Because of the difficulties of shipping such perishables under war time conditions, a large proportion of such shipments will unquestionably arrive in poor condition, so that they will not return commercially the cost of salvage and the duty. Whole shiploads are sometimes affected in this way. It is desirable that some arrangement be made with the Treasury Department by which, after the consignee has abandoned such shipments, they may be salvaged by volunteer labor and the duty on the salvaged portion remitted. The remainder will, of course, be destroyed. This is a matter which will be of importance to the whole Atlantic seaboard and should be looked after at once.

Finally, it seems to me that there cannot be too great a development of the process of dehydration of vegetables. The great desiderata, aside from the obvious keeping down of cost, are quality of product and the finding of an outlet for it. The two are necessarily intimately connected. Most of the material at present on the market is not of a sort to commend itself to a prospective new consumer. It is noteworthy that heretofore, except in Germany, there has been no sale for such products except in war time, save in very limited amounts to camps or industrial or mining operations in sections remote from agricultural areas, carriage to which would be prohibitive on the fresh products. It is necessary that the dehydrated products when cooked should be little, or not at all, changed in taste and appearance from the fresh product. The obtaining of material of the required quality is entirely possible. During this winter all possible effort should be placed on the location of cheap and effective dryers in sections furnishing sufficient supplies of the raw material.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS IN FOOD PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION

BY O. H. BENSON,

United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

I am glad to assure you of the interest and coöperation of Secretary Houston and his food army in this food convention and in its deliberations. We count it a great privilege to present for your consideration the problem of our boys and girls in this world program of food production and food conservation as related to the world war and the welfare of nations. The present international crisis is rapidly bringing us to a more complete realization of our world citizenship and the common brotherhood of man.

Boys and girls have always played a serious and important part in the great problems of war and peace. The present crisis will furnish to our junior citizens great opportunities for manly and womanly service of all kinds. President Wilson has called them as definitely into his army as he has the men who wear the official naval and military uniforms. Uncle Sam's food army now numbers over two million boys and girls who have enlisted for full patriotic service during the war and who have added to their oath of allegiance to the flag the following consecration pledge:

"I consecrate my head, heart, hands and health, through food production and food conservation, to help win the world war and world peace."

This pledge is just another patriotic expression of the meaning of the Boys' and Girls' Club emblem known as the 4-H emblem. Its peace time meaning is "The Equal Training of Head, Heart, Hands and Health in all Farm and Home Activities."

The splendid armies of boy scouts, girl scouts and camp fire girls have also enlisted under the banner of food production and food conservation, and are diligently working out their slogans of feeding soldiers and saving for the greater need of our nation. I invite your interest and coöperation in the program of enlisting more of the 23,000,000 children of school age in this food army; then, after the boys and girls have volunteered, let us see that organization, encouragement and leadership be given to this division as is given.

to the war and navy part of President Wilson's army. Did you ever stop to think of how great might be the results of boys' and girls' work in food lines, if their work could be as well supported and directed as are the soldiers of a nation?

Last year, 1916, it cost the federal government, states and local people 79 cents per capita to supervise, direct, instruct and encourage the boys and girls in food production work. As a result they produced an average of $20.96 worth of food for the nation, thus making $20.17 net profit on the investment, a piece of work which was the result of encouragement and proper direction throughout the year. Of course, we all understand that this economic measurement is by far the lowest value we can place on the work when we compare with it the vocational guidance and training for the future and the many other social and educational advantages.

Our boys and girls, in addition to producing "food bullets” to help fight the central powers, have organized to wage a relentless and effective war against all abnormal prices on necessities of life, against starvation, weeds, insect pests and disease germs of every type.

The following report taken from 1916 statistics will show the estimated annual loss to the nation due to common enemies of both plant and animal life:

The above report challenges serious thought and vigorous action on

the part of every member of our junior citizenship.

Look up the records of the Civil War or of all other wars fought

in this or any other country and you will find that boys have not only been at home to take father's and brothers' place on farms, in factories and industries but have gone to fight the nation's battles on the very firing line and have done their job along with the men in a big way. The Union army during the Civil War had over 4,051,500 boys, ranging in age from ten to twenty-one years, over half of these under eighteen who offered and gave their lives in the service of the nation directly to fight with gun and other devices of warfare. We may safely assume that the Confederate army had even a greater number of boys. It is estimated that over eight million boys under twenty-one years of age fought in the Civil War in the two contending armies.

If we knew the records today of the European nations who are now at war, we would be alarmed at the fact that a large percentage of those now fighting and who have been fighting are mere children under eighteen years of age. The following table will furnish some interesting studies in connection with the children in service during the Civil War:

BOYS MEMBERS OF THE ARMY OF THE NORTH DURING THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD

We were all pleased with President Wilson's famous message at the opening of the war with Germany in which he stated so definitely that two types of soldiers were needed; one on the battlefield and in the trenches, and the other in the field of food production and food conservation. In these, his famous sentences, farming, home making and common industry were all glorified and dignified; the making of war gardens, the conserving of food and the manufacturing and mining of our world necessities by his tokens became privileges of all American patriots.

You will be interested to know that there are today more war

gardens owned by the children than was ever true in years gone by. Boys and girls who enlisted in this army of food production are still in the game, vindicating their oath of allegiance to the country and proving that they purposed real achievement when they entered.

Our President often says to the boys and girls when on their annual visits to the White House, "Achievement is the only patent of nobility of modern times"; and then he turns and aptly suggests, "That such being true, you of the farm and the home constitute the nobility of our nation." It has been a great inspiration to me to witness such scenes and note how these young champions of soil and kitchen straighten out and study with a proper perspective this inspiring message of our first citizen of the land.

The achievements in food production and food conservation for 1917 must be accredited to our boys and girls as well as to men and women. As most of you know, the program of food work with boys and girls did not start on June or July first nor was it at all the result of free press reports, printed instructions, or as a mere response to a call to arms after the declaration of war.

You and I who have thought carefully, who have studied well civilized society, know that you cannot educate children or even train them to grow economic gardens or deliver them at the end of the year as a worth while investment, unless there has been education, leadership and direction by the people in that community, in the state and in the nation, for several years prior to the beginning of a war program. The 3,000 county agents, 1,000 club leaders and several hundred women agents, thousands of public school teachers, scout leaders and others have been educating for this 300 per cent gain in food gardens for a number of years.

I listened some time ago to a European who said,

We people of Europe made three serious blunders when we started in this world war. First, we in a measure let go of education and advised our schools to close, and they did close in many instances. Second, we did not appreciate the importance of starting hostilities in the cornfields, potato patches, gardens and in the kitchens, on the some day we started hostilities on the battle front. After we had been fighting for months and for two years, then we began to marshal our forces of food production and food conservation, but we have lost the most important part of our preparation—the most effective period. Third, we have sent our tender boys into the trenches instead of into harvest fields and food production activities which means that after war is over we will people Europe with women, old men, crippled and a hopelessly depleted male population to propagate our kind and to rebuild our institutions and industries.