CHAPTER IX 
COMMUNITY GARDENING 
Putting “Slacker Lands” to Work 
A MERICAN war gardening, like every other de- 
velopment in life, has gone through a process of 
evolution. Because the exigencies of the situ- 
ation necessitated haste, that evolution has been rapid. 
Contending with the most wonderfully organized force 
the world has ever seen, it was necessary, since so much 
depended upon the American war garden, to apply to 
it the principle of the best organization, and to unify 
it in order to strengthen it. As a result there speedily 
came into existence the community garden. 
Many are the advantages gained through community 
gardening. To begin with, community gardening is 
practically the only method by which all available 
garden space can be put to work. Genuine community 
gardening, where all available lands are surveyed and 
allotted to gardeners, hardly falls short of land con- 
scription. Community gardening played no small 
part in helping to win the recent war. To get enough 
food to win, the Allied peoples had to utilize every pps- 
sible garden spot. In America back-yard areas were 
readily worked by patriotic owners. The enormous 
areas of “slacker lands,” idle, vacant town lots, could 
not be put to work without considerable difficulty. 
At the very least, the owner’s permission had to be 
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