Another important benefit has been the lesson of thrift which die war garden has inculcated in the minds of, millions of Ameri can people. This has had its effect and made easier the work of the government in urging the purchase of Liberty Bonds and thrift stamps. Not only was the lesson there, but the war gardener had been able to save a considerable amount of money which he would have spent at the market. When the call came, therefore, to buy government certificates the home food producer found that he was able to pay a larger monthly instalment than other wise would have been the case, because he was growing $10 to $20 worth of vegetables in his little back yard or vacant lot plot every month. The war garden has come to stay— that is the testimony which has come from many sources; and it is one of the ways in which the work proves its value.
Employers of labor have found the war garden one of the best means of helping to keep their men contented and of stabilizing labor. Through their mutual interest or similar departments they have furnished tracts of land for their workers, in many cases also prepar ing it for them and providing the fertilizer and seed or selling it to the men at cest and on easy instalments. This has worked to the benefit of both employer and employee. The satisfied worker is a better worker. He is not so likely to leave if he happens to hear of what he believes a better opportunity elsewhere. He realizes that his employer takes an added inter cst in his welfare and he appreciatcs this human touch. While the workers at hundreds of plants
have thus been helping themselves and adding to their incomes, they also have been assisting their country, for frequently they are at con gested industrial centres where every saying of freight space is doubly valuable. The wives and children have gone out into the gardens and helped to care for them. In addition the women have been encouraged to conserve as much of the garden product as possible; and this move the Manufacturers have stimulated by fairs and contests at which pnzes• were given for the best display of vegeta"tles and for the finest canned goods. The National War Garden Commission in 1917 and again in 1918 added national recognition to those contests, as well as to many held at county fairs and other war garden exhibits, by its National Capitol Prize Certificate whiCh went to blue ribbon winners.
Plans for the big new cities which have gone up almost as if by magic around new shipyards and munition plants include as one of their features little gardens for the workers. "Every Garden a Munition Plant." one of the slogans which the Commission sounded through out the country, has an added significance when applied to conditions like these. VVhile the guns and the =monition, the shells and the ships are being turned out in the nearby fee tones. and yards, the men are growing ((am inanition') in their home plot&