MOST inter- 

 estingofthe 

 by-pro- 

 ducts or 

 Uncle Sam's garden- 

 ing is the splendid co- 

 operation it has de- 

 veloped; and never is such cooperation more 

 successful than when the people of a commun- 

 ity organize to meet their community needs 

 themselves. 



Any community which last year was handi- 

 capped by a shortage of labor for harvesting 

 should take notice, for instance, of Palo 

 Pinto County in Texas. Texas, by the way, 

 is managing its war-gardening admirably, 

 and the photograph here shown of the Gov- 

 ernor's wife, Mrs. William Pettus Hobby, 

 as the Woman With the Hoe, her garden in 

 the foreground, and the Capitol modestly 

 standing in the background, is typical of the 

 place gardening occupies in the minds of the 

 good people of the state. Early this year, 

 in Palo Pinto County, a mass meeting was 

 called by the County Agent (representative 

 of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture and of the 

 State Agricultural College). At this meeting 

 a County Agricultural Advisory Board was 

 organized, its first object being to secure an 

 increased planting of food crops; its second 

 to secure at home the farm labor necessary 

 to cultivate the crops. 



To every man in the county qualified to 

 do farm work, whatever his present occupa- 

 tion, in country or town, was sent this blank 

 card. "I agree to work on the cultivation 

 and harvesting of the crops of Palo Pinto 

 County, Texas, during the year 1918, a total 



of days, under the supervision of the 



Agricultural Advisory Board of said county, 

 at the usual average wage paid for such labor. 

 All wage difference to be settled under ar- 

 bitration." The card contained space for 

 the name, address, telephone number, and 

 business of the individual signing it. A sys- 

 tematic canvass, a "follow-up plan," has 

 been conducted in the towns and Palo Pinto 

 County has now a "Labor Reserve" sufficient 

 to meet the needs of this season's planting. 



%■ % * 



Wilkes-Barre, Pa., is even more thor- 

 oughly organized for farm-efficiency than 

 Palo Pinto County, owing to the excellent 

 work of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber 

 of Commerce, the Rotary Club, other local 

 clubs, and the Luzerne County Farm Bureau. 

 First a joint meeting of all the clubs of the 

 city and the County Farm Bureau was called 

 by the Chamber of Commerce. About 300 

 farmers were present. The next week a 

 similar meeting brought out 500 farmers — 

 men from every part of the county. The 

 business men proposed to canvass the city 

 and all the towns in the county and secure 

 from men of past farm experience pledges to 

 work on the farms as crop necessities arise 

 during this summer and autumn. The 

 farmers agreed to use this labor. The 3,700 

 farmers in the county were divided into groups 

 of five, each group being owners of neighbor- 

 ing farms. The chairman of each group 

 ascertained and reported the exact labor 

 needs of himself and his four associates. The 

 740 reports, classified and compiled at the 

 Chamber of Commerce, show the number of 

 workers each individual farmer, and each 

 farming community will need at various times 

 during the season. Meanwhile the business 

 men were not idle. A survey was made of 

 the city and towns and an emergency farm 

 labor supply enrolled. The transportation 

 committee worked out a time-table and 

 impressed automobiles into service, and now 

 the plan is operating beautifully. Out to 



UNCLE SAM'S GARDENING 



A News Feature of National Current Activities 



the farms in automobiles loaned by their 

 owners for the purpose, go the town volun- 

 teers, called upon as their service is needed, 



* * * 



Sunday Schools should observe Lockport, 

 New York, whose Sunday Schools undertook 

 to save crops as well as souls, and volunteered 

 by classes for the peach orchards and saving 

 the peaches. Haying, threshing, harvesting 

 parties, picking bees, bid fair to be as fashion- 

 able this summer as were the husking bees of 

 a hundred years ago. 



* * * 



Uncle Sam is doing everything possible 

 to give aid and comfort to the gardeners and 

 farmers, his latest reinforcement being a War 

 Emergency Board of Specialists in Plant 

 Diseases. This Board is composed of seven 

 men appointed by the National Society of 

 American Plant Pathologists. The purpose 

 of the Board, which is cooperating with the 

 National Research Council, is to acquaint 

 the public with useful facts about molds, 

 blights, and the various agencies of micro- 

 scopic size which cause foods to decay. Straw- 

 berries, for instance, are subject to a mold 

 which, if allowed to develop causes the berries 

 to soften, resulting in the familiar "melting" 

 condition and stained appearance of the box. 

