a single grown man left in my country. They have all been pur- 
posely killed. What we shall want most from your Fund will be 
garden seeds, and implements, and instructors to teach the 
women and growing youths how to use them, and what to plant, 
and when to sow. Our plum trees, of the produce of which a large 
part of the exports of the country consisted, and by which the 
peasantry lived, have been ruthlessly cut down. I do not sup- 
pose there are one hundred trees left in the whole length and 
breadth of my country." 
In many parts of the north of France and Belgium, much work 
must be done to put the soil in a condition to be used again. Where 
the fighting has taken place, the soil has been so torn up or is so filled 
with unexploded shells that it will be impossible to use it for a great 
number of years. Happily this very serious condition pertains only 
to a small area. 
The reconstruction which is here proposed can in most places be 
easily accomplished if only the funds are forthcoming. The American 
contributions for the War Horticultural Relief Fund will be kept 
separate as a separate American subscription. 
Here at home we are faced with the necessity of growing more 
food and preserving it, but our Allies who for so long a time have borne the 
brunt of war, and whose homes and country have been devastated, 
have every right to ask our help. We have not been asked to share 
their suffering, therefore, let us assist them in restarting life when 
they are once more free from temporary occupation of the Germans. 
All inquiries in connection with this fund can be addressed to 
Miss Ethel M. Bagg, care of the Third National Bank, Springfield, 
Mass., who represents the Society in America, or direct to the Sec- 
retary in England, Rev. W. Wilkes, Royal Horticultural Society, 
Westminster, S. W. 
Ethel M. Bagg. 
No act of the Germans has so enraged the French as the wanton 
destruction of all fruit trees in the recently liberated territory. In 
the Senate, Mr. Henry Cheron says, "There they have committed an 
act more despicable, more malicious and more hateful than all the 
rest. The wretches have felled all the fruit trees and when they have 
not had time to saw them off they have stripped the bark that they 
might die. ... In some districts, notably Ham, they have made the 
farmers themselves cut down the trees which in the past they have so 
carefully tended." 
