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23

Aug. 30th 1918

To: Capt W. Gillespie
From: H. O. Tanner
Subj: The need of Base Hospital Farms

Six or seven months as assistant in the Farm Service Bureau has given time to see & weigh some of the things that would we believe be of service in the future.

1st. There should be one or two Class "C" or "D" men - practical farmers connected with each unit having over one acre of garden land. These even should be part of the hospital unit and would form a nucleus around which all the convalescent labor available could be usefully employed.

Were we remaining with the Farm Service Bureau it would be our first effort to show the necessity of this or some corresponding way of securing steady interest & labor in the Farm Service of each Base Hospital. Too much insistance cannot be placed upon the absolute necessity of having 2 or 3 such men - attached to each hospital unit.

What has happened today in B.H. 23 & 36. It has been found necessary to evacuate every man that can be moved and each department in each B.H. has only the necessary number of enlisted men for its own service, only the Farm Service