WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
3 
April, 1917 
an APPEAL to members of 
the STATE HORTICULTUR- 
AL SOCIETY! 
The United States is at war and 
needs your help. The country is 
stripped bare of all surplus cereals 
and meats. The winter wheat crop 
i for 1917 has been estimated by ex- 
perts at fifty million bushels less 
than that of 1916, which in turn 
was below that of 1915. 
The farmers of the nation already 
| | at their wits’ end to secure help to 
cultivate their present acreage, will 
be further handicapped by the rais- 
ing of an army of half a million 
men, possibly two millions, recruited 
I largely from the farms and shops. 
The food shortage is serious and 
will be more serious stin ueiore next 
fall. The United States Government 
I can raise and equip an army and 
- supply ammunition without end, but 
| of what avail is an army without 
I food. Of what account all the bil- 
I lions of money in the United States 
I if there is insufficient food? 
Food shortage is now a fact. 
I This shortage now masquerades in 
1 the guise of high prices, but before 
I another year the question of prices 
1 may be secondary, it may be easily 
I be an entirely different question, 
I that of getting food at all. 
Readers who think these state- 
[j ments are exaggerated, who believe 
I the editor is creating a bogy man, 
I: are respectfully invited to ask any 
I one of the following if the editor 
I is hysterical or if he is really stat- 
I ing the case mildly: Governor 
Philipp; Dean Russell or any of the 
I professors of the Agricultural Col- 
I lege; Commissioner Norgord or any 
I of his assistants; any official of the 
II U. S. Department of Agriculture at 
I Washington. You will surely agree 
I that these men are in a position to 
I know. Also read your daily paper. 
THE DUTY OF THOSE WHO 
KNOW HOW. 
Hundreds of the best gardeners in 
I the state, both professional and 
$ amateur, are enrolled as members 
of this Society. There is an oppor- 
'j tunity now for you to do a service 
to others such as you may not have 
i again in your life time. Not only 
increase the yield in your own gar- 
dens but urge others, even plead, 
with them to plant gardens and — 
when you have succeeded help these 
beginners with your counsel and ad- 
; vice. Service! After an, mat's all 
there is in this life worth living for, 
doing something for others! 
MEMBERS WHO DIVE IN CITIES 
AND VILLAGES. 
This appeal is directed largely to 
you. No matter what your age or 
occupation if you are not physi- 
cally disabled you can cultivate a 
piece of land. You can raise vege- 
tables which will take the place in 
part of cereals. If the back yards 
and vacant lots of Milwaukee, Osh- 
kosh, Superior, Racine, Kenosha 
and hundreds of smaller citites 
and towns sufficient vegetables can 
be raised to largely supply the peo- 
ple of these places. 
Have you such a back yard? If 
you have, plant vegetables; if not 
get a piece of land no matter how 
small. In many cities owners of va- 
cant property are offering the use 
of the land free. 
WHAT CAN WE DO? 
Members of this Society can do 
much toward increasing the food 
supply. We cannot raise wheat or 
corn in back yards, but we can more 
than double the production of win- 
ter vegetables if we try and in this 
work every member, man or wom- 
an, old or young, can help. 
Even if we cannot carry a knap- 
sack and a gun we can still be good 
soldiers. 
WHAT TO PLANT. 
In very small gardens 20 x 50 ft. 
or smaller, plant beans, parsnips, 
carrots, beets, winter squash and 
tomatoes and a few hills of pota- 
toes. 
The tomatoes can be trained to 
single stems and tied to stakes and 
the squash planted along the border, 
can be trained on a trellis or even 
on the back porch. 
Lettuce, radishes and spinach may 
be grown between the rows of pars- 
nips, etc. Plant early peas and sow 
cabbage seed either in boxes or in 
open ground to supply plants for 
planting after the peas are harvest- 
ed. Dig and plant NOW. Ques- 
tions of cultivating, hoeing and wat- 
ering will be taken up later. 
In gardens 50 by 100 feet and 
larger plant potatoes and sweet corn 
in addition to the other vegetables 
named and increase the bean patch 
using Refugee wax. This is a very 
prolific green podded variety, excel- 
lent for snap beans and equally as 
good as the navy for winter use. 
FOR THE W. S. H. S. MEMBER 
W HO NEVER PLANTED A 
GARDEN. 
Don’t be ashamed to ask ques- 
tions. Ask your friend or neighbor; 
get an A. B. C. book on gardening 
from the free library, or, if you can’t 
do any better, get a seed catalog and 
study it. Some of the catalogs give 
excellent directions for beginners. 
Above all, Ask Questions. 
TO THE W. S. H. S. MEMBER 
W HO WORKS IN SHOP OR 
FACTORY. 
Perhaps you feel that it is ex- 
pecting too much of you to work in 
the garden either before or after 
your day’s work of 8 or 10 hours. 
It won’t hurt you a bit. The writer 
knows of one instance, some years 
ago, where 'a slightly built individ- 
ual, never physically robust, who 
worked ten hours a day at digging 
and hoeing, planting and at all the 
hard work that goes with gardening 
and in addition worked two hours a 
day in his home garden and is still 
alive. You can if you will. 
TO THE WOMEN OF THE 
W. S. H. S. 
Not Least or Last, but First. 
You can do more than all the men 
combined if you will. Some of you 
can work in the gardens. Some of 
you can supervise children’s gar- 
dens, but all of you can persuade. 
The g*>od Lord knows it! And so 
do all men. So employ those 
heaven-sent powers of persuasion 
that you know so well how to use 
to get gardens planted. Will you? 
TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF 
THE W. S. H. S. 
If you live in a city join the Boys’ 
and Girls' Garden Movement. Near- 
ly every city in the state has such 
an organization. If there is none 
you boys and girls get together and 
start one, you are big enough to do 
it. This gardening work is play if 
it is worked out in the right way. 
We need you, boys and girls. An 
hour a day this spring and summer 
in a garden will help, indirectly, to 
feed starving children across the 
ocean. 
