Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-14
Wickard Plans
Nationwide
Victory Gardens
Subdivided Trocts
In, Near Cities
To Be Encouraged
BY GEORGE KENNEDY.

A call for every good citizen to
get out his spade, rake and hoe
to help win the war with a Vic
tory garden will be issued shortly
by the Agriculture Department.
The Victory garden is an impor-
tant part of the program to exceed
1912 bumper crop records in table
vegetables and to relieve transporta-
ton difficulties, War Food Admins
traitor Wickard told The Star. A
drive for Nation wide home garden
ing is part of the overall plan drawn
up by H. w. Parisius, director of
food production.
Last year the department did not
enlarge on its peace-time program
Of encouraging home gardening be-
cause of the seed situation. This
year the vegetable seed crop is rs
per cent larger. There are plenty
of all seeds except cabbage, carrot,
onion and beets These seeds are
available in the trade, but a large
scale gardening drive might exhaust
them. -
Organizat ions to Help.
To bring the drive home to the
cities, the departments extension
service will be supplemented by the
cooperation Of the Office of Civil
ian Defense, the Office of Defense
Health and Welfare and the Ameri-
can Women's Volunteer Services.
The help of garden clubs and news
paper garden pages also will be
enlisted.
Plans to encourage groups to OBJ
tain use of large plots of land with
in or near cities and subdivide them
into good-sized gardens, so by so or
so by 100 feet. War plants will be
asked to make adjoining properties,
suitable for vegetable growing, avail
able to their workers.
Tightness of automobile trans
portation is looked on more as a
boon than a difficulty to the vic
tory garden program. While peo-
pie will have difficulty stretching
their gasoline ration to get to the
garden plots, this year they are not
going to drive away on vacations
and leave the garden to struggle
through unweeded until their re-
turn.
The department will emphasize
that even in the unlikely event of
the war ending this year, the food
crisis will continue. The shortage of
food was greater in the year after
the last war than during it.
Nitrates are largely being used for
explosives rather than for fertilizer,
but the War Production Board has
met the situation with Victory
garden. fertilizer" suitable for most
crops.
Implements Limited.
Small implements likewise are
limited due to the steel shortage.
1t will be suggested that Victory
garden clubs pool their tools, just
the same as farmers are being asked
to pool their larger equipment.
An important part of the drive
will be to get the farmers them
selves to resume their kitchen gar
dens. Three years ago, gardening
on farms was at low point. Farm
ers preferred to work on the cash
crops and buy their vegetables
at the store with their egg money
However, the interest in nutrition
promoted by several Government
caused a revival of farm
gardening in the past two years
In the last war park properties
were plowed in many cities for
Liberty gardens. The seed situa-
ton then was not as tight as it was
last year. it was explained at the
Department of Agriculture. In the
last war Holland and Norway were
supplying seeds to our Allies. Now
their seeds are going to the enemy.