The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-04-25
HAVE YOU PLANTED A GARDEN
(By David R. Coker.)

ness for war was designated and
speakers representing the State or
ganization were selected.
The farm demonstration depart
ment of the national government
will furnish an agricultural speaker
IN addition, and it would be well for
YOU to secure the services of one or
more local speakers for short talks.
You will be expected to advertise
This meeting and secure the largest
possible attendance and contribute In
every way to its enthusiastic sue
cess.
After the county meeting the
speakers representing the State or
9anization will meet with you for a
conference as to your plans for a
vigorous countrywide campaign.
You will be expected to hold, in
the shortest possible time, meetings
In every church and school house in
the county, secure the best possible
speakers for arousing effective en-
thusiasm and cooperation at these
meetings; you will be expected to
secure the hearty cooperation OF
every available agency-churches,
schools, boards of trade, farmers
associations, benevolent associations,
labor unions, women's clubs, etc.
for your campaign. Your campaign
must bring to the whole people q
realization of the fact that the world
= facing a famine-that the sue
eessful prosecution of this war de-
pends fully as much upon the pro-
auction and conservation of food in
the United States as it does upon
amy military action which can be
taken by this country. The people
must be made to realize that the
duty of responding to the call OF
eur nation and State for theh pro-
duction and conservation of food
stuffs)is just as patriotic, and under
present circumstances will prove
inst as effective from a military
standpoint as actual service with
Um1.
The State commission for civic
preparedness suggests the following
programme, which may be modified
by the judgment of your committee
to suit varying conditions in the diff
ferent sections Of the State.
First, urge the immediate plant
ing of such crops as will in the
shorest possible time furnish food
for man and beast, and thus stop
the drain upon the depleted national
food reserves which our State is now
making. The duty of every family
10 plant and cultivate a garden must
be stressed. The following vegeta-
kloc oro cr1oopcfod.
5 Sweet potatoes (plants can be Sc
cured at once at about 81 per ,ooel
Two hundred plants, planted IL
inches apart in four foot rows on
good soil, should produce six to ten
bushels by July Is or August 1.
A single garden row each of okra,
tnnatoes, snap beans, pole beans,
should be planted now and dupli-
Gated month later.
Garden corn, squashes and the va
rious green's are all easy to grow and
should be planted in succession in
quantity according to the size of the
garden, properly worked and fer
6lized. One-eighth of an acre will
supply the average family with an
abundance and great variety of vege
tables during the entire summer and
fall.
Land owners should urge their
troopers and merchants their Gus
TONERS to plant gardens and the
seeds should be furnished to those
Who are unable to buy.
Every farmer should be urged to
plant at least one-quarter of an acre
each of sorghum and early yellow
dent corn Cleaning variety suggest
ed) per horse or cow owned, and
this will furnish ample feed in July
and August. Every farmer should
put in at least one acre of sweet po-
tatoes per horse, and land owners
should construct potato houses, bull
according to government specltica-
lions, for curing and string this
crop for their tenants.
) Cow peas mad sly beans should he
literally planted for human and ami
ral food. Early varieties Of cow
peas planted a. once will furnish
delicious green peas in eight or ten
weeks.
Every. farmer should be induced
to increase his acreage of field corn
and early velvet beans should be
planted not later than May I in ev-
cry acre of corn. They will not re-
auce the corn yield and may be ex-
Rected to produce Is to 80 bushels
Per acre of splendid nitrogenous
food.
Bulletins on velvet beans, potato
houses, etc., will be furnished by
the farm demonstration agents in
each county.
The merchants of your county
must be made to realize that their
cooperation is absolutely necessary
for the success of this campaign. Un-
less supplies of the necessary seeds
and of cans and pars for canning
are available, much of the effect Of
our work will be neutralized. Whole
hearted cooperation from all the peo-
pie, in fact, is vital if the State is
to do the necessary and patriotic
work which the national and State
authorities have called on us for.
There is great shortage of some
Kinds of seeds, and the merchants
nav he unable To secure q full as