GARDENERS IN ARMS
.PLOTS BEHJNP THE LINES. (Bf- Captain E' F. W. Rees.)
Civilians in England are not the only people who augment ihe food supply by cultivating.allotments.' In Trance, ■wherever you may,go within the British ™' ~ t arY ;<», e as, you will find the British .-soldier hard at work at his father Adam's trade. ', At the bases and in the back aroaa allotments are as precise and uniform as any in a London suburb. One iarge Medical Board. Depot had.no loss than twelve acres under cultivation. The officers and men there are not fit for ordinary duties, but a little mild gardening does them a world of good, and they buy less,, and less', of growaule things from outside sources. They also ruu abusy little poultry farm' and a rabbit ■warren. Other depots are working things on similar lines, ar.d so. are training camps and other settled institutions behind the line. But it- is in the front areas themselves that one sees the British soldier at his best in his garden. He does not, ..for the 'most part,' plant for JiimselMie reclaims little gardens that are still struggling to grow among the rums. Fruit and vegetables grow in . a' village well of the Boche, nnd ive discovered just such a garden close at hand. It had gooseberries, and strawberries ahd flowers in it. It could not be approached during the day, so our fellow's used to do their gardening by night, and every day the company had fruit, and flowers on the ,dugout l tables. Also, we discovered a. mushroom bedbut brigade got to bear of that, and our share was small! 1 .-' .
There was another garden— a largo ono —in a pleasant little villago 'somo five miles behind' the line in another-'sector. We had a| brigade bombing' school there. Our' quarters were in Nissen huts in that i garden>and the village itself ra nothing but a mass,- of. deserted ruing. It was an ideal garden. I should not like to say how many varieties of fruit greir there; there were- apples and enr-" . rants and gooseberries, and strawberries, to say ciothing of raretiibles—and fresh vegetables were very desirable things in that part of the world. Everything , grew merrily, although the garden itself was ploughed up with shell-holes. Since then village and garden liavo been under a 'fiercer bombardment than ever before; and. I, doubt if any of. those delectable bushes and. trees, remain. It is a very' useful occupation, tlie gardening of the field, altogether apart, from its .productiveness. It gives the men something, to do, something to interest them outsidetheir work, and they go in for it viHi 'a, right good will. And, after all is' , said and done, when your gardening is apt to be interrupted rudely at any moment by a five-nine,' or even an eighteenpounder, it is just a liiile more exciting than' ordinary gardening. •. ,
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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 29, 29 October 1918, Page 8
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480GARDENERS IN ARMS Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 29, 29 October 1918, Page 8
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