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Victory Gardens Discussed by Expert Specialist Directs Cultivation! Of Truck Farms at Elmendorf Robert Acke Engaged to * Assist Employes in Food For Freedom Movement LEXINGTON, Ky., May 9.— Robert Acke, the head gardener at the Joseph E. Wide-ner farm, really knows his business. "In fact,* he says, "thats about all I do know. Ive been gardening almost all my life." The tobacco-chewing gardener did not learn what he knows from books. At the age of thirteen he became first assistant to his father, Fritz Acke, who cultivated truck gardens on a large scale. Everything he learned about gardening was from experience. When Miss Daysie Procter, man- | ager of the Widener farm, decided that the noted nursery should participate in the Food for Freedom campaign, she engaged an expert gardener, Acke. Asked how to raise a successful garden, Acke replied, "I cant tell a fellow how to raise a good garden, but I can show him if hell hang around with me for a season." He did consent to offer a few tips on gardening. "You gotta get your ground in first-class shape for planting," he began. "If your ground is sodded, he said, it should be broken not later than January, in order that the sod will have time to rot. If it had been plowed the year before, it is not necessary to break it until ready to start planting. Acke says one should have the ground properly pulverized before the seed or plants are planted. "Be certain it is not the least bit cloddy," he advises. The garden at the Widener farm is as smooth as a billiard table. The garden is ten acres. Ackes goal is to raise on it enough produce to carry the ten families living on the farm until next years garden starts producing. Throughout the summer and fall each family is to can enough produce to carry itself over the winter and spring. Crops of Many Vegetables How much is being planted to take care of the situation? Acke states that the following has already been planted: Onions, one bushel; potatoes, 600 pounds; tomatoes, 300 plants; cabbage, 1,700 plants; beets, one-quarter bushel; corn, one and one-half acres; spinach, one-quarter pound of seed; kale, one-quarter pound of seed; carrots, one-quarter pound of seed; lettuce, two ounces of seed; radishes, two ounces of seed; cauliflower, 600 plants; peas, one gallon, and beans, two gallons. Later in t he year more peas, potatoes, tomatoes and cabbage will be planted, states the Widener gardener. "If your ground is not rich," says Acke, "after your garden has been planted, you can fertilize between the rows." He said it would not be necessary to do it at the Widener farm, since the ground is "extra good dirt." Acke warns: "Dont hoe or plow your garden during the heat of the day. The heat dries it out too much. Do your hoeing or plowing early in the morning or late in the afternoon." Another warning is not "to work the garden when it is wet." The garden at the Widener farm is a co-operative proposition. Acke is directing the operation, and the head of each of the ten families living on the place is doing his share of work. The Widener farm is taking the Food for Freedom campaign seriously.
