66 THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 
tivating under the shadow of the mill, he can put him- 
self into this work. It is for his own good. What he 
grows there will be his own property. It will go to 
support himself and his family. How much or how 
little of it there will be depends upon himself, upon 
how intelligently and how faithfully he cares for the 
plants. He takes an interest in watching every develop- 
ment from day to day because he is to reap the reward. 
This work is his own. It means that he will take a 
deeper interest thereafter in the work he is doing for 
his employer. It is only natural that a man should 
feel a more real concern and show greater pride in 
doing something where he will share in the profit. It 
is not in any sense disparagement to a workman to say 
that he cannot display the same sense of gratification 
in his regular work. 
There is greater diversity in the cultivation of a 
garden than in most other tasks. It offers, in fact its 
successful prosecution demands, good judgment and 
the display of sound sense. This is healthful exercise 
for the mind, which makes it more alert and more able 
to grasp and figure out other problems arising every 
day of the workman’s life. Combined with this mental 
activity is the invigorating bodily exercise than which 
there is none better than digging in the earth and get- 
ting close to nature. 
While the reports to the National War Garden Com- 
mission show that the methods adopted by various 
manufacturing concerns which encouraged gardening 
among their men differed somewhat in detail, as would 
