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CHAPTER IV
TYPES OF WAR GARDENS
How Different People Planned to Plant and Win the War
On plaster and ash-filled ground only a few feet above the
rumbling subway in New York City was a war garden. From this little vegetable
plot in Bryant Park, where land is valued at something like $20,000 a square
foot, to the tiny garden along the railroad right of way near the tops of the
White Mountains, is a far, far cry. Yet both spots had their war gardens. The
one in Bryant Park was a demonstration garden, started solely for educational
purposes. Here representatives of the National War Garden Commission preached
the gospel of gardening and freely gave helpful advice and garden primers to
passing inquirers. A patriotic hand had planted it, and loving fingers tended
it, in the hope that it would bring forth, perhaps, a few dollars' worth of
food; in the belief that its product would lessen, though ever so little, the
pressure on our commercial food supplies, from which alone our allies could draw
sustenance.
The same spirit of helpfulness, of readiness to "do one's
bit" animated countless other Americans. So the war garden was found in tiny
clearings beside the logging camps of Louisiana, in irrigated plots among the
arid sands of New Mexico, in the rugged iron lands of Minnesota, and on the open
fertile stretches of the Middle West. Even the lighthouse-keeper at Santa Cruz,
California, planted a little garden under the shadow of his protecting shaft.
From coast to coast, and from lake to gulf, little areas that had been barren as
the desert suddenly blossomed like the rose. Behind each of these innumerable
gardens was a heart animated by the desire to serve God and country.
When the National War Garden Commission sent forth the slogan
"Plan to Plant and Win the War," the majority of gardens started in response
were of the individual type. Like stars in a mighty flag, they dotted the
rolling landscape from ocean to ocean. There were few town and village homes
that did not have some space available for war gardening. Even in densely
populated cities, a goodly proportion of the inhabitants each had at command at
least a few square feet that could be cultivated. And urban dwellers by the
hundred thousands found vacant lots near their homes which could be utilized for
food production. This great host of individuals, each working like his fellows
for a common purpose, carried on what, in the aggregate, was a vast farming
operation.
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| Victory
gardens produce dollars |
There is no
distinctive type of victory gardener |
Draw on your
back-yard type of bank |
In no previous war did women play so great a part as they did
in the world war. Not only did hosts of them make munitions in factories, but
other hosts joined the men in the production of that other sort of munitions–the
kind that grows in gardens. With the women who served as nurses, ambulance
drivers, canteen helpers, and munition makers, should also be ranked the women
gardeners. In thousands of instances women gardeners cultivated entirely, even
to the extent of doing the digging, the home food plot, while in thousands of
other instances they shared with the men the task of caring for the war gardens.
Thousands of letters have come to the National War Garden
Commission from women gardeners. In order that the fine service rendered by such
women may not be forgotten, some of these communications are included in this
record. A letter from Mrs. T.J. Ulery, of Seattle, Washington, whose husband
wore his country's uniform, well shows the spirit that animated these women
gardeners:
"Thanks for the war vegetable gardening booklet you sent me
in the spring," she says. "My husband is in the navy and I have two small
babies, but that did not keep me from raising a garden. We have a plot fifty by
two hundred feet, and every inch is in something. I wish you could see it. I
weigh ninety-eight pounds but I am going to do my bit. Now I wish you would send
me your home canning and drying book,"
From Mrs. G.P. Dutcher, of Arlington, Massachusetts, came
this other typical communication: "I was seventy-eight years old on March
thirty-first. I expect to raise what beans I need for a family of three for the
next year. I did it last year and did all my own planting."
We see the significance and worth of this woman's service
when we realize that a day's rations for one million United States soldiers
includes 75,000 pounds of beans, and that we raised an army of approximately
four million men! this enormous demand for beans had to be met from commercial
supplies that could be increased, because of labor shortage, only slightly above
the pre-war production. so we had the army bidding against the civilian
population, with the resultant tremendous increase in price. Assuredly this old
lady was doing her share toward remedying the situation. And that is exactly
what was done by the cultivator of every war garden.
This type of green goods will cure the blues |
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 PIONEERS
IN SUMMER HOTEL GARDENING
A patriotic and healthful way of spending their vacation was
discovered by this group of school teachers and office workers who
early in the summer of 1918 went up to northern New Hampshire and
raised vegetables to supply the table of a large summer hotel, "The
Balsams," at Dixville Notch. This shows them in front of the
comfortable cottage which they occupired. Their three-acre "war
garden" was close by. They alternated by twos as housekeepers.
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Few of the women gardeners had reached their allotted three
score years and ten. Most of our women gardeners were younger, and among these
younger women soldiers of the soil none performed a more interesting or valuable
service than the eight school teachers and office workers who ventured, like the
pioneers of old, into a new country, blazing the way for those who should come
after them. Their chosen field of garden effort was the raising of vegetables
for a summer hotel.
Up at the Dixville Notch, in the White Mountains in northern
New Hampshire, is a magnificent summer hotel, The Balsams. It was customary to
ship in from a considerable distanced the bulk of its vegetable supply.
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| An office type of
victory garden |
Suit your type of garden
to your job |
Last summer the eight young women referred to cultivated a
three-acre garden at Dixville Notch, on the property of the hotel corporation.
They lived in one of the company's attractive little houses which looks out over
a great expanse of country. From Brooklyn, New York, Lakewood, New Jersey,
Rockland, Maine, and Keene, New Hampshire, came these young women farmers. They
were farmers in more than name; for in addition to cultivating their large
vegetable garden, they found time to assist the neighboring men farmers in
making hay, cultivating potatoes, and performing other farm labor.
