Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-05-15
the Things That-c Can
Be Utilized to- Best Advantage
(By Prof. Il. HI. Bailey

Author Of lessons With Plants
Principles Of Vegetable Gardening
Farm and Garden Rule Book"
practical Garden Book, :" Manual Of
Gardening" etc. II,
Suddenly weeare confronted with a
food problem of staggering propor-
lions. We must maintain an extern
ssve military establishment in q for
eign land. we must succor millions
of the allied, and neutral peoples, and
we must face the vast destruction Of
food by land and by. sea. We are to
expect that the problem will increase
in magnitude. 4
We must save food we must also
ploying,. labor, perhaps. whole. indus
tries. must be stayed; probably some
ct them should not be revived after
the war; If we eliminate the useless
and the non-essentials.. we, shall be
able to release much labor. The
simplifying of the household scheme,
consequent on the food saving pro-
gram, should relieve some of the
woman labor. We should find ways
to set to work the great numbers Of
idle and a~mbitionless selfish girls and
boys and young people. We shall
need all bur labor, and then we shall
not, have enough. This labor has d.
rect relation to the production Of
more food. fFt7
Not only must we save the food,
hnt we must produce more Of it.
we can, increase production-on the
FARMS and on the small home prop
erties in city and town and suburb.
The raising OF food on the home
lot is not farming. for the household
er does not maintain himself by this
mes He has other support.
The food -garden< should not com
pete with the farm in the labor mar
ket. Neither should 1t compete with
the munition factory or with trans
portation. Raising food on the city
or town property is j%ustifiable only
as it does not demand labor that can
be utilized elsewhere. The owner or
renter himself and members Of his
family and household establishment
should do the work. 1t is doubtful
whether municipal .food-growing en-
call out the slackers and idlers that
can be made to work in no other
way. We are to expect that there will
he failures and disappointments in
these home gardens: but there should
be no charge for labor. What energy
one puts into the raising of food is
likely to be DETECTED from less pa
LElOLIC uses. IFedL secondary ana
civic gains will. result from this till
ing Of the. land by the sweat OF the
face. X .a
Undoubtedly. much. foolishness has
heen displayed in some of these war
gardens. and in semi public enter
nrtses of this kind This Is no cause
for disbursement. for I hope that
we have learned something. We are
to expect better results this. year, even
II the gardens should be fewer. We
shall learn to grow the, dependable
things. few in number. and those that
con be utilized to best advantage in
the family; and hope that we have
le'rred to take advice. =
We shall probably not affect the
production ct the great staple food
stuffs and OF the >red meats, but we
should be able to relieve ourselves OF
the necessity OF buying so heavily Of
the staples, thereby saving them for
export. I
I hope we may greatly increase
the number of food gardens in 1918.
Certainly we should aeer' that they
are nor effective. whatever their
number. and that they make a bet
ter contribution to the great emer-
~e-cy. Every good citizen wants to
help. Here is one OF the marked
o~npnr+nrities lvir~ at the door,. We
should not let it pass,