
garden planning chart. Nutritionists 
agree that the vegetables below 
should have primary consideration 
for home gardens. All contain high 
percentages of nutrients essential to 
health and well-being: 
Tomatoes 
Snap Beans 
Carrots 
Cabbage 
Lettuce 
Greens, such as 
Spinach 
Swiss Chard 
Beet greens 
Broccoli 
Soybeans, green or dry, belong in 
every garden, since they have the 
highest total nutrient content of any 
vegetable. 
Experiments carried out at the 
University of California* show that 
gardens can be planned to produce 
the greatest amount possible of es- 
sential foods with limited wartime 
facilities. Vegetables were listed ac- 
cording to three qualifications. Nu- 
trient value was one consideration — 
vegetables best in all nutrients and 
those capable of overcoming diet- 
aty deficiencies headed one list. The 
most productive vegetables headed 
another, while those requiring the 
least amount of labor made upa third. 
A final collection of highly-efficient 
vegetables was obtained by combin- 
ing all three groups. 
From it we can obtain several more 
suggestions to add to our list of de- 
- sirables for the 1944 garden planning 
chart: 
Potatoes 
Winter Squash 
Beets 
Brussels Sprouts 
Onions 
Turnips 
Other vegetables, not particularly 
desirable according to the rather 
strict requirements given above, nev- 
ertheless, qualify on one score or 
another and therefore come next on 
our chart for garden space still avail- 
able. 
Cauliflower 
Celery 
Asparagus 
Lima Beans 
Peas 
And if there is sti/] a spot or two, 
fill in with the following, which, 
although poor investments according 

Do you want a definition 
Of this thing that’s called nutrition? 
Blended common sense and learning 
Prescribe foods for body burning 
Which give energy and health 
The essence of all human wealth! 
Vim and vigor you will find 
In the ‘basic seven’’, when combined. 
Dorothy Altand 

to war-time standards, rate high in 
enjoyable eating: 
Peppers 
Cantaloupe 
Cucumbers 
Radish 
Summer Squash 
Sweet Corn 
Watermelon 
Recent research done by your East- 
ern States Seed Service has brought to 
light some startling new develop- 
ments which show promise of in- 
fluencing in great measure our choice 
of vegetable varieties. This work 1s 
still in its infancy, but has already 
proven beyond a doubt that some 
varieties are much superior in nutri- 
tive value to others. The Golden 
Cushaw variety of squash, for in- 
stance, may be 11 times as rich in 
vitamin A as the Blue Hubbard 
variety, being far superior in its 
content of this nutrient to any other 
type of winter squash. The same 
comparison can be made between 
varieties of carrots — the Chantenay 
variety has nearly twice the vitamin 
A value of the Hutchinson. This 
study demonstrates the advantage of 
leaving carrots in the ground until 
fully mature, for the Vitamin A value 
of all varieties increases markedly as 
complete growth is reached. 
The possibilities of this type of 
research are far-reaching. As more 
evidence is gathered, we may be 
choosing all our vegetable seed with 
an eye to the nutrient qualities of its 
resulting crop as well as its adapta- 
bility to our own growing conditions. 
In the meantime, we can take ad- 
vantage of the facts now at hand to 
make more valuable our contribution 
to the national food supply. 
*An Evaluation of California Vegetables, 
John H. MacGillvary, Agnes Fay Morgan, G. 
C. Hanna, and Arthur Shultis. College of Agri- 
culture, University of California. 

