PLANNING FOR PLEASURE 



293 



A home vegetable garden. 



Planting for profit. The World War with its need of 

 the conservation of food for shipment to our allies, and 

 supplies of fresh food for the people at home, brought out 

 as nothing else could the value of the home garden. War 

 gardens in this country were estimated in 1918 to have 

 supplied nearly five hundred million dollars' worth of vege- 

 tables, this value equal to about one twelfth of the Fourth 

 Liberty Loan. It was found early in 1917 that there were 

 186,000 vacant lots in New York City, and 5000 acres in 

 Minneapolis, Minnesota, much of which space was avail- 

 able for war gardens, and these figures could doubtless 

 be duplicated in cities from all parts of the country. 



A garden need not be a large one to be profitable. One 

 can raise enough vegetables for a family of four in a city 

 back yard on a plot twenty-five feet by twenty-five feet. 

 It requires planning and a knowledge of soil and other 

 conditions, which will be given in the next chapter. In 

 connection with any home garden we should always plan 



