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Show U. S. Gardeners Aid in Nation's 'Victory' Drive Increased Number of Gardens Gar-dens This Year Vital For Balanced Diets. (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) Uncle Sam's wartime food needs have put the all-but-forgotten family vegetable garden back on the map. Millions Mil-lions of Americans are now poring over seed catalogs, checking tools and eyeing likely planting sites. Once the frost is gone, an army of gardeners recruited from farms, small towns and big cities will prepare the earth with spades and fertilizers. fertiliz-ers. Then will come seeding, weeding and cultivating in a vast effort to produce plenty of fresh vegetables, F. O. B., the kitchen door. This effort is part of a great national na-tional Victory Garden program. In the weeks since Pearl Harbor, officials offi-cials of the U. S. department of agriculture ag-riculture have been consulting with gardening experts from every state. Organizations everywhere have pledged their aid garden clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Campfire Girls, 4-H clubs. As the program develops, activities will follow two major lines: 1. Farmers and their families throughout the United States will co-operate by planting 5,760,000 vegetable gardens. i. Small town and big city dwellers will sponsor community commu-nity and school gardens, and wherever possible individual family Victory gardens. This newest move in the war on the Axis is reminiscent in many ways of the stirring days of World War No. 1, when back-yard garden- which produced 528,000,000 pounds of food. But there was waste and unnecessary unneces-sary sacrifice, too. Many a hopeful big city garden yielded nothing but blisters and backaches. In some places park lawns, golf courses and public recreation areas were plowed up and planted to potatoes. Ornamental Orna-mental plantings in private grounds were sacrificed; flowers were forgotten for-gotten to make room for vegetables; and gardens were attempted in congested con-gested big city locations where success suc-cess was obviously impossible. Today an abundance of land is available for Victory Gardens without with-out sacrificing landscape beauty or the growing of flowers which are just as important to morale, as vegetables vege-tables are to physical well-being. This is particularly true in small towns and in the suburban areas of big cities. Nutrition Is Watchword. Nutrition is the watchword of the present program. First of all, our soldiers must be well nourished. So must defense workers in fields and factories. Britain, Russia and our other allies must be kept supplied These town and city gardeners are being cautioned that their gardens must be economical; that every seed, every pound of fertilizer and every implement counts; that there must be no waste. The members of these garden clubs will meet and discuss their problems together and j obtain guidance from experts. Provisions Pro-visions are being made in many cities by the Civilian Defense organization or-ganization for the establishment of community gardens in which plots are assigned to families that do not , have fertile garden soil of their own. j Schools and organizations are promoting pro-moting the program. How big a job is it to put in a garden and make it produce successfully? suc-cessfully? Simple to Garden. It's relatively simple, according to gardening experts. They point out that with modern knowledge of soils, plant foods, new tools and the improved im-proved vegetable . varieties developed devel-oped by plant breeders, it is possible possi-ble to grow fresh vegetables for the family in a favorable location with only a few hour's light exercise each week. The secret of effective gardening lies in the size of the plot. Too big tv rs il Fv-- M. -vf with food. But the program goes beyond that. A battle is being waged on the home front against malnutrition. malnutri-tion. Regardless of how long the World war lasts, the nutrition battle at home will go on until every American Amer-ican is receiving enough of the right kinds of food. In considering the two main phases of the Victory Garden program, pro-gram, the farm effort will of course be the backbone. Every farmer who can possibly do so will have a garden gar-den where he can produce fresh vegetables and fruits for home use and have some surplus to market. Secretary of Agriculture Wickard summed up the movement's philosophy philoso-phy when he told delegates attending attend-ing a recent conference in Washington: Washing-ton: "This situation is different from 1917. Then the effort was to save food so there would be plenty for our troops in France. Now the need is for a balanced diet. When the farm family grows its own vegetables, vegeta-bles, it eats more and thus improves im-proves the family's health. We hope for an increase of 1,300,000 farm vegetable gardens in 1942. The goal we have set is 5,760,000. "Growing vegetables on the farm puts the food right