Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-06-03
NAIL YOUR COLORS
TO GARDEN TOOLS.
The Way The Average Civilian
Can Help To Win This
World War.
FURNISH SINEWS OF WAR.
Object Of The Donor Of The
Splendid AIRY Of Prizes
In The War Garden
Contest.

The ways in which the average civ
ilian can help win this war are so few
that he should welcome the privilege
of being able to do any work that will
entitle him to chum with a soldier on
anything like terms of equality. The
openings for real day-after-day ser
vice which the millions of non-comba-
tants in this U. S. A. can perform are
few indeed.
When you contributes you
should-to the Red Cross you feel
legitimately good all over But the
act of signing up and Smelling out
the feeling of satisfaction over a duty
well done wears off and you wonder
what else there is TO do.
When you buy bonds to furnish the
sinews of war, you naturally swell up
with pride. But after the act of con-
tribution is past it is the Government
and not you, that does the work Your
passive part is to receive good inter
est on the best security in the world.
Naturally, you want SOMETHING
THAT YOU CAN KEEP ON DOING.
Why not raise vegetables, and help
ensure the Allies against the sort of
food shortage Germany is up against?
If you can't grapple with the foe in
France, get to grips with the Hun in
your own backyard. That is what
Herbert Hoover urges you to do. And
all the time you are welding the
spade or the hoe you know you are
helping the Sammies keep their rifles
to their shoulders. You will find your
whole being suffused with patriotic
glow; while in the years to come you
will not be a prey to mean and vain
regrets. And, very incidentally, it
will yield rich returns to your peck
etbook and your personnel well-being.
Maryland is the scene of the biggest
war-garden contest ever staged on
this content. There are almost five
hundred honoriums for the fellows
who have the war-winning spirit to
get busy on their backyard or farm
garden. The fellows" may be men,
women. or children, for the contest
which the State Food Administration
ard the Agricultural College are con-
Quoting is absolutely wide-open A
royal welcome is extended to every
Marylander who is strong enough to
toddle. There is no conflict with any
other organization whatsoever, for
you are placed under no obligations
of any kind 1t costs nothing to enter
and the same appoint lets you out IL
some terrible calamity should compel
you to quit this voluntary job.
The object of the donor of this
splendid array of prizes is to create
surplus of foodstuffs next winter, so
that nothing shall then cause a short
age in Maryland. What you eat dur
ing the summer naturally will not be
available later on, should the trains
get tied up or anything of that sort
As the proverb says, you can't eat
your cake and have it." And, any,
how, the directors of the Contest
could discover no way in which the
judges could keep track of the pro-
duce that goes straight from the pa
triot-patch to the kitchen. This Con-
test. mark you, is for quantity rather
than quality. 1t is not food show
1t is the yield per square yard that
counts. So, in computing that yield,
there was nothing to do but rule out
there was nothing to do but rule out
that amount of produce of which
there was no feasible way of keeping
tab.
Everybody, however, will be on the
same footing. For nobody will be
able to resist the temptation of eating
e share of the luscious vegetables he
raises. 1t isn't human nature. Don't
worry about that condition. Just
keep a record of what you sell and be
ready to show the judges what you
have dried, canned, or stored when
they come around.
The Judging in each locality will be
conducted under the supervision of
the County Food Administrator, so
don't hold back your entry for fear of
some snag that cannot crop up.
Hurry your entry alog to the Mary
land Food Administration, 700 Equi-
table Building, Baltimore, and be en-
rolled as one of those home-patriots
who are doing the biggest bit they can
this side of France. Make it plain to
all that fguratiyely speaking. YOU
have the Star CnaupIad po,oa~ ;.5.1