Waf Gardens and the Helping Hand of Women 



CHARLES LATHROP PACK 1 ^-&*s*2«. 



IN THE most literal sense of the term it 

 may be said that women are "taking a 

 hand" in helping to win this war and 

 playing a far more important part than 

 ever they were called on to perform in any pre- 

 vious conflict of the world's history. 



The service that the women are contributing 

 to-day cannot be over estimated. It is in- 

 valuable. The unanimous testimony of the 

 most prominent officials, military and civil, 

 of the various nations is that the war could 

 not be carried through without the help that 

 the women are rendering. 



In previous wars it has been the soothing 

 hand of woman which has cooled the fevered 

 brow of the wounded and ministered to the 

 dying. But outside of hospitals and the 

 occasional picturesque performance of a 

 Molly Pitcher, there was little in the way of 

 actual war preparation that the so-called 

 "weaker sex" were called on to do. Women 

 to-day have shown that they are capable of 

 standing by the side of their men and that 

 virtually all of the tasks — munition making 

 and all the rest — which in an earlier day would 

 have been left to men can be executed and are 

 being carried on with efficiency and dispatch 

 by women. 



/"*\F ALL the work which women are doing 

 ^^to-day there is none more congenial to them, 

 none to which they can better apply the knowl- 

 edge and the natural aptitude which they 

 possess and none that is more important in 

 assuring the ultimate success of the arms of 

 the Allies, than in the production and conser- 

 vation of food. From her place in the home, 

 where the growing scarcity of food and the 

 resulting high prices make themselves felt 

 in almost every family, she readily perceives 

 the great partwhich this factor is playing in the 

 war. 



There is no truer slogan among the many 

 which have been sounded since the beginning 

 of the war than this: "Food Will Win the 

 War." Even after other supplies were about 

 exhausted a nation might struggle along 

 for a time and maintain its independence 

 against a foreign foe, but if there were no food 

 left all would be lost. 



On this account, therefore, food becomes 

 an all-important problem. Every bit that 

 can possibly be produced must be grown; and 

 none must be lost. Production and conser- 

 vation are twin handmaidens fighting to stay 

 the devastating grip of threatening famine. 



HPHE war gardens of the United States 

 -*- reaching the magnificent total of more than 

 5,000,000 this year, are accomplishing won- 

 ders in adding to the food supply of the nation. 

 Reports to the National War Garden Com- 

 mission from cities, towns and villages in all 

 parts of the country, show the zeal and the 

 patriotic enthusiasm with which the home 

 soldiers of the soil have gone after the Kaiser 

 with the hoe. 



Now that the food is being produced in large 

 quantities in this way it is essential that none 

 be lost. Here is where the American women 

 can perform one of their most patriotic and 

 helpful services. In addition to the part 

 they have taken in encouraging the planting of 

 war gardens, and in many cases actually get- 

 ting out and doing some of the gardening 

 work, they must see to it that none of the 

 vegetables and fruits which are being raised 

 be allowed to go to waste. 



Canning and drying of vegetables and 

 fruits must be made adjuncts of the war gar- 

 den work. Those products of the home plot 

 which cannot be consumed as they ripen 

 must be stored away on the pantry shelves for 

 future use. It is just as important to be 

 ready to save wheat, beef and the other sup- 

 plies which must be shipped to Europe during 

 the winter months as during the summer. 

 There must be a "winter garden" on the 

 pantry shelves; and the vegetables there must 

 be substituted for the more solid and com- 

 pact foods needed for the American army 

 abroad and the armies and civilian populations 

 of this country's allies. 



The same strong arguments which show the 

 necessity of as large a production as possible, 

 hold true for the conservation of food. It is 

 an unpatriotic act to waste food at any time. 

 It would be just as foolish, just as contrary 

 to the best interests of the country to raise a 

 large supply of food in our war gardens and 

 then through oversight, carelessness or any 

 other cause, to permit a large part of it to go 

 to waste, as it would be to construct a fleet of 

 vessels and then allow them to swing idly at 

 anchor in our harbors, or to manufacture tons 

 and tons of ammunition and hundreds of big 

 guns and not send them to the front where they 

 are needed. 



Food preserved on the kitchen shelves or in 

 the cellar will help to relieve the congested 

 railroad situation in just the same way as a 

 large supply of summer vegetables grown close 

 to the kitchen door. In both cases it takes 

 from the backs of the railroads part of the 

 heavy burden, and permits the turning over of 

 thousands of freight cars for more essential 

 war work. 