where it is to be Fresh radishes for salads are what this young lady is gathering. Her Victory Garden will give the necessary neces-sary balance to the family's daily meals. a garden is likely to be neglected. One just large enough, producing the vegetables a family needs and no more, in balanced proportions can be kept well without hard work. Another secret is in not trying to grow too large a variety. One authority au-thority suggests six different vegetables vegeta-bles as a basis tomatoes, snap beans, carrots, cabbage, lettuce and greens. All are high in food and vitamin value. Moreover, tomatoes, beans, carrots and greens can be easily canned. These gardening experts will tell you one more thing that you've got to feed the soil if you expect it to produce for you. This means providing pro-viding it with plant food. And this is just as true if you garden on the farm or in town. The average farm- Miss Peg reaps the results of having hav-ing a garden of her own. The green beans she is collecting will be delicious deli-cious at the family's evening meal. ers did their bit to make good the slogan: "Food Will Win the War." But there are wide differences, too, and it is hoped that many of the mistakes of the 1917-18 war garden program will be avoided this time. The last war demonstrated: that home gardening can contribute importantly im-portantly to the food supply. In 1917 alone, 1,150,000 acres of city and town land were under cultivation. By 1918 there were 5,000,000 gardens used; it doesn't take any freight cars or trucks to move food to those families. Home vegetable gardens release more commercial vegetables for other purposes. Commercially canned vegetables are packed in tin and we are short of tin." As a reinforcement to the farm garden movement, the work of small town and big city gardens will help swell Uncle Sam's food output. In communities large and small every family that has access to a favorably situated plot for producing part of its food supply is being asked to join a Victory Garden club. A BETTER 1 I HB 1 . y" " "J From Industrial centers and other defense localities now working at top speed for the nation's Victory program, the excellent business conditions condi-tions found there are overflowing into the more rural sections of the "United States as the above map shows. As farm crops and rural production pro-duction increases better business conditions will show in the "fair" areas of the V. S. er knows by experience with field crops that fertilizer will enhance the size of his crop, increase its resistance re-sistance to disease, improve the quality and promote all-around hardiness. He will apply that knowledge in making his Victory garden contribute to the national defense. The city gardener can profit by the farmer's experience. The three fertilizer elements most needed for plant growth are nitrogen, nitro-gen, phosphorus and potash. These elements are mentioned in this order or-der in the analysis of commercial fertilizer. "For effective gardening use," said one authority, "it has been found advisable to apply the fertilizer ferti-lizer before planting time, mixing it in thoroughly with the soil when the first spading or plowing is done. The quantity to apply will vary with the soil type, but the Victory Gardener will be safe in using 5 pounds of a mixture such as 5-10-5 to each 100 square feet of garden. Once having (Undertaken its gardening gar-dening project, the average family will reap dividends far axceeding the crop of vegetables at harvest time. Of prime importance in wartime war-time is the morale factor. Gardening Garden-ing is a morale builder without equal anywhere. There is no better antidote anti-dote for war "blues" than a session with a hoe. Gardening provides a release from the worries and nervous nerv-ous tension of long hours spent at a desk or in the machine shop of a munitions factory. It gives -the housewife a change of pace from the routine of domestic duties. American Farmers Now Making Wartime Plans Faced with the biggest demand for agricultural products in the history his-tory of the nation, American farmers farm-ers today are planning preparing and working toward the single end of producing the crops, livestock, dairy products, fibers and other raw materials to meet wartime needs, writes L. G. Elliott, president of the LaSalle Extension university. More food will be required by our military forces. Demand from our allies is constantly growing. While production has been increasing, in-creasing, the prices received by farmers for what they sell have also been rising. Average prices are now the highest in 13 years. Prices which the farmers pay have also been going go-ing up, but not quite so rapidly, and the ratio between prices received and prices paid is steadily becoming more favorable. It has already reached the goal of parity, and the policy of the government is to maintain main-tain prices at around that leveL In that way, farm income will be kept at the average rate. |
