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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, Campflre 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. 2. 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- 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: "Foqd 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 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 U. S. American Farmers Now Making Wartime Flans 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 .rowing. 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. |