AGAIN, the saving on the market bill must be 

 **• considered. Canned vegetables bought at 

 the store in the winter time are expensive: and 

 if these products can be put up at home during 

 the summer months when there is a plentiful 

 supply, there will be need of little outlay for 

 this part of the family menu. There are 

 Liberty Bonds to be bought and a hundred 

 other ways in which the country must be 

 assisted to win the war. The money saved 

 through the preservation of the surplus supply 

 of vegetables from the war gardens of the 

 nation, will go far to help in the purchase of 

 war saving stamps, and so on. 



The value of home canning and drying as a 

 patriotic service increases with every day the 

 war is prolonged. Every added day of war 

 sees the world's food stocks lowered. The 

 cupboards of those nations which have been 

 longest in the struggle are already bare. 

 Left to themselves our allies would speedily 

 starve to death. Preeminently it is the duty 

 of America to feed her allies. To do this 

 there must be conservation as well as increased 

 production. The two go hand in hand as 

 glorious partners in the happy enterprise of 

 keeping the food following the flag. 



Every jar of food that is put up adds that 

 much to the common store. Without the 

 assistance that is being rendered by the 

 millions of war gardens of the United States 

 this supply would be rapidly depleted. The 

 commercial food supplies of the nation have 

 to be supplemented from the back yards and 

 the vacant lots which have been turned from 

 their barren, uncultivated state into bounteous 

 yielders of food. 



There should be no limit to the amount of 



228 



food which the American housewife puts up 

 for future use. She should can all she possibly 

 can, even if it is in excess of the amount which 

 her own family probably will need. There 

 may be others in the neighborhood who are 

 not so fortunate as she, who for one reason or 

 another have not been able to cultivate a war 

 garden. Part of her surplus canned or dried 

 vegetables can be given, or sold at a fair 

 price, to friends or acquaintances who will be 

 glad to have them. 



The ease with which home canning and 

 drying can be done makes it a simple matter 

 for any housekeeper to add her bit in this way 

 to whatever other services she is performing 

 for the country. No elaborate outfit is re- 

 quired to preserve or to dry vegetables; and 

 on this account no one can offer any excuse 

 for not helping in this manner to conserve the 

 nation's food resources. 



"^"OR can any one hide behind that other 

 -^ ^ excuse which is sometimes given : "What I 

 can do would be so small a contribution that it 

 is not worth while." To give such an excuse 

 at this time would be nothing more than the 

 furnishing of "aid and comfort to the enemy." 

 It is only by the sum total of the small 

 amounts that the vast aggregates which are 

 collected to-day are arrived at. While this 

 is a day of big things, it is still the day of small 

 things; and the "baby bonds", pennies col- 

 lected at moving picture houses, and dollars 

 which go to make up the hundreds of millions 

 that are donated to the Red Cross, Y.M.C.A. 

 and other worthy purposes, are evidence of 

 the power of "tiny drops" which swell into a 

 mighty ocean. 



The necessity for home canning will in- 

 crease with every added day of the struggle. 

 All the able-bodied farmers of the embattled 

 nations of Europe are in the trenches or ser- 

 ving in the army elsewhere; and the farmers' 

 sons and helpers in the United States are 

 joining the ranks by the hundreds of thou- 

 sands. Old men, women, and children are 

 doing the farming in Europe. Yearly the 

 crops are decreasing. And as the production 

 of our allies decreases, the demands upon the 

 food stocks of the United States increases. 

 Hence we must supplement our commercial 

 stores of food more and more with home 

 canned and dried products. 



TT IS to the women of America that the 

 *- nation looks for this patriotic service. It is 

 they alone who can render this vital aid. 

 There is no work they can turn their hand to 

 which will be of greater assistance in helping 

 to win the war. The National War Garden 

 Commission sends this message to all the 

 women of America: See to it that the war 

 gardens which have been planted all over the 

 United States are made to do their full duty. 

 Now that they are growing the food, do not 

 allow any of it to go to waste. Can it, dry it, 

 preserve it, and store it away for future use, 

 in order that it may win the war. 



Editorial Note: — The National War Gar- 

 den Commission, Washington, will send to any 

 one free upon request, a copy of its illustratea 

 booklet on "Home Canning and Drying of Veg- 

 etables and Fruits." It contains clear, concise 

 and complete directions for making jellies, fruit 

 butters and various products of fermentation, 

 and salting and pickling processes. 



