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Show PROTECTING GARDENS BY PATRIOTISM H By P. G. HOLD EN. HOW can wo protect our gardens? This has been the great problem that has always presented Itself to every Individual and organization promoting home and vacant lot gardens, especially in the larger cities. Annually much damage to gardens Is done by vandals and midnight iH prowlers, as well as by thoughtless children, and this has always proved a IH great hindrance to successful garden . movements. But the Chicago Garden Bn- IH Jreau seems to have, solved the problem this year. IH When, following President Wilson's appeal for an Increase In our food sup- IJ ply, tho people of Chicago planted 200,- jH j&S&x&& 000 gardens, the bureau, which had con- JH i. ducted the campaign, seriously conald- ered numerous plans for affording pro- IH n tectlon to growing vegetables. IH Policemen and Boy Scouts volun-v volun-v teered for guard duty, but It was realized V S that It would be physically Impossible uujroijwf- yJI 1 Tff5 for them to protect every garden at every f-SM- moment of tue aay and niSht. So It was . finally decided to appeal to the patriot- jH : Ism of the people by placing the gardens S0Si??S8V Wk under tho protection of tho flag. Ilf' "Uflltl ik! Largo signs wero furnished garden-CI- tS38?fs 83 HH crs to place on their garden plots. These! IH PI I MW a kSP sSns Dear tne "words: "Honor the Flag; S J t,- , Wt by Protecting This Garden as a Part of H PRnTFPTfflft 98 the Food SuPP1i' of the Nation" and eacb- M Tfllft AfinnrS m sIga ls surmounted by a flag. H W OOfi-wTOW-v Wh aU esPectatIons'as there- has not been H W ' cr raTturioa ' a slnEle report of any damage to gardens IH rrZJZ sil la which the sign has been placed. m li"i!J M resPects the chicas Gar- M 'Lcs ' den Campaign was remarkable. One nun- H 5S dred twenty thousand people called at IH the bureau for assistance. Twenty-three 'tt2geaciil tractors and fifty teams were engaged In low Chicago Protects Her Gardens Plowing. Many of the tractors plowed An Appeal to Patriotism Safe- day and night and S.000 acres were mada H guards the Food Supply. readr for Gardens, most of it free of IH charge. Twenty-five thousand people purchased garden seeds at the bureau at jH wholesale prices. Three hundred garden meetings were held in schools, "hurches, private homes and on vacant lots; 70,000 people were Instructed In jH gardening and 265,000 pieces of gnrden literature distributed. In addition to over 175,000 individual gardens, a large number of com-niunlty com-niunlty gardens, ranging from seven to sixty acre's each, were laid out and apportioned among the poor. If each garden produces an average of $20 worth of produce, the aggregat0 value will reach over $2,600,000. The total expense to the bureau was $33,500, or about 26 cents for each xrarden. |