21st
February 1941
PONTEFRACT
ALLOTMENT HOLDERS
A
new importance attaches to the annual meeting tomorrow of the
Pontefract Allotment Holders Association. Information is reaching the
Ministry of Agriculture which shows that the need becomes daily more
urgent for gardeners to grow vegetables which can be stored for use next
winter, and to avoid wastage of land on a surplus of perishable summer
produce. Present and future demands on shipping space make it imperative
that every household should seek to supply itself with garden crops that
will keep. The same thing is said in a different way in an article in
the February issue of The Journal of the Institute of Park
Administration. ''The pre-war stocks of food", says The
Journal, ''are being used up at a greater speed than they are being
replaced by means of home production and imports. Much more will be
required from cultivators during the present year if there is not to be
a further dangerous reduction of the reserve stocks which have been
stored as a measure of safety."
Those
who have been able to see some of the results of enemy activity on the
nations food supply are not likely to be complacent about the present
position, or the position the country may find itself at the end of the
next harvest. To meet that position the planning of the next few weeks
is vital.
In
a normal year the allotment holder or gardener would not contemplate the
need, or even the desirability, of eating his own vegetables after the
turn of the year. New potatoes, spring cabbage, peas and summer salads
were the usual aim. A peacetime plenty of imported vegetables for the
winter made the storage of home-grown crops unnecessary. As a result,
almost every garden and allotment produced a surplus of perishable
produce - too many lettuce going to seed; and very few provided food up
to, and beyond Christmas. The shops then filled the gaps. This year, we
cannot import vegetables. We must have sufficient all-the-year-round
gardens to replace our lost imports as well as to supplement shortages
of other foods. Our demands on shipping space for the transport of
munitions must not be upset by the short-sighted policy over the garden.
The country must expect that its 6,000,000 gardens and allotments shall
be planned to feed their owners with vegetables right through to the
spring of 1942
1941 INDEX
