Evening star., 1935-03-31
CITY RELIEF PLOTS
WILL TOTAL 1000
Subsistence Garden Sites
Will Exceed Number Last
Year by 800.

The Districts subsistence gardens
for the underpriwleged will be run
on o larger scale this year.
Plans already are under way for
allotting approximately 1000 plots
TO persons on relief rolls so they may
raise vegetables to aid In supplying
themselves and families. The num-
ber of gardens is to exceed those in
operation last year by nearly 800.
Ground Is now being plowed and
narrowed and 1t is planned to assign
the first of them, on the Kingman
tract, on Bennings road northeast,
about next Wednesday.
Due to a change in the relief hook
up the gardens this year will be under
different supervision from last year.
They come under Capt. Howard F.
Clark, deputy administrator and in
charge of the works division Of the
District Emergency Relief Administra-
tion, and William c. Cleary, general
manager of the works division has
direct charge.
Care Used in Selection.
The gardens, Mr.. Cleary said, will
be assigned only to those on relief
rolls and Miss M. Alice Hill. director
of the public assistance division, will
have charge of selecting those to be
assigned the gardens.
For the gardens, all available land
has been turned over to the District
by the United States Engineers Of
flee and the Office of Public Buildings
and Public Parks. The plots now
being prepared for the gardens and
their size are as follows.
The Kingman tract on Bennmg
road northeast, $50 gardens for col
ored persons; on the south bank OF
Eastern Branch, some 60 gardens for
white persons; foot of A street south
east, 1870 gardens for white persons;
at Thirty-sixth and w streets, in rear
of Mount Alto Hospital, 125 gardens
for white persons; in the 1900 block
of Conduit road, $50 gardens for col
ored persons; near First and g
streets southwest, 100 gardens fol-
white persons and nearby small plot
for white persons.
= Sites Inspected.
MIR. Cleary inspected the garden
sites Friday with Gerald Coke, assis-
tant regional engineer of the Federal
Emergency Relief Administration
Sometime in the near future, Mr.
Cleary said, he hopes to have avail
able additional ground for other gar
dens. Each garden is so by 100 feet
In size and costs approximately So te
prepare, fertilize and stake, it has
been estimated.
w. r. Beattie, senior horticulturist
Department of Agriculture, and agri.
cultural agent for the District, Is ad'
wiser for the operation of the gar
dens, assisting in many scientific ano
technical phases.
The growth of the subsistence gar
dens here has been rapid. Begun ir
1881 with only 68 gardens, this num-
ber increased to 400 in 1882, and ap.
proximately 900 in 1888. Last yeaI
there were more than TOO in opera.
ton.
= eaz Value Placed at S75,000.
Estimates for last year placed the
value of vegetables raised in the gar.
dens at $4,000, and those who aided
in the project were greatly pleased
over the relief afforded to many needy
individuals.
One of the gardeners of last year
recently wrote: For the last three
years have raised enough fresh vege.
tables for my family of nine children
wife and myself. All Summer my wife
canned enough for most of the Win
ter. also gave lots of fresh vege-
tables to poor families I knew coulc
not afford to buy them"