The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-07-20
WHEN A GREAT CITY GOES
ALARMING.
BY ELIZABETH VAN RENTHuYsEN

BY ELIZABETH VAN BENTHUYSEN.
There is something intensely inter-
esting to the farmer of the districts
where fields are considered in terms
of acres, In the picture of the city
man, under stress Of war necessity, or
fear, dropping the stock ticker for the
spade. One involuntarily closes the
eyes and vlsualizes Edwin Markhams
great picture of "The Man With the
Hoe" The figure is not bowed by
the weight of centuries. A silk hat
takes the place of the wool sOmbrero,
frock coat the place of the overalls.
And yet the underlying motive is all
the same.
1t is the necessity of getting Old
Mother Earth to yield food for her
children.
have frequently told my readers Of
the wonderful flower gardens that skirt
the palaces of Long Island and of the
Jersey coast. Surely nothing half so
costly and artistic can be found either
In fairy lore or actual development
Now the garden is being deserted for
the truck patch, and the potato is of
more import than the rose.
All of the fashionable world, its
wife and Its son and its daughter, have
gone alarming. From the pathetic
little window box, in which city dwell
lers are experimenting with seeds on
windowledges high above the surging
street throngs, to the most scien-
tific and elaborate truck patches In the
Long Island and Jersey districts. the
cabbage has come to attract more at
tentiOn than the prize chrysanthemum,
and the prospect for onions is more al
Turing than the hope of making a tu-
lip bed that will be the jealous pride !
of the owner.
Prominent in the movement to teach |
the residents of the metropolitan dis
trict how to farm is Mrs. William X. |
Vanderbilt, Jr. She is working
through the suburban districts at the
head of committee of rich women,
using q special train. They are teach
Ing the women along the line to pre-
serve and can and save food products |
to relieve the war-made conditions.
What the men and women of the |
West and of the South have been learn
ing for 30 years in the state-supported |
agricultural colleges Is now being
taught to the city dwellers and the
suburbanite, and they are taking to
the study with zest that would lead
one to believe that. scientific farming
was a discovery of the last four
months. True, they haven't got along
far enough to consider the chemical
analysis Of the soil and the scientific
determination of the elements needed
to make it fruitful, but they are learn
ing the elementary points rapidly.
New York city requires every day
an endless procession of freight trains
to supply 1t with food. Most of the
supply has in the past come from
farms comparatively remote from the
city. Now the newly promoted move
ment is resulting in planting truck at
the back door, with the automobile for
speedy transportation along the excel
ent roads to the great market centers.
There is coming from this activity
)ne great national benefit that is not
considered. Political leaders
rom the congested districts, who have
arge voice in congressional and legis-
ative matters, are getting new light
lpon the dignity and the Importance Of
agriculture that will send valuable aid /
'ehind the coming legislation for the {
Of the gardener and the f
armer, and will put behind the de- {
'artment Of agriculture representa- /
ives of great wealth, with newly t
'orn sympathy and understanding that b
AVE never existed In this country be- c
ore. O
Many a statesman who used to won b
Ter why an appropriation for the de-
'elopment Of potatoes, or the like,
vas necessary in a billion-dollar bud l