 Temperature is a very important factor in 

 this case and loss may in large measure be 

 prevented by picking the berries early in the 



Mrs. William Pettus Hobby, wife of the Governor of 

 Texas, doing her share in the State's contribution in winning 

 the war 



morning and shipping them while still cool 

 and damp with dew. In the case of onions, 

 however, moisture is a serious detriment. 

 If onions are packed before being properly 

 dried, various forms of spoilage, including 

 the damaging "neck rot" are likely to occur. 

 A large amount of food, especially fruit, 

 decays through injury from rough handling. 



268 



The War Emergency 

 Board of American 

 Plant Pathologists 

 is composed of men 

 who are not only 

 specialists in plant 

 diseases but who un- 

 derstand food economics and methods of 

 getting the information to the people. They 

 earnestly request the cooperation of the public. 



* * * 



One of the most practical ways in which 

 any community can aid in eliminating food 

 waste due to loss in transit is to organize 

 their own transportation system. If auto- 

 mobile owners can cooperate with the farmers 

 and take volunteer farm-hands out to the 

 scene of their labors, they can also cooperate 

 and bring back by truck or tender the fruit 

 of their toil. The more this sort of thing is 

 done, the more the railroads will be released 

 for war service, and the more the community 

 is self-dependent in transportation as well 

 as in production, the better off it is, and the 

 more secure in any emergency. 



* # * 



The United States School Garden Army 

 is already bigger than the army of the United 

 States, so the Department of the Interior 

 announces. One million, nine hundred and 

 fifty thousand were enlisted this spring after 

 a six weeks campaign. The Central Western 

 states including Ohio in the East, with the 

 Dakotas and Minnesota to Missouri have 

 enlisted 850,000 boys and girls. The South- 

 ern states have enrolled 700,000, the North- 

 western and Western states each 200,000. 

 Oklahoma is the banner state with an enlist- 

 ment of 150,000 and Texas has 100,000. 



The Army is organized through the Bureau 

 of Education and the Department of the 

 Interior and Secretary Lane, under the Presi- 

 dent, is chief officer. There are officers, 

 privates, and assistants, salutes and service 

 flags. The badge of service is a bar pin with 

 a star for the lowest officer, two stars for the 

 next, etc. Enrollment entitles the young 

 soldier to his or her badge. The idea is of 

 very recent suggestion but already interesting 

 things have happened: 



Forty thousand women in the West, for instance, says the 

 Memphis Appeal, have taken a pledge to use no sugar in their 

 tea, nor butter on their bread until each one has a child in the 

 Army, either her child or some one else's and she pledges herself 

 to provide that child with land enough to raise serviceable 

 gardens. This land is furnished either by individuals, by schools, 

 by real estate firms, or by local organization such as cham- 

 bers of commerce, boards of trade and the like. The Tomato 

 Club of North Carolina, that last year raised £5,000 of tomatoes 

 mined in a body, as have the boy scouts, girl scouts, and kindred 

 organizations. 



San Francisco had a procession of 50,000 

 school children. Plan and organization are 

 as follows: 



President of the UnitedStates, Commander- 

 in-chief. 



Secretary Lane of the Interior, first officer 

 in command, with 



Secretary Claxton of the Bureau of Educa- 

 tion as assistant commanding officer. 



The badge — a bar pin with one star for a 

 sergeant, two for lieutenant, etc. 



A pledge of loyalty to be taken by each 

 enlisting soldier. 



A movement of the children, by the chil- 

 dren and for the children. 



There will be in the fall county fairs for 

 children. The winners of these will hold a 

 state fair at the capital of the state. The 

 winners of state fairs will come to Washing- 

 ton for a national Children's Fair, and the 

 President of the United States will award the 

 prizes, of a scholarship in Annapolis or West 

 Point, or at one of the big girls' colleges, or a 

 fine farm. 



Frances Duncan. 



