GARDENERS IN ARMS
PLOTS BEHINp THE LINES.,
(By Captain B. F:- W. Bees.)
Civilians in England are not the- only people vlu> augment the food supply by 'cultivating allotments. In France, wherever you may go within the British military, areas,'yori ; will find the British soldier hard'at work at his father Adam's trade. ' At tlio basest and in the back ■areas allotments ; are as.precise and uniform as any in a London suburb. One large Medical Board Depot had no loss than twelve acres under cultivation. The officers and 'men there aro not fit for ordinary duties, but a little mild gardening does them a world of good, and they buy less, and less', of gruwable things from outside, sources. They also run a busy little, poultry farm and a rabbit warren. Other depots' are working things on similar lines, and.'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 himself—he reclaims little gardens that aro still struggling to grow among the ruins. Fruit and vegetables, grow in a village well within view of tie Boche, and; we discovered just such a garden close at hand. It had gooseberries, and strawberries and flowers in'; it. It could not be approached during the day, so our fellows used to do their gardening by night, and every day the company had fruit and flowers oil the dugout tables. Also, we discovered a mushroom! bedbut brigade got to hear of that, and our share was small!
.There was another garden—a s large one v-in a pleasant little village somo five miles behind the line in another sector. We.had a brigade bombing school there. Our quarters were in Nissen huts, in that garden, and the village itself was nothing but a mass, of deserted ruins. It was an ideal garden. I' should not like to say how many varieties of fruit grew there; were apples and currants and gooseberries and strawberries, to say nothing of vegetables—and fresh vegetables were very desirable- things in tifafc part of the world. Everything grew merrily, although tha garden itself was ploughed up with shell-holes. .Since then village and garden liavo been under a fiercer bombardment thaji ever before; and I doubt if any of those delectable bushes and trees remain. It is a very useful occupation, tho gardening of tha field, altogether apart from its productiveness. It gives the men something to do, something to interest them outside their work, and they 'go in for it with 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 eighteen pounder, it is just a liiilo more exciting than ordinary.-' gardening.
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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 30, 30 October 1918, Page 8
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477GARDENERS IN ARMS Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 30, 30 October 1918, Page 8
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