Omaha daily bee., 1920-03-18
HOME GARDEN
HABIT TAUGHT
BY WORtDW WAR
Secretary Meredith Points
Out an important Gain
To the Entire
Country.

Secretary E. T. Meredith of the
United States Department of Agri-
tulture, in a letter sent throughout
the country urging that thrift gar
den campaign be made this spring,
to help lower the high cost of living,
makes an interesting statement
about the home gardens of Amer
ica.
The war taught this generation
the value Of home gardening, the
secretary says, and while there are
no statistics on the value Of the food
produced in this way, the experts
of the department report that from
their observation more was pro-
duced in 1919 than in 1917.
The latter was the first war gar
den year when probably more gar
dens were made in this country than
ever before or since. Patriotic zeal
inspired attempts to make vege-
tables grow in very barren soil, in
many cases. Many disappointments
resulted, and in succeeding years
the number Of gardens undoubtedly
was reduced, but as the secretary
pointed out, the amount OF food pro-
duced increased.
This was due. without doubt, to
the increased skill OF the gardeners
that stuck at it, aud the improved
yield of land cultivated more than
one season.
Gardening Worldwide Vogue.
Like many other fashions that
have followed the world war, the
vogue Of home gardens is not Pc
cular to America. In England, the
allotment holders, who cultivate
parcels of land assigned to them
by the government, are still at their
agreeable task. The back to the
land movement is pronounced in
England, where great estates are
being cut up into small farms, which
the men who cultivate them, for
the first time in generations, are
allowed to buy.
In every large American city, CO.
incident with the increase in rents
which has marked the last six
months, there has been tremn
dous movement to the suburbs and
the country. Houses in suburban
localities have jumped in value, the
most desired being those which had,
ground suitable for gardens at
; tached to them.
Promoters of subdivisions have
found that the quickest sales were
n,ads where small farms" were
offered, this being the phrase used
10 describe halfacre, acre and
larger tracts, which are represented
as sufficient for extensive home
gardening operations.
Unlike many of the tendencies
coming i'll the wake of the war the
popularity of gardening is asserted
to be distinctly wholesome. 1t fills
a vital economic purpose, i'll help
ing to keep down prices to those
i who cannot make gardens, in les
! sening the strain of transportation
ard materially increasing the total
s supply of food.
Health in "The Garden City"
1n~;ts effect upon health and So
cial conditions. the gardening move
ment contributes in way WHICH
many consider to be even more
vital. The direct relationship be-
tween high food prices and social
discomfort is recognized. The value
of gardening as factor i'll health
y improvement is not SO well under
stood, but in a recent address in
Chicago, DR.. Victor c. Vaughan,
dean of the University of Michigan
medical school, speaking on medical
education, pointed to England as
having, before the war, at least, the
lowest death rate of any country.
what is the reason?" he con-
tinued. at is because the English
pay more attention to practical san
itation than anybody else. The mod
ern English trend is toward garden
cities. Now, a garden city is not
merely a city with boulevards and
parks; in fact, it may have very few
OF these conventional ornaments of
city planning. A true garden city is
one in which every resident is pro-
vided with at least one-sixth of an
acre upon which to make a garden.
That is the kind of thing that makes
for health and explains Englahd's
low death rate.
= Mere boulevards count for little
\ IL the city harbors fostering slums."