November, 
1918 
47 
THE 
WAR GARDEN 
DEPARTMENT 
Boards placed along 
the parsley row will 
hold enough dead 
leaves jor winter 
protection 
The fall clean-up is a 
garden necessity. All 
the rubbish , dead stalks, 
etc., should be burned 
Fall preparation of the 
ground is an excellent 
plan, resulting in better 
soil conditions next year 
State, home gardeners co¬ 
operated effectively with the 
military authorities at Camp 
McClellan, Anniston, in 
growing food for the camp 
mess. Figures from Mobile 
show that the city had 4,000 
war gardens. 
On many railroads, too, 
especially in the South, the 
unused portion of the right- 
of-way has been given up to 
gardens cared for by section 
hands and construction 
gangs. There has been a 
decided movement for the 
establishment of fall gardens 
and even for all-year gar¬ 
dens where there is a long growing season, and 
the “fall food acre” of the South has been a 
direct result of the Government’s campaign 
for increased home food production. 
The Permanency of Garden Interest 
These facts are significant as an index of 
activities throughout the Union. The most 
hopeful aspect of the gardening situation, ac¬ 
cording to those department officials who have 
expressed an opinion, is their belief that the 
home and community garden has come to stay, 
and that those who have undertaken the work 
as a war-time measure will continue it after 
victory has been won. That such permanency 
will prove to be a fact is our firm conviction, 
for, as we have often said in the pages of this 
magazine, gardening is a thing which takes 
hold upon our souls and feeds them as well as 
our physical bodies. 
We may look forward with confidence, then, 
not only to next season’s activities with wheel- 
hoe and seed packet, but to those of many sea¬ 
sons yet to come. Our work will not be lim¬ 
ited to our own benefit; those who come after 
us will feel the effect of it in no small measure. 
In thousands of homes, these war times, are 
being laid the foundations of a love for grow¬ 
ing things that is sane and sure and enduring. 
Ensuing generations will build upon them 
structures that nothing can shake. Our war 
gardens, begun in necessity, will become the 
outward sign of a deep and wholesome 
idealism. 
The Garden Department of our Information Service is at the disposal of any of our readers 
who wish advice on problems connected with flowers, vegetables or landscaping. Every inquiry 
receives individual attention and is answered by personal letter. Please do not hesitate to 
write us fully if there are any questions you woidd like to ask about garden matters. 
Lime benefits almost 
every soil. Scatter 
it evenly by hand 
and then dig or 
plow it under 
ROBERT 
STEEL 
have not had gardens and that much of the effort 
toward more and better home gardens should be ex¬ 
pended on the farmer rather than on the city man; 
but this condition does not appear to be universal. 
In the South, for instance, more than 315,000 
new gardens were started last year through the 
efforts of farm demonstration agents. This figure 
does not include the many gardens established as 
an indirect result of the work of the Department 
of Agriculture. 
Of perhaps even greater significance is the large 
amount of gardening which has been done through 
the co-operation of industrial enterprises. Many 
of the great lumber and cotton mills of the South 
have encouraged their employes to establish home 
gardens, even going to the extent of furnishing the 
land and the plowing, and allowing time off with 
pay for the planting, cultivatioin and harvesting of 
the crops. In Bibb County, Alabama, mine 
companies furnished land, seed and fertilizers to 
their employes. In Calhoun County, the same 
E VERY worker, whatever his or her particular 
field of activity, is entitled to the luxury of an 
occasional pause and backward glance over what 
has been accomplished. It is quite fitting, therefore, 
now that the season of active garden operations is 
all but past, that we look for a moment at just what 
the War Garden Movement has amounted to. 
Government officials recently estimated that 1918 
saw the planting of 10,000,000 home gardens. These 
figures are conservative, as it would obviously be im¬ 
possible to make any accurate summing up of an 
activity so widespread and of so individual and pri¬ 
vate a nature. There is no doubt, however, that if 
there is any error in the Department’s estimate it is 
on the lower rather than the higher side.. 
Specific examples show how the garden movement 
has grown during the last few years. Before the war, 
so says the garden leader of the District of Columbia, 
there were not more than 5,000 gardens in the Federal 
district which contains the capital of the country. 
Now there are 28,000, including school gardens, with 
a decided increase in 1918 
over 1917. Chicago had 
483,000 gardens during the 
past season, 140,000 of which 
were home gardens, 90,000 
children’s gardens, and 238,- 
000 community gardens. 
The people of Oklahoma 
City cared for more than 
13,000 gardens in 1918. 
Farm and Industrial 
Gardening 
It is not by any means to 
be assumed that the city 
gardeners and the suburban 
dwellers were the only classes 
who heeded the national call 
to “raise your bit.” To be 
sure, the county agent of 
Oswego County, N. Y., 
states that the majority of 
the farmers in his district 
