Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 147, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1917 — LAWNS NOW POTATO FIELDS [ARTICLE]

LAWNS NOW POTATO FIELDS

Velvety*. Parks of the Show Places of France Transformed to Meet Economic Crisis. \ The rare American tourists who visit the chateau of Touraine in France may find the Velvety parks of the most interesting show places transformed into potato patches. — Aristocracy has ttiken up the “tuber campaign” and, beginning with the Countess of Noailles and the DuChess d’Uzes, chatelaineg all over the country have promised to dig up their lawns and plant vegetables. Flower gardens, also, will be consecrated to the solution of the economic crisis. The rose, the vine and the orchard are not to be touched, but all annual . flowers ands all green swards must give way to the democratic potato, in the .interest of the national defense. Since there is not enough labor for the farm lands already under cultivation, the temporary release from the army of a greater number of farmers and the importation of more Indo-Chi-nese and North African labor is expected to count more effectively in solving the agricultural problem than the efforts to transform the chateau parks into vegetable gardens. , *