THE PATRIOTIC GARDEN 



FOOD FOB THE . ^ , KITCHEN DGDR 



The Biggest "Victory Gardens" Tear Ahead 



B9 CHARLES LATHROP PACK, g±ft£5ai^; 



WE HAVE not yet begun to fight!" will 

 be the New Year message of the home 

 food producers of America to the world. 

 As they turn the corner into 1919 the 

 garden patriots of the United States, who accom- 

 plished so much in the first year after this coun- 

 try was in the war and again in the past season 

 of 1 91 8, will find that their biggest year is ahead. 

 The world will need more food during the next 

 twelve months than ever before. The War 

 Gardens of 1918 must be the Victory Gardens 

 of 1919. They must help to complete the victory 

 which our arms have begun. There must be no let 

 down but instead an increased effort to supply 

 the demands of a hungry world. Food reserves 

 will be short for years to come and reconstruction 

 work will call for industrial and economic labors 

 on a stupendous scale compared with which some 

 of the vast tasks carried out during the war will 

 seem relatively easy. 



TV/fORE and more there has been a calling of 

 -L^-*- workers into the mills and factories of the 

 country. This has included women as well as 

 men; and hundreds of thousands of women have 

 gone into manufacturing, mechanical and mer- 

 cantile pursuits. In some cities of the United 

 States alone this has run up into the tens of 

 thousands. In addition to the enormous num- 

 bers taken by the various drafts there has been 

 a heavy and steady drain away from the food 

 production fields of the country to the industrial 

 centres. This places an extra burden on the 

 sources of food supply which even with improved 

 machinery and methods they are not able to 

 meet to the full. Home gardens in city, town, 

 and village must make up the deficit. 



The problem of feeding all these workers at 

 home is a big one. They cannot maintain their 

 strength and perform their duties unless they are 

 well nourished. But a still bigger problem is 

 that of supplying the growing demands of the 

 millions on the other side of the ocean who have 

 been relased from the thrall of hunger and star- 



vation which they have been facing for three or 

 four years past. They have been living on scant 

 diet, barely enough to sustain life, for a long 

 period. Their own supply is exhausted. They 

 must depend on the rest of the world, and largely 

 on the United States, to furnish the food which 

 has so long been denied them. It will be years — ■ 

 five to ten — before they can regain what they 

 have lost during the war, before their business 

 and their industry can be reorganized and before 

 they can take a large part in helping to raise 

 their own food. Food, therefore, will be the big 

 problem of the world for years to come. 



ALL parts of the globe are being ransacked in 

 ■ an effort to find new sources of supply and 

 food which will fill the deficit. Plans for shipping 

 are being adjusted with this thought in mind. 



Irene McMahon of Missoula, Mont., who much to her sur- 

 prise earned o££ the garden prize in her city. Then she 



won a cannine prize and was 



awarded a National Capital 

 Prize Certificate by the Na- 

 tional War Garden Commis- 

 sion which was still a greater 

 surprise. I f you want to know 

 the joy of gardening for the 

 first time just ask this little 

 Miss 



Wriat was accom- 

 plished by the Gar- 

 den Clubs through- 

 out the country can 

 never be visualized; 

 but this from Minn- 

 , eapolis is typical 



Every hillside put 

 to work that the 

 American Rolling 

 Mill Company of 

 Middletown, Ohio, 

 could find. War 

 Gardens are planted 

 and cultivated by 

 the workers of the 

 Armco Plant 



Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, has 

 been working on a broad national scheme looking 

 to the placing of large numbers of returned sol- 

 diers on new land which can be developed. It is 

 probable that international arrangements in 

 regard to the purchase and distribution of food 

 supplies will continue for a long period after the 

 close of the war. These and other plans which 

 are being discussed to meet and solve the serious 

 situation, show how vital to the world's welfare 

 and of how long duration will be the food question. 



TN this work the Victory Gardener will be a 

 *■ big factor. His importance cannot be over- 

 estimated. His duty to the world is clear. He 

 must continue to produce large quantities of 

 "Food F. O. B. the Kitchen Door/" Millions 

 are depending on him for part of their daily 

 bread. Without his help millions of them will 

 starve and other millions go hungry. There 

 have been famines of peace as well as famines of 

 war. In normal times they did not make the 

 headway and devastate as large portions of the 

 world as might easily be the case when reserve 

 stocks have been practically, if not entirely, ex- 

 hausted for months or years. It is necessary, 

 therefore, to make every garden count in the 

 days to come. The motto of every home food 

 producer in the United States in 1919 should be: 

 "I will make my vegetable plot a Victory Garden 

 to help feed the world." 



Ten million citizens of Belgium and Northern 

 France, few of whom have had a square meal 

 since the German occupation in 1914, must be 

 given bread and meat. These victims of German 

 oppression must have sufficient nourishment in 

 order that they may rebuild their factories and 

 their shell-torn cities and restore their ruined 

 farms. Without help from the United States 

 they cannot do this. There are other millions 

 throughout Europe and Asia who also look to 

 these shores with eager, outstretched hands, 

 praying for the food they need. 



Victory gardening in the United States in 1919, 



140 



