The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1942-04-17
VICTORY GARDENS

Soldiers have bigger appetites
than civilians. At the same time,
more soldiers mean fewer food pro-
ducers. So Uncle Sam faces food
problem today, one to which he has
voluntarily added. For while feed
ing more mouths at home with few
er hands, he has also undertaken to
cater for a large number OF our
Allies abroad.
To meet our increasing food
needs, the farmer must of course
produce more in his fields. But
Uncle Sam must now cultivate other
acres. Commercial and truck gar
deners are planting more of almost
everything. But more Americans are
going to grow their own as Uncle
Sam turns to the garden plot. The
nations farm and home gardens
rotary Claude Wickard calls "Vege-
rotary Claude Wickard calls Vege-
tables for Vitality for Victory"
Victory Gardens will again dot the
landscape as an important feature
of the Food for Freedom campaign.
"M-Day has come for gardening"
says M. L. Wilson, Agriculture De-
partment extension director and as
sistant director of Defense Health
and Welfare Services in Charge of
Nutrition.
During First World War days,
100000 war gardens were planted
in 1917, files of the old National
War Garden Commission show. On
their 100000 acres were raised
food crops valued at $350,000, 900.
BY 1918 the number of war gardens,
poisoning everywhere, had in
creased to 5,250,000.
This program Uncle Sam wants to
repeat now, but with a difference
learned from experience. "Emphas-
is is placed only upon the making of
farm, community and school gar
dens where soil is good, supervision
is competent, and wastage of scarce
material and equipment, as well as
labor, will be avoided. There should
be no about effort to make city
and town gardens, or to pillow up
grass plots, lawns, parks, golf cours-
es, or even ornamental gardens"
If you have city flower garden, go
right on growing flowers-they are
good for morale.
The Government, it is pointed
out by w. w. Hochbaum, chairman
of the Inter-Departmental Garden
Committee, wants good gardens or
none at all. The reason is simple.
Seeds, fertilizer, garden tools and
labor are too precious to waste.
Many of our garden seeds have come
from abroad. Now that these sourc-
es are cut off, our own commercial
seed companies are expanding pro-
duction. But their seeds are not
meant for the tickle, half-hearted
gardner who, in rush of patrio-
tism, decides to spade UP a plot of
sour, ill-drained earth which may
have been turned out of cellar
excavation and which is hard put to
support a stand of grass, let alone
''heavy-feeding" vegetables. Garden
tools use steel that is on the prior
ity list. Many fertilizers are also
chemicals of war.
But for farm and community
gardeners, Uncle Sam has only
words of encouragement. Eating
largely what they grow themselves,
they leave that much more from the
commercial crop to feed soldiers,
war workers and Allies Home gar
dening will save on tin. If every
one of the 5,760,00e projected farm
gardens provides vegetables that
would normally have come of only
ten cans, there is a saving of more
than 81 million tin cans. And
since garden foods are eaten right at
home, there is another huge saving
for our overworked transportation
system, and for processing plants
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