60 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
January, 1919 
Victory Gardens. 
That’s what we will call them 
next year. For two years we said 
“war gardens,” for these were 
help-win-the-war gardens, and 
the gardeners who tilled them cer- 
tainly helped in no small measure 
to win the war. 
Reliable figures are difficult to 
obtain, but reports from 21 garden 
chairmen, including all of the 
larger cities except Superior, 
Sheboygan and Milwaukee total 
2,814 acres cultivated exclusive of 
back yard gardens, and a total of 
27,143 individual gardens. This is 
about ten gardens to the acre and 
a reasonable estimate of the aver- 
age value of the vegetables pro- 
duced on each lot if purchased at 
retail prices is ten dollars, except 
possibly when planted exclusive- 
ly to potatoes. This gives $271,- 
430.00 as the estimated value of 
garden truck raised in the twenty- 
one cities and towns on land that 
had before 1917 been unproduc- 
tive. Adding Superior, Milwau- 
kee and the fifty-three cities and 
towns exceeding 3,500 in popula- 
tion not reporting we may say 
conservatively that in dollars and 
cents the “waste places” yielded 
one and a quarter million dollars, 
brought this much in dollars and 
cents, but actually brought the 
war gardeners more, so much more 
that it cannot be computed or 
measured. Office workers, men 
and women and other girls and 
women whose idea of exercise had 
been a walk from the front door 
to the automobile or street car, 
found health and pleasure in the 
war garden and will not give it 
up. 
Those who tilled the lot for the 
purpose of adding to the income 
were not disappointed and none 
but what enjoyed it. 
Two other great benefits have 
accrued to horticulture as an art, 
as well as to the ones who had gar- 
dens. Firstly, of the thousands, 
probably one hundred thousand, 
war gardeners not over one-half 
had ever before tilled a foot of 
ground. They know now what it 
costs in seed, patience and labor 
to produce a peck of beans or a 
bushel of potatoes and will be bet- 
ter satisfied in the future to pay a 
reasonable price for garden pro- 
duce if forced to buy. It is true 
that few or none of them had any 
capital invested but some of them 
may stop to think about that. 
This helps, horticulture, the sec- 
ond will help the gardeners if 
they follow t'heir impulses, they 
are all land hungry. The office 
man who is a flat dweller or the 
skilled workman, both with com- 
fortable incomes who have been 
cooped up in rented flats or houses 
have, for the first time in their 
lives, had a whiff of fresh air and 
freedom. They will from this 
time never be quite content under 
the old conditions but will want 
land, land their very own. That 
is, some of them, That is where 
we come in. Of those who had 
gardens for the first time last year 
it is a fair guess to say that one- 
half will become backsliders the 
coming year unless some one will 
get behind them and push gently. 
It is up to the State Horticul- 
tural Society as an organization, 
and to the members thereof to see 
to it that the “war” gardens o f 
1917 and 1918 are planted again 
this year as Victory gardens. If 
we, as gardeners, do our full duty 
in this respect for a year or two, 
pushing, pulling and coaxing 
when we can’t drive, the ones who 
really have the spirit of garden- 
ing will need no further urging. 
But our help will be needed this 
year surely fully as much as last. 
This is entirely aside from the 
question of increased food produc- 
tion as an ante-war measure, it is 
for horticulture, gardening for 
gardening’s sake. 
If raspberries or grapes have 
not been buried before the ground 
is frozen too hard, they may be 
laid on top of the ground and cov- 
ered with stable manure. This 
manure may be cultivated into the 
ground next spring. 
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