Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-27
El1Rtttug Gfrat

merces bureau to encourage the
local production of foodstuffs, did
and estimated that there are 125
acres of war gardens being con-
Quoted in Harrisburg although the
war Is over This acreage is corr,
scrvatively estimated and it shoSr
that there are actually more ga
DEM now than last year in r1..a
height of the war;" said he. "Dr
course. calculating the value of yr-l
crops now is more or less guess
work, but l should think that t!:S
aggregate of the values would run
anywhere from 100000 to 5000
Mr.. Watts estimate is impressive
trebly so when one considers thu
| when the Chamber of CONNER
launched the war garden" move
| ment early in that first war summer
of 1917 there We're some people who
/ were skeptical about 40 acres ever
getting cultivated. But the inter
ested folks kept right at it and the
results show for themselves with 81
most every vacant piece of cultvat-
able ground in and about Harrisburg
raising something. More corn is
waving in the breeze here than ever
known and potatoes tomatoes, beans
ana other produce are thriving in
place of burdock and noisome weeds
The school gardens came into full
flower last year and have added ma
terially to the total under cultiva-
ton. Some years ago there were
attempts made at school gardens and
they did very well in q small way
the ground available being more or
less limited and it remained for the
ginger put into the proposition by
the Chamber of Commerce and the
financial aid extended by some mod
est public spirited citizens to make
Harrisburg a gardening community.
| &c 10 90 70
many people with prices for food
sky rocketing can be imagined, and
furthermore, the impetus given to
gardening by the movement launch
ed i'll conjunction with conservation
during the war is going to go fer
some time to come People are
working at these gardens, they can
be seen every evening and they do
not want the Daylight saving law
repealed If they could they would
add to the hours of daylight and
the habits of industry in idle periods
= of former years can not help but
have a good effect.
When one figures out just what
] the 125 acres estimated by Mr..
| Watts means an idea can be gained
! OF the manner in which Harrisburg
turned its attention to raising food.
| The 125 acres are about three times
the size of Capitol Park, including
the extension, and then some. The
cIty's big island in the Susquehanna
J contained when it was truck farm
=, something like so acres that could
be cultivated. These 125 acres
e would look we'll beside Reservoir
s Park and Wildwood, too, for that
6 matter. The Bellevue Park section
. of the war gardens" could very
e easily contain the Capitol Park ana
d Us extensions, AMI as for the Hoft-
d mans woods section of gardeus, the
IS largest group in HarYisbuI 6, it starts
/, down around Fifth and Seneca and
o runs up into Riverside with Sixth
= street as it's backbone. In addition
s to all these individual garden en-
n terprises, which fill up every vacant
s lot, there are many acres in tho
r. Tenth and Fourteenth wards which
o are truck farms and not included
g in the. war gardens" but which con-
. tribute their share of the food for
Harrisburg. Then there are big
4 gardens around Nineteenth and
- Paxton streets, which used to be
:, 'Poorhouse road" some years ago
- and very much in the country; nu-
= morous gardens about the Shimmel
4 and Vernon schools; some nine
II acres in vicinity of the Arsenal and
b smaller tracts scattered here and
t. there from Twenty-third and Green
y wood down into the First ward then
n fringing the Hill and on up into the
: Tenth ward with some in the Sible-
= town and other sections of the Sew
a enth. The jurisdiction" of the
Is Chamber of Commerce, as it's benev-
-e olent supervision might be termed,
e, is thirty-nine acres alone, with a
h large acreage under the school ad-
n ADMINISTRATION.
e Everyone of the scenes which
n have hpnn ho ic+n
g tableaux in the Kipona next Monday
e is based upon some incident in local
Y, history. The sketches which were
Is made wore drawn from descriptions
d ty people WHO had lived long ago,
s. when Harrisburg was young and the
q events themselves were the subject
ID not only of local tradition but of
d serious writing down. The stories
Al of Mrs. John Harris presence of
r mind in blowing out candle which
o. had been placed in a barrel of pow
T. der by a thoughtless maid and the
n eXtinguishing of lights in the Har-
a ris home when Indians raided it to
- kill English colonial officers who
=. had come here to consult with the
" settler are founded upon fact, told
d d in families and placed in Harris
y memoirs. The arrests of French
e spies in this section, which was in
% the English sphere of influence, and
Is ownership, for that matter, are mat
n ters of record in provincial archives
a. and as for the ambushing of people
i, going to worship in old Paxton
II church, that is no tradition. Only
e few years ago the gun racks We're
'r taken from the old church whose
st beginning was almost 200 years ago.
e
d Many people have been doubtful
> about the time that John Harris,
IS the settler came to make his home
is on the Susquehanna near where his
W grave is located. Some of the early
y records show that Harris was active
y in behalf of the Penns in this neigh
= borhood as early as 1908, while some
d people insist that he came here in
a 1705. The fact is that he came here
d many times before settling here and
= from 1717 to 1919 is generally be-
- lieved to have been the time when
sr he definitely built a home near the
( ford which in due season he formally
Ie acquired under the Harris Ferry
s. right. Hence Harrisburg this year
;: celebrates the 200th anniversary of
10 settlement in its Kipona.
$, WELL KNOWN PEOPLE