62 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



March, 1918 



Bobbink & Atkins 



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The Utility of Beauty in Winning the War 



AS I sit at my office desk and look out over our 

 nurseries, wrapped now in a blanket of snow, 

 I have a feeling of impotent helplessness. 

 I think of the active manufacturers, the builders, the 

 captains of industry, the financiers, all alive, keen and 

 alert, to whom it is given in these stirring days to create 

 material things, to create fast and well — munitions 

 and clothes and food. And I envy them. For what can 

 we do with greenhouses and nurseries, Nature's simple 

 products of beauty, to help win the war? 



But as I pass along the sanded walks, through the 

 warm, Nature-scented atmosphere of our greenhouses, 

 I do not envy those other workers. For surely, right 

 here in our own hands, is a work and a duty as great as 

 any of theirs. Everywhere about me young green plants 

 are growing, myriads of them, miles of them: — seeds 

 just coming up, plantlets putting out their first leaves, 

 buds forming, blossoms opening — -everywhere fragrance 

 and color and beauty — coming for Easter and for Spring. 



Are not these God-given materials to work with? In a 

 world strained with anxiety and tense in labor, are not 

 these little plants of ours rays of sunshine and hope? 



Faint-hearted nurserymen tell us that people are not 

 going to buy trees and plants, shrubs and flowers while 

 the war lasts. 



We do not believe it. 



WRITE FOR A COPY OF OUR 

 ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE 



Will your garden run to seed? Will weeds crowd out 

 the blossoms along your walks? Will your lawn go. 

 uncut? Your roses tangle? Your climbers swing in 

 the wind? Your hedge grow rough? 



Will such conditions inspire you to do your best? 



No, indeed! 



Whatever these days are they are not slacker days — ■ 

 neither at work, nor at home. You are putting all your 

 energy into business to make your work count. To 

 your home you look for relief and rest. It is the one 

 place where you must renew energy, take fresh courage. 



And right here, it seems to Mr. Bobbink and to me, 

 is where our share of the work of winning this war comes 

 in. Never before have the trees and flowers and shrubs 

 of our gardens everywhere in the country had so practical 

 a work to perform — the work of keeping us up to our 

 jobs, and helping us by their fragrance and color and 

 beauty to keep fresh, hopeful, confident. 



It seems, indeed, as though our years of labor in ac- 

 cumulating, planting, developing Nature's best and most 

 beautiful products here in America for American homes 

 and gardens, had all been simply to fit us for the won- 

 derful opportunity, now, at this supreme time. 



Let us utilize this Beauty for you, let us introduce 

 it into your life and home and so together, help win 

 the war! Frederick L. ATKINS 



Rutherford, New Jersey 



VISIT OUR NURSERIES 

 8 MILES FROM NEW YORK 



The Readers' Service will gladly furnisk information about Gardening 



