The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-03
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
Blu R E AU
FREDERIC J. HAEKIN. Director.
Washington. D. C.
VICTORY AND VEGETABLES.
washington. D. c

|
Washington, d. c.. Dec. 31.-That
tendency which is abroad in the land
for all sorts of war agencies suddenly
| to discover and loudly to proclaim
that they are also peace agencies, and
| therefore deserving of the support OF
4 all good men, is shared, with spe-.
| cial plausibility by the home garden
! propaganda
With the winter just shutting down
it may seem inopportune to talk of
rakes and hoes and garden sass, but
| the daring leaders of the campaign for
| backyard truck declare that this is
| just the time to plan your garden II
will be planting season In the south
| within six weeks, and over large
| part of the country in eight. Now is
| the time to pick out your vacant lot
| and get your permit to use it; TO
study the nature and temperament of
| the early radish and pour over illus
| trated seed catalogs.
It is absolutely necessary to get an
early start if you want to get into
/ this gardening game. Fertile real es-
| tate no longer goes begging for Guilt
vators. There were over live million
war gardens last year, and the PERISH
| ings of the drive for city-bred vegeta-
| bles assert that there will be ten mil
ilion peace gardens this year.
| And the need for gardening, they
| emphasize, was never SO great as now.
| The struggle for liberty is over, but
| the struggle for food is on. Your love
| of your fellowman is appealed to- By
raising a cabbage in your back yard
| you may vicariously feed an Armenian
| infant, and for every bean that you
| produce a Belgian is a bean to the
/ good.
''The worldwide war for food is
now on" says an official of the Ma
tional War Garden commission.
Famine must be conquered. Uncle
Sam has become the Joseph of the
modern world. The nations look to
this country for sixty per cent of their
food deficit, which must be made up.
| Plans and organizations should be I'M
! der way everywhere right now for the
big spring campaign which will soon
be upon us. Get ready now for VIC
| tory gardening!"
| Numerous reports have been re-
ceived by the commission from various
parts of the country stating that prep
I arations are under way, with COM
! planting season.
| The 100000 tons of food which
| this country has promised to send to
Europe in 1919, it is hoped, can be
the food grown by the home garden
ers. BY their large numbers they can
| work wonders in this direction. as is
| shown by the figures of their record
gathered by the national war garden
| commission.
| Victory gardening is to be encour-
| aged by every means possible. The
| United States railroad administration
| already has started to spread the mes
sage along many of the lines under
! its control. Thru J. L. Edwards, d.
| rector of the agricultural section, the
| divisional agents have been instructed
to do what they can to promote the
garden movement turnout the country.
| Posters have been sent by the COM
| mission to these agricultural super
/ visors in many places thruout the
south. Hany railroads in the United
States last season stimulated by fur
nishing land along rights-of-way to
their employees, providing them with
garden booklets and putting up posters
in stations and other conspicuous To-
cations. They will do the same in
1919.
RNhardson Webster, register of
Kings county, Brooklyn, who has been
an active booster of war gardens dur
commission that he has already issued
more than 1000 permits for use OF
vacant lots for victory gardens in
j 1919; and only one owner who had
given consent for the use of his land
withdrew it after the signing of the
armistice. Everybody seems to un-
derstand,'' adds Mr.. Webster, THAT
the food situation will be just as acute
in 1919, and the applications for war
gardens are pouring in just as steadily
as If the war were still on. Fortunate
ly the owners of vacant land view the
situation in the same way"
| I'VE have already begun to make
plans and get ready for another year,
says a report from Urbana, Ill, which
is typical Of many received by the ma
William Maclay Hall, chairman of the
| garden committee, Pittsburgh, has
written to tell of activities there; New
: ark. n. j., which has conducted very
active campaigns during the past two
years under the leadership of Car
garden slogan for 1919; the garden
ers are lining up in Muncie, Ind, re.
ports w. F. Rutledge. head garder
supervisor there; and w. J. Sloan
from Salt Lake City, tells of what they
: are doing in Utah to raise food. They
grew S750,000 worth there in the
1918 war gardens, and Mr.. Sloan says:
. There will be need for an additional
. food supply for at least two years. The
people of the United States, at least q
majority of them, are just beginning
to learn what it means to raise theil
own vegetables with the added value
of reduced cost and better health. IA
l all times we should have no unsightly
back yards and vacant lots. Weed.
are menace to health So are empty
cans and garbage in your back yard.
There are many other similar expires
sions from different parts of the coun.
} try showing that the garden idea ha:
. taken hold and that the war garden.
will continue, not only as victory gar
dens but even after the world war fol-
!, food shall have@been won.
Some handsome new posters hav,
been prepared by the commission thii
year and will be widely distributed tt
= call upon the Victory Gardeners O
: the nation TO turn their gardens int
peace plants A new edition Of tn,
/. gardening booklet has been published
by the commission, and lots OF thes,
D will be furnished to various loca
committees and distributed thru othe
channels free to anyone who want
them
One of the commissions represen
2 fatiyeS. Everett H. Kelley is now on :