere have shown a remarkable 

 eagerness to enter the Land Army and recruits 

 have been drawn from every profession and all 



120 



occupations. So far the 

 Land Army has not dis- 

 turbed to any extent exist- 

 ing industrial conditions — 

 the Hired Man is quite 

 willing, nay even pleased 

 to have the feminine help. 

 Naturally the workers have been drawn from 

 those whose summer time is free — teachers, 

 college girls, seasonal workers, and the like. 



* * * 



Skepticism and conservatism exists where 

 the Land Army has not come. Usually — in fact 

 almost invariably, a unit on the scene and get- 

 ting to work, has been able to convince the most 

 conservative farmers of its value. Once they 

 have seen how it works, they want more of 

 the same kind. The women have worked, and 

 worked successfully at the following tasks — 

 haying, hoeing corn, binding grain, shocking 

 wheat, rye, and oats, stocking grain, bagging 

 corn, cultivating, plowing, planting, thinning 

 and weeding, fruit-picking and drying, potato 

 digging, canning, berry-picking, pruning and 

 tending vines, bunching vegetables, staking to- 

 matoes, transplanting, feeding stock, dairying, 

 harnessing and driving horses, running tractor, 

 operating binder, chopping and sawing wood, and 

 irrigating — a fairly complete farmer's repertoire! 



Apparently the work has been good for the 

 worker. One large camp reports an average 

 gain per worker of nine pounds, and in every case 

 the physical condition of women in Land Army 

 Camps has been pronounced to be excellent. 



Government departments and 32 organizations 

 (patriotic groups and organizations of women) 

 have this summer cooperated with the work of 

 the Woman's Land Army. Thirty-four women's 

 colleges have helped either by recruiting or by 

 offering agricultural courses. There is an es- 

 pecial need of dairy workers. 



* * * 



Women who have farmed in amateurish fash- 

 ion this year and intend to go a-gardening next 

 year on a larger scale and with better methods, 

 will be greatly interested in the courses offered 

 at the School of Horticulture for Women at 

 Ambler, Pa., under the direction of Miss Eliza- 

 beth Leighton Lee. During the spring and 

 summer session this excellent school was crowded 

 to its fullest capacity, for not only theory is of- 

 fered but practical work under very able teachers. 



* * * 



Very popular were the "War Courses" for 

 Captains and Lieutenants of Land Army Units 

 and the graduates have been in great demand. 

 The School cooperated with the Drexel Institute 

 in Philadelphia, gave a course at the Institute 

 and a practical course of work at the Drexel 

 Estate, on the edge of the city. The School of 

 Plorticulture has organized a Bee Club on a 

 cooperative basis and is making a very definite 

 contribution to solving the problems caused by 

 the sugar shortage by reviving the industry of 

 bee-culture and by producing very excellent 

 honey, for which there is a tremendous demand. 

 The jam kitchen gives instruction in the latest 

 methods of preserving and canning and puts up 

 large quantities of fruits and vegetables. The 

 Directors of the school at Ambler, and especially 

 its president, Miss Jane B. Haines deserve great 

 credit for having had the vision and the faith 

 in horticulture and agriculture as professions 

 for women, and making training in these practical 

 and possible before the country as a whole had 

 waked up to their necessity. 



* * * 



Cooperation in canning is proving very suc- 

 cessful. In Philadelphia, the women living 

 along York Road, and on the Main Line have 

 gotten together, engaged an expert, and do their 

 canning under supervision. Reporting that it 

 is more fun, insures better results, and saves the 

 ordeal of canning to their own immaculate Phila- 

 delphia kitchens — also undoubtedly to their 

 families. 



Frances Duncan. 



