Excerpt from The Food Situation of the Country, With Some Remarks on the Urgent Necessity for a National Food Commission
To exert any appreciable influence on the actual volume of America’s agricultural products, millions of acres must be planted, in addition to those under cultivation in 1915 and 1916. The increased output of grain, potatoes, beans and all other staples must be in millions of bushels to have any measurable effect in meeting requirements. Let us not fool ourselves with the belief that the extent of our back - yard gardens, or the quantity and kind of products raised therefrom, can be more than the proverbial drop in the bucket. Again, those who plant back-yard areas, aside from expect ing too much from their labors, will be very prone to give more time and effort than the actual returns can possibly justify, and thereby waste energies that might much better be directed to more effective pur suits. A particularly apt illustration of this is shown by the picture at the top of the 6th page of the Times Pictorial Section for Sunday, April 29th. This depicts a body iof seventy or eighty - possibly more - stalwart men engaged in spading up a plot of ground that could be Opened up much more satis factorily - and, of course, more quickly by one man with a pair of horses and a plow. No criticism can be offered of the patriotic impulses which prompt such con centration of man power, but is it not reasonable to suppose that the time andin other directions? It would seem that the use of the time in studying the food situation, and in employing knowledge thus gained to spread the truth concerning the problems confronting the Nation Would be much more productive of tangible results. Finally, there is considerable danger that a great many of the people who cultivate a plot of a few feet square, in anticipating far more returns than arepossible at best, will sadly deceive themselves as.-to the value of their contribution to the situation, or their service to the country. I do not want to be understood as discouraging any effort, however insignificant; under no circum stances would I suggest a discontinuance of any one’s project, however small and in consequential; but let us not delude our selves in regard to our undertakings, and if we do anything, let us employ our ener gies with a View to the result, not merely to do something - and salve our consciences.
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