Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-11-22
CROP OFF CITY'S
WAR GARDENS IS
WORTH $4,000
School Children Did Great
Work in Bolstering
Food Supplies

adults raised products in war gar
gems during the past season amount
ing to S9,4S4, it is estimated by Shir-
ley b. Watts, superintendent of war
gardens, whose report has Just been
made public by the Harrisburg
Chamber Of Commerce. This total
production is an increase of $4,000
over that OF last year, he states. Pro-
ducts taken from the adult lots
amounted TO $4,620; from the school
lots, S4,S64. A vast amount of truck
also was raised on gardens privately
managed and in the backyards of
the city.
The preparation of the lots was
begun March IS and AZ acres were
plowed and narrowed for garden
plots. The acreage was divided in
to the following plots:
Bellevue, 425; Nineteenth and
Paxton streets, 432; Reel and Wico-
nisco streets, 2S; Reel and Division
! streets, 81; Twenty-third and
Brookwood streets. 65; Sixth and
Forster streets, 21; Curtin and JEFF
i67; Fifteenth and Vernon streets,
80.
In addition one and one-half acres
were under cultivation at Nine
| teenth and Holly streets for the
Cbildren's Industrial Home. Four
acres at Seventeenth street and the
| Pennsylvania railroad were plowed,
narrowed and fertilized for the AS
ISOLATED Charities, in addition to five
acres for the same organization at
Fifteenth and Herr streets, extend
| ing as far as the Arsenal. Eight
acres at Bellevue were planted in
yellow corn because adults did not
claim all the ground allotted to
them.
School Board May Help
Touching on the financial side, Su-
perinterdent Watts reports balance
of $76270. An appropriation of $2,-
600 from the Chamber of Commerce
and another of $3.50 from the Com
mittee of Public Safety, plus other
receiAts made total of moneys re-
ceived amounting to $3,1S9.75. Ex-
lpenditures, including salaries, plow-
ing, fertilizinG printing and other
expenses, amounted to $2,427.O5. A
decrease of expenses amounting to
$522.63 was noted.
A charge of $3.50 was made to
adults TO partially cover the cost of
fertilizing and plowinG the ground.
In every section of the city where
war gardens were available the land
was quickly disposed of, save in the
Bellevue Park section where the
plots were not all taken. Here 1t
was necessary TO give it to one per-
son, to avoid wasting the land, and
this was put into yellow corn. The
-t1 81 nA Lot aI :
% by 25 feet, and that of the adults
20 by so feet. James Smyser acted
as assistant supervisor for the Cham
Der of Commerce. Acting as su-
pervisors for the school board were
Messrs. Ferguson, Machen, KEEPER,
Harlacher and Thomas. The salaries
of these last named supervisors was
paid by the school board.
In closing his report, the super
intendent says:
There is q movement on foot by
the Harrisburg school board to man.
age their own lots next year. Upon
taking this matter up with Doctor
Downes he stated that they felt that
due to the paying of the salaries
of the supervisors of the school gar
dens, that the school board was not
getting sufficient credit for the
money which they were spending
and that next year they would con-
duct their own gardens. We stated
to Doctor DowneS that we could not
see why they did not get credit for
the work which they had done and
that in our reports and newspaper
articles we had always mentioned
them particularly and had given
them credit for any produce which
they raised 1t seems that after two
years of preparation of this land
and the large amount of money
which the Chamber of Commerce
has spent to encourage the school
children to raise vegetables to aid
in the war, that school board pro-
position is unfair. AS you will no.
tice from the list of expenses that
they had under cultivation within
five acres as much land as the adults.
In other words the preparation of
the land cost as much as that of the
Cham ber of Commerce within a few
hundred dollars. 1t is understood
that they expect the Chamber of
Commerce to furnish the blowing
and fertilizing for next season as
they have no money to take care of
the preparation of this ground.
The superintendent earnestly
hopes that the garden movement
will not be discontinued as the above
figures show the value of this work
and in reference to school children
we wish to suggest that they espe-
cially continue this line of work and
think that the proper way in which
1t should be handled would be for
the school board to have the chill
dren work on these lots a certain
period each day and have it con-
sidered part of their education and
receive marks on It the same as any
other study. This will be the only
way they can control the children
and then it will develop into a sys-
tenn which is worth while"