Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1918 — PREPARE FOR HOME GARDEN [ARTICLE]

PREPARE FOR HOME GARDEN

National Health, as Well as Conservation and Patriotism, Demand Planting of Many This Season. The home garden this coming season will mean more than it did last year or ever before. It Is not only a means of national conservation and patriotism ; a measure of national health lies within it. The man who can and who fails to put in a home garden next spring will be a slacker. The government stands ready to help in the garden, and government .bulletins on garden subjects may be obtained by writing to the Division of Publications, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., for *a list of publications available for distribution. Many of the state agricultural colleges, too, have garden bulletins for free distribution. Sometimes, in many states of the Union, there is a chance to plow the garden early. When that chance comes the garden should be manured and plowed. Barnyard manure is a source of weed seeding, but it is the most satisfactory fertilizer usually obtainable. A spot four or five feet square should be selected at the lowest, wettest spot in the garden for a compost pile or pit, if not too much trouble to dig a shallow pit. Into this pit throw all grass cuttings/ leaves, 1 vegetable tops and pea vines and tomato plants. They rot in a year or two" and form a valuable source of humus for the garden soil. —Country Gentleman. t ,