A Local Department. 



A Horticultural as well as Military 

 Captain. 



Captain Allan F. Kitchel of Sound 

 Beach is the leader of the Home Guards 

 and also leader in another form of ser- 

 vice for his country in that he has de- 

 veloped and cultivated a garden that 

 the editor of this magazine believes to 



CAPTAIN ALLAN F. KITCHEL AND GIANT 

 BEANS. 



be the best in this region. Think of 

 beans covering poles twelve feet high 

 with about six extra feet of vine over- 

 hanging — a total of eighteen feet, with 

 many things in similar proportions. 

 Few gardens show a more luxuriant 

 growth of potatoes, tomatoes and the 

 other common crops of the amateur 

 gardener. It is not necessary to special- 

 ize because the whole is always known 

 by a fair sample. The accompanying 

 illustration showing Captain Kitchel 

 standing among his pole beans is that 

 fair sample. It represents a garden that 

 has produced a growth which is not 

 all vines but would be difficult to ex- 

 cel. Such things do not come by 

 chance. When Captain Kitchel under- 

 takes a project he does it well. For 

 example, he did his military work at 

 Plattsburg so well that all of us in 

 Sound Beach recognized the justice of 

 the election when the Home Guards 

 made him their Captain- He is a thor- 

 ough, whole-hearted patriot, and is 

 cordially supplemented and aided in all 

 his endeavors by his energetic and 

 equally patriotic wife. We rather sus- 

 pect that this magnificent garden is a 

 partnership affair. The Captain may 

 have devoted more than half the energy 

 needed to make it a vegetable garden 

 but we feel sure that Mrs. Kitchel put 

 her capable mind and her accomplished 

 hands on the aesthetic part. 



The garden of flowers though not ex- 

 tensive is, in its alluring arrangement 

 its paths of luxurant growth, an exquis- 

 ite gem. The flowers in the canoe, and 

 the canoe surrounded by picturesque 

 rocks, are more than appropriate for 

 the ornamentation of a home on the 

 shore of Long Island Sound. They are 

 emblematic. The accompanying illus- 



