196 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
more than their ration of the total. In tlie meantime they 
delay recovery and contribute to unemployment among 
the rest of us. 
However, the vast majority of us have cheerfully ac¬ 
cepted the inevitable. I have records showing that in 
most manufacturing industries efficiency has increased 
from 20 to 30 per cent during the past 12 months. Our 
farmers are making extraordinary efforts. They are 
economizing in supplies and machinery; they are making 
the old things do a little longer; and they will bring in 
this year’s crop at a much less cost than for many years 
past. Thus at least 80 per cent of our people have ac¬ 
cepted these homely truths and taken those steps that are 
primary to overcome any depression. These people have 
adopted that slogan of “give a full measure” which St. 
Luke announced as a fundamental of economics some 
1900 years ago. That is why I insist we have turned 
the corner. 
Interesting Letter from J. Edward Moon 
Morrisville, Pa., July 27, 1921. 
The National Nurseryman 
Flourtown, Pa. 
My dear Mr. Editor: 
Your letter of July 22nd inquiring about my return 
from Europe and work there has been received on the 
day that I got back to our office after an absence of 31 
weeks. * 
It was a great disappointment to me that this absence 
kept me from attending the recent convention of Nur¬ 
serymen in Chicago. For many weeks I had hoped to 
return in time for that convention, but it did seem neces¬ 
sary that I remain at the work of child feeding in Ger¬ 
many which I was engaged in until the 1921 harvest was 
about to be gathered and food conditions thereby im¬ 
proved. 
It was a privilege to have been given leave by my firm 
for a year to engage in relief work of the kind that Mrs. 
Moon and I went to do, as well as of the magnitude of the 
job. 
I was placed in charge of a large section of country 
lying in the northwest corner of Germany, part of which 
was adjacent to the Belgian and Holland borders. This 
territory embraced the provinces of Rhineland and West 
Phalia including the famous Ruhr section. Our offices 
were in Essen. 
The children that we fed were under sized, dulled in 
mentality, and lacking the play instinct. They had come 
into this condition because of the inability to secure a 
proper diet in the tender years of their growth, when 
milk, white flour, fats, and similar articles are so much 
needed for the proper nourishment of the body. Doctors 
selected the children that were fed and these then were 
given a daily additional meal over a period of from 8 to 
14 weeks. Some had to continue for 2 or even 3 periods 
of feeding, but many thousands had commenced to grow 
and had improved at the end of a 12 week feeding period. 
I he food stuffs were furnished in large part by the 
American Relief Administration and other agencies in 
this country. During the last six months of our opera¬ 
tion the German government had contributed almost half 
ol the food for this class of her population upon which 
she must rely for her future development and the final 
payment of reparation. 
Ours was a work for humanity. It was a question of 
children and not of politics. Very naturally we grew 
interested in the big world problems that were being 
worked out in those countries. There was opportunity 
on every hand to become entangled in the politics and 
diplomacy of Europe, but we kept at our work, which at 
its heighth meant in the district that I was in charge of, 
the feeding of 263,990 meals per day. In all of the time 
that I was in Europe our office fed more than 31 million 
meals and had over 10,000 tons of food for which we ac¬ 
counted for all but one half of one percent. When there 
were more than 2200 dining rooms and 700 kitchens each 
offering opportunity for leaks we felt that this record of 
controlling the food was one that we could take much 
satisfaction in. 
There are sections of Germany in which industry is 
now busily engaged, some of it profitably. These sections 
are not likely to need much foreign relief from now on. 
There are other sections whose industry depends entirely 
for raw materials from other countries, as well as sec¬ 
tions where toys and similar articles are made and for 
which the demand is not great, where the results of un¬ 
der nourishment among the children still continue, 
though happily to a less extent than a year ago. 
Fhe greatest need of relief in that country now is for 
clothing. Efforts are being made by the Red Gross and 
other agencies to provide this. 
While the work of conducting an entirely new line of 
business in a language that I was none too familiar with 
was an experience that was valuable, I did find oppor¬ 
tunity to leave the work at short intervals for the pur¬ 
pose of seeing places of horticultural interest in Europe. 
Boskoop, Holland, was visited twice. The Nurseries 
there are fascinating to one who enjoys nicely developed 
plants, naturally arranged and growing in clean tillage. 
The Nurseries have of course been handicapped by the 
United States quarantine regulations, but as they have 
all along enjoyed a large business in Europe they are by 
no means entirely destroyed because of our government’s 
regulation. There was a large rose show going on in 
Boskoop on the occasion of our last visit. The flowers 
were beautifully staged in a temporary frame building 
erected especially for the purpose, and thousands of vis¬ 
itors from Europe were expected, including the Queen 
ol Holland whose prestige would add greatly to the se¬ 
curing of a large attendance. 
At Orleans, France, the Nurseries were visited. These 
have recovered largely from the condition that the war 
temporarily put them in, and the stock was in vigorous, 
thrifty condition, nicely tilled, well sprayed, and very in¬ 
viting to one who knows plants. The Nurseries of Le- 
Moine at Nancy, from which place so many Mock 
Oranges and Lilacs have originated, are still breeding 
