Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-05-05
= STARTED out to be a war gardener
and am developing rapidly. 1t
u In int faHHnaH


and am developing rapidly. it
III seems to me. into a war farmer.
Fred Turner, my next door
ncighbor. and I have leased a vacant
lot containing almost a quarter of an
acre of ground and are going to garden
it In partnership. Capt. Thompson.
who works in the Office with me and
has been farming and gardening the
greater part Of his life. went out and
looked at it and told us the soil is as
good as any he ever saw. We are
counting. therefore. on growing crops
that will make Mr.. Hoover sit UP and
take notice.
We paid SO rental for use bf the
groppd until our crops are of next fall.
This IL At the rate Of about 80 an acre.
several times over what farm land
rents for; but the land, Of course. 10
worth several thousand dollars, as
against the $25 which would be the
average price for quarter Of an acre
of farm land. The man who owns the
land said 1t was nominal rental and
seemed to think he was doing us
favor by letting US have 1t. Probably
he was. from his point Of view. but
the fact that land is in a city and
worth thousands Of dollars an acre
will not make it grow any more vege-
tables
Don't get the notion, though. that I
am grumbling. We are going into 1t
because we believe we can pay the
$40 rental and still make good return
on our investment and labor. We have
arranged to have the ground plowed
engaged two loads OF stable manure.
which will cost US s2.5e a load. Our
undertaking, therefore, will represent
an outlay of $50 before we buy our
seed.
There isn't going to be any expense
after the seed is paid for, because we
are going to do every lick Of the work
ourselves. We already have all the
tools we shall need unless we decide
to go in together and get a wheel-hoe.
That wheel-hoe proposition 10 getting
to be something OF Joke, isn't 1t? I
wanted to get one to work my little back
yard garden. but Mary shamed the idea
out of my head. When we took on this
larger garden l thought I'd win the
, wheel-hoe in a canter and proposed to
Turner that we go ffty-ffty on buying
one Turner gave me the laugh. What
under the sun. he demanded. would two
men need OF a wheel-hoe to work a gar
den a hundred feet square?
Turner Is younger than / am. carries
less weight and prides himself on being
something OF an athlete. But I've a no.
fion he may change his mind before the
summer is far advanced. That what
under the sun demand Of his answered
his own question. A hand hoe that
weighs a couple Of pounds now win feel
IKE # weighed ten when the sun gets
good and hot in a month or 50.
There's no need to cross that bridge.
though, until we come to 1t. What We are
interested in now is to get our quarter Of
an, acre plowed and the gardening under
way. We have agreed to plant two BUSH
els Of potatoes, which. with favorable
veather. ought to give each Of US twenty
+ to twenty-five bushels, enough to carry US
through Eext winter and some to sell. The
man who plows is to lay of burrows for
the potatoes. and wen plant and cultivate
them ourselves. Capt. Thompson says
we ought not to he bothered with bugs.
There probably hasn't been q potato
crown within miles of us for years and
potaeo bugs don't make a practice Of
hanging around town.
~Lhcpe the captain Is right and that the
16ts. will not descend upon US. for re-
nehnber that as a boy bugging potatoes
as about the most hateful Job had to
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