The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-05-31
Nail Your Colors To Your Garden
Tools

Nail Your Colors To Your Garden
Tools.
The ways in which the average
civilian 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 soldier on anything like terms
of equality. The openings for real
day-after-day service which the mil
lions of non-combatants 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 sheliing out
takes but a moment and after awhile
the feeling of satisfaction over a
duty we'll 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 patriotic pride. But
after the act of contribution is past
it is the Government, and not you,
that does the work. Your passive
part is to receive good interests 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.
Maryland is the scene of the big
gest war-garden contest ever staged
on this continent. There are almost
five hundred honorariums 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 Ad-
ministration and the Agricultural
College are conducting is absolutely
wide-open. 1t costs nothing to enter
and the same amount lets you out
If some terrible calamity should
compel you ito quit this voluntary
job.
Tho ohioot of tho do,,or ~ +hic
splendid array of prizes is to create
surplus of foodstuffs next winter,
SO that nothing shall then cause a
shortage in Maryland. What you
eat during the summer naturally
will not be available later on, should
the trains get tied up or anything of
that Sort AS the proverb says,
sYou can't eat your cake and have
it," And, anyhow, the directors of
the Contest could discover no way
in which the judges could keep track
of the produce that goes straight
from the participated to the kitch-
en-. This Contest. 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 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 a share of the luscious veget-
ables 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 Agricultural Agent
and the County Food Administrator
SO don't hold back your entry for
fear of some snag that cannot crop
up. Hurry your entry along TO the
Maryland Food Administration, 700
Equitable Building, Baltimore, and
be enrolled as one of those home
patriots who are doing the biggest
bit they can this side of France.