Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-03-16

bic Supply.
During the past three years of con-
tinually rising food prices, while congress
sional committees and grand juries have
been busying themselves from one end of
the land to the other in the effort to
place their fingers upon the causes of the
ever increasing advances in living costs,
one of the possible remedies has been at
our very doors" said business man of
Island Pond yesterday.
when we consider that one of our
main articles of food-vegetables-
risen in price from sixteen to sixty-fve
per cent during the past few years-we
begin to realize the possibilities for econo-
my which lie in the cultivation of our for
the most part, unused back yard garden
plots. 1t really takes only very small
space of ground to grow enough vegeta-
bles to supply the average family, not
only for daily table use during the sum-
mer, but also for use during the winter
months when prices go SO high as to be
almost prohibitive.
"The Importance of the back yard as a
garden has been emphasized in Prussia
since the war. The cultivation of every
available spot of ground was made man
datory and the increased production
thereby proved an important factor in
Germanys successful endeavor to feed
herself
"The value of back yard gardening in
this country was emphasized by the
unique Pingree Potato Patch Plan.
In brief, the plan was to utilize, for
gardening purposes, back yards, vacant
lots scattered about the city Of Detroit
and the large stretches of unoccupe |
lands in the suburbs. Permission was
obtained from the owners of the land to
allow men who were out of employment
to turn this vacant property to cultiva-
ton and thereby accomplish a two-?old
obiect-give the idle laborers something
with which to busy themselves, and, at
the same time, furnish them with a means
of providing subsistence for their families.
THE seed was supplied free by the
J committee in charge of the work, but the
crops were planted, cultivated and har-
vested by the laborers themselves and
, with remarkable results. In 1894 the
first year of the experiment, about 45C
acres in all were planted in this way, the
crops harvested amounting to thousands
of dollars in value. Close to thousand
families were thus provided with proven
der to tide them over the winter. 1t was
estimated that the potato crop alone av-
eraged fifteen bushels per family, to say
nothing Of the crops Of beans, turnips and
other vegetables which were raised and
consumed during the summer.
In 1895 the plan was repeated, lots
,, being distributed this time among about
fifteen hundred families The results the
than they were the first.
THE work of laying out garden has
been so much simpl6ed during the past
, few years that gardening is now some
= thing which even the most inexperienced
can carry out with an assurance of sue
cess. Take planting, for instance. In
stead of planting seeds one at a time, as
we did few years ago, we can now plant
whole row at time. The new way is
to plant a strip of seeds instead of hand
full of seeds. This may sound queer il
you have not been following the recent
developments in the methods of seed
planting, but it is fact Just the same
Instead of buying a package of loose
seeds, one now buys roll of seed tape SC
!, that all it is necessary to do is to mark q
row and then plant in it strip Of tape
This new method enables the novice tc
plant his garden quite as properly and
scientifically as the experienced gardner
THE advantages of this new met 10
of planting are that the planting itsel
is so much easier, being rid Of its back
breaking labor; no thinning out is ne 'es.
sary because the seed is properly spaced
in the tape and the carefully selected seed
: ractically assures full gsrm nation"
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