CHAPTER VII 
HOW THE RAILROADS HELPED 
War Garden Activities of Management and Employes 
A S soon as America became a belligerent the rail- 
roads of the country sought to help relieve the 
food shortage and the traffic situation by 
encouraging the cultivation of all vacant lands along 
their rights-of-way. They called on their employes to 
plant this unused acreage wherever it might be found. 
To railroad managers the| double value to be gained was 
quickly manifest. The movement would not only add 
to the nation’s food supply but be an important and 
direct factor in relieving the demands on the carriers 
for the hauling of freight. The result was that nearly 
all the railroad lines ran through gardens of growing 
vegetables which were soon seen flourishing every- 
where, along the tracks, around the cosy little watch- 
boxes of the crossing flagmen and even alongside sta- 
tion platforms. 
The railroads furnished the land to their men free of 
charge or at nominal rental, and in many cases further 
assisted them by supplying quantities of seed and by 
aiding in the preparation of the soil. They placed 
posters in their stations calling attention to this oppor- 
tunity for patriotic service, and distributed tens of 
thousands of copies of gardening and canning manuals 
furnished them, by the National War Garden Commis- 
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