The desire to serve, not the wish to have a good time, led
these young women to engage in this work; and so successfully did they perform
their tasks that the hotel management promptly arranged to continue and expand
the work in future years. Thus, in addition to upbuilding themselves physically
in the most gratifying way, these young women opened the way for others of their
sex to perform service at once essential and useful. How useful may be judged
when we realize that but for their work it would have been necessary to haul
hundreds of bushels of garden-stuff long distances over the steep mountain
grades. The car-space and fuel thus saved were applied to the hauling of shells
and cannon and other supplies that our soldiers so much needed. If "they also
serve who only stand and wait," how much greater is the service of those who
labor while they wait.
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| Where there's a will
there's a victory garden type |
Put your heart into your
own type |
Every type can have
smooth sailing |
Since the labor of these young women marks a new phase of
food production, in this country, a phase that is certain to appeal more and
more to tired school teachers, clerks, and other indoor workers, it may not be
amiss to tell in detail of the life of these girls at Dixville Notch.
Their home was in a cozy little cottage, from the windows of
which one could look off in any direction on most beautiful mountain scenery. It
was situated only a few miles south of the Canadian border, in a region whose
towering mountains are pine-clad and gemmed with clear, cool lakes and
embroidered with foaming mountain brooks. The girls received regular monthly
wages from the hotel, but provided their own meals, with the privilege, however,
of purchasing supplies from the hotel at favorable rates. Two at a time they
kept house, while the other six looked after the gardens.
None of these girls had had any previous experience worth
mentioning the the cultivation of the soil. Yet they made very rapid progress in
the art of gardening. Their success was undoubtedly due to the fact that they
stuck to a few staple crops and did not attempt too diversified gardening. They
raised peas, lettuce, radishes, carrots, beans, and other common vegetables.
Upon beginning their work they received instructions from the hotel farmer,
Henry Bemis, who looks after some of the larger tracts of land owned by the
hotel management, which are given over almost exclusively to the raising of hay
for the dairies. Such instruction was not long necessary, however, as the young
women farmers speedily acquired considerable skill.
Even gardening and haying did not occupy all their time. One
rainy day, when no gardening could be done they went to a neighboring farm where
there were several thousand bushels of potatoes which had begun to sprout. The
visitors stated "sprouting" with a will and at the end of the day had averaged
twenty-five bushels each. They were told that ten bushels had always been
regarded as a fair day's "sprout." They continued at this task until the entire
lot of potatoes was finished. Then they assisted other farmers whose potatoes
were sprouting; for labor had become as scarce on New Hampshire farms as it was
on farms everywhere else.
A type of victory garden to brag about |
 AN
ARMY GARDEN AT THE RED CROSS THRESHOLD
The Camp Dix soldiers carried their farming operations to the very
door of the Red Cross headquarters. In this picture Major General
Scott, Camp Commander, (near center awning) is inspecting the work of
cultivation as conducted by Lieutenant John F. Bonner, farm officer,
(at extreme left). General Scott took a deep interest in the Camp Dix
war garden. |
Thus these women not only blazed a trail for their sisters,
but proved what thousands of other women are proving in the industry–that woman
not only is not an inferior workman, but that her nervous make-up enables her to
work faster than man. These women gardeners did their share in the fight for
freedom–not merely that political equality for which men and women struggled on
the fields of Europe, but that greater freedom, human equality. Even to that
cause has the war garden contributed materially. If the work of these young
women proved anything, it was that in union there is strength. The strength that
comes from union it was found advantageous to utilize in many another war
garden, by operating it on the community plan.
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| The community type of
victory garden |
The sun shines for all
types of garden |
Instead of allowing each gardener to till his own land, it
was better, where possible, to have a large area properly plowed and harrowed
and then allow the gardener to care for his individual plot. The advantages of
such community action proved great. The land was uniformly and properly prepared
and at small expense. Community gardening made for both better gardens and
better communities, for the spirit of emulation at once led each gardener to do
his best, while common toil for a common end made for better understanding and
better acquaintanceship; and sympathetic understanding is the rock upon which
democracy is founded.
The crowed city has many types |
The well-worked type involves no doubt |
|
 A
PRIZE-WINNING GARDEN
First award was given to this vegetable plot in the contest among the
six hundred war gardeners of the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New
York. Condition of plants, orderly arrangement and cultivation shown
were among the factors considered in judging the merits of the various
gardens. |
Much of the gardening done by employés of factories and
business houses was of the community sort. Unused tracts of land lying near mill
or shop, and not needed fro business purposes, were divided among employés for
gardening, after being properly plowed and harrowed. Often it happened that the
land available would not accommodate all the men applying for plots, and in such
cases employers frequently leased additional near-by lands and turned them over
to their employés. The mutual interests so engendered created a more friendly
feeling of coöperation not only among the men themselves, but also between the
management and the employés. This was particularly true where, as happened in
many cases, the heads of large concerns became fellow-gardeners with their
employés. Burns has told us the secret of democracy in a single sentence: "A
man's a man for a' that!" When men get together and work together for a common
end, they learn the fundamental lesson of democracy. Thus the community war
gardening which sprang up in so many parts of the land accomplished more, far
more, than the production of so much provender, useful as that strictly
utilitarian end undoubtedly was. Unquestionably, community gardening will
continue. It will be the peace-time descendant of the war garden |
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