The War Effort Shifts to the Orchard

Sowing wheat on two to four thousand acres of clean, cultivated orchard land in this state is one solution of the wheat problem, according to W. S. Thornber, director of Extension, State College of Washington. Thornber recently returned from a conference of directors of extension work at Washington, D. C. 'Poultry, hogs and horse feed may be grown on this land, and some of the wheat may even be threshed,' says Director Thornber. 'By this plan one man can take care of ten times as much land, for the orchards are ready for crops. Most orchards will not be injured by one year’s wheat crop—wheat need not be seeded where there is a scarcity of water.' Thornber declares a federal price will not solve the hog problem; the 200,000,000 hog shortage must be made up by inducing the corn districts to breed more sows and raise more pigs. Individual hogs must be raised on the farms, by members of the Boys’ and Girls’ Pig Clubs, and in cities and towns where anti-dog ordinances will be abandoned. Families must produce their own pork and cure their own meat as well. The farmer can keep a few sheep; the city man a few chickens and rabbits in his back yard. Next spring’s gardens must be kitchen gardens, growing crops that are used at once by the families that grow them.