New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-05
Sacrifice Vacation Hours
to Assist in Food
Conservation
Enjoy Work With Hoes
Youngsters Find Canning
Their Products Is
Fascinating

Wes.bury. Long Island, Aug. A.
Sammy, jr., and little Miss Columbia
in starched short skirts are doing their
bit with the best of the grown-ups here
on Long Island. .
All over the island, from one end OF
IL TO the other, north shore and south
shore alike, the children and those who
arc such a very little bit older that they
would be MORALLY offended at beng
termed children are demonstrating
their patriotism in a variety of ways.
There is hardly village or town in
which there is not a school garden
where the youngsters work daily in the
hottest of these early August days. The
juniors are no cool weather patriots,
whatever may be said of the rest of US.
On the boys farms established by the
Food Reserve Battalion scores Of boys
put in eight hours hard work every day
as regular farmers. A number of the
private schools of the island require
each boy to give two weeks of his sum-
mer to work in the fields as his service
TO his country.
Moreover, little girls who still talk
in lisps are ardent helpers in the sew
ing rooms Of several of the Red Cross
headquarters Of the island. There is
even a Children's Red Cross as an aux
iliary of the Hampstead branch. Small
girls are also in evidence under the big
umbrella in the back yard of the can
ming kitchen at Hicksville, where they
shell peas and string beans as adeptly
as any adult, and far more patiently
than most grown-ups. There are chill
%, orla hn
of many of the families most active in
food conservation, and jealous contests
among the various youngsters of the
family to make their gardens the best
of the bunch. Long Island mothers re-
port that table talk is now enlivened by
such observations as: Say, those are
my beets you're eating; or, Gee, it
took me lots more time to hoe those
beans than it takes you to eat them!"
Youngster a Red Cross Patron
Polly Holmes Ingalls,, five years old,
Of OYSTER Bay, is the youngest patriot
"a vet on record in Red Cross sewing.
Almost every day her nurse brings her
to the Red Cross headquarters, in the
Brick Presbyterian Church, where
Polly works on terms of equal gravity
with Mrs. W. Emlen Roosevelt. On the
day when the Tribune reporter visited
the headquarters the workers pointed
with pride to the little girl who had
become such an expert that she never
pricked her finger any more or mad TO
have her sewing ripped out. In an
inner room Polly was engaged IN put
ting stitches into pair of palamas
several times as big as herself, her
curly brown hair dropping over her
work, her red lips slightly parted and
her tongue all but sticking out the
least bit in her concentration. Inc
reporter tried to interview her.
"Tell me what you know about the
war" Polly was urged. and why you
come every day to sew when you might
be playing. Give me your views OF the
great world tragedy, Polly
She didn't at first say anything, but
hesitated, and seemed to be thinking
the matter over. Finally she turned to
her questioner solemnly, then smiled
Il got a dog" she commented.
In Oyster Bay are also the gardens
of the three little Gurnees, son and
daughters of Mrs. W. s. Gurnee, Jr-
Walter, Lucy and Cordelia. All the
vegetables to be found in grown-up
garden flourish in their plots OF
ground, and a prize is to be gwen at
the end of the summer to the one VINO
has been the most successful in the
raising of farm produce. II may be an
argument for feminsm or 1t may be
because gardening is coming to be &C
cepted as woman's work IN these war
days; but whatever the reason, the
girls plots were head and shoulders,
so to speak, above the boys in all but
weeds, both here and in several other
places. Mrs. Gurnee's children also
assist her in the preparation of vege-
tables and fruits for canning, and Visit
the canning kitchen at Hicksville IN
order that they may be up on all the
latest methods Of dehydration and pre-
serving. .
Peggy Phipps, the small daughter Of
Mr.. and Mrs. John S. Phipps, OF West
bury, is the champion bean strlnger
and bean cutter OF the kitchen, accord
ing to those in charge. With a sharp
knife in her small hands, Peggy goes
after the beans as If she we've playing
fairy stories and cutting off the heads
of all the giants. Her mother is very
much interested in the problem OF food
conservation and considers that il will
her vacation hours TO the preparation
of next winters dainties for soldiers
and sailors.
Children Prepare Vegetables
Almost all the vegetables used on
the table OF General George r. Dyer
and Mrs. Dyer. of Brookville, arc grown
in the gardens Of Elisha, twelve years
old. and George jr., ten. and many are
the heated arguments that ensue at
table as to the superior favor Of the
vegetables from the respective plots.
The two youngsters are doing intensive
farming on so large scale that
George, jr.. admitted that he couldn't
remember the names OF all the vege-
tables in his garden. Their older
brother, Gurnee, fourteen years old, is
working in the fields with the paid
laborers of the estate as his bit
One of the prettiest of the school
gardens is the large plot Of the Amity
TN.g