CHAPTER III.
HOW WAR GARDENS HELPED
Every Garden Became a
Soldier of the Soil
What the "three R's" mean to preparation for a life of peace, the three M's become in the conduct of
war. These three M's stand for men, money and munitions. In its broadest sense, the term munitions
includes everything needed by an army, and of all an army's needs the basic and most important is
food.
The quantities of food required by our army are huge. Dietitians
estimate that the average man needs, daily, food that will furnish 3,500 calories. The United States
army ration allows 4,700 calories to each man, and the unusual exertions demanded of our soldiers
make it quite necessary that they have this generous allowance of food. With less they might lack
that abundant supply of muscular and nervous energy upon which their very lives
depend.
Stated in terms of avoirdupois, the United States army ration is
slightly in excess of four and a quarter pounds of food a man per diem. Four pounds of food does not
seem like a great quantity. It allows each soldier twenty ounces of fresh beef a day, or its
equivalent in fresh mutton, bacon, fish, turkey or other meat; eighteen ounces of flour or bread;
twenty ounces of potatoes with proportionate amounts of other vegetables; 3.2 ounces of sugar; 2.4
ounces of beans or 1.6 ounces of hominy or rice; and prunes, apples, peaches, jam, milk, coffee,
butter, and so forth, in smaller quantities.
When these amounts are multiplied by a million, the total bulks as huge as the
Rockies. It means 4,250,000 pounds of food daily, for seven days a week, and for fifty-two weeks
each year. To feed an army of 1,000,000 men for one month, according to the quartermaster's
department of the United States army, there are required 973,000 pounds of butter, 1,000,000 cans of
corned beef, 1,000,000 cans of corned-beef hash, 2,000,000 cans of beef, 2,400,000 pounds of coffee,
3,000,000 pounds of sugar, 6,000,000 pounds of bacon, 23,000,000 pounds of frozen beef, 37,500,000
pounds of flour, and other articles in proportion.
As the United States
raised an army of 4,000,000 men, the quantity of food that had to be provided was four times as
great as the amounts named or 3,892,000 pounds of butter, 4,000,000 cans of corned beef, 4,000,000
cans of corned-beef hash, 8,000,000 cans of beef, 9,600,000 pounds of coffee, 12,000,000 pounds of
sugar, 24,000,000 pounds of bacon, 92,000,000 pounds of frozen beef, and 150,000,000 pounds of
flour, not to mention the "and so forths." This huge total sufficed to feed our completed army for
one month only.
A year's supply for this completed army required, in round
numbers, 46,704,000 pounds of butter, 48,000,000 cans of corned beef, 48,000,000 cans of corned beef
hash, 96,000,000 cans of beef, 115,200,000 pounds of coffee, 144,000,000 pounds of sugar,
288,000,000 pounds of bacon, 1,104,000,000 pounds of frozen beef, and 1,800,000,000 pounds of flour.
So huge are these figures that to the average person they are meaningless, but
that these army demands constituted a terrific drain on our commercial food supplies was evident to
everybody. Practically all of this food was food diverted from its accustomed channels. Not an ounce
of it went to the feeding of the civilian population which formerly had practically all of it. At
the same time, if our allies were to be saved from utter collapse through hunger, and our own
country saved from the plight of having to carry on the war singlehanded and alone, it was essential
that greater quantities of food be sent to Europe than America had ever before exported. After the
war ended, and it became necessary, in some measure, to provide for the population of the enemy
countries, still larger demands for food for export were to be expected. The very causes that ha
produced these conditions had, as we have seen, so stripped the farms of men that a food production
commensurate with the needs of the situation was an impossibility.
"Those
who cultivated the soil could hardly do more than they were doing," said Luther Burbank, a member of
the National War Garden Commission, in speaking of the matter. "It was becoming evident that food,
which before had been taken as a matter of course, was in reality the foundation of all life, all
knowledge, all progress. What could be done? It became necessary to conserve carefully what already
had been produced, and then produce more. Agriculture and horticulture had not generally been taught
in the schools; the old hit-or-miss plan of farming was all too common' the home garden was
neglected and the school garden a novelty. To the call both to conservation and to increased
production, the American people have responded nobly. How quickly they have changed their attitude,
how splendidly they have made good by adapting themselves to the new conditions! When the war garden
movement was started, the problem of food production was on the way to be solved."
GARDEN OF A CHICAGO AMATEUR
W.E.
Babb, a newspaper reporter in the Illinois metropolis, decided in the sping of 1817 that he
would give war gardening a trial although he had doubts as to what the results would be. What he
accomplished is only partly shown in the picture, for he carried off a first prize of $100.
Contrast his orderly looking plot with the weed-covered tract across the road.
Here, then, was the all-impelling, the all-important reason back of the home food
production movement. This was the outstanding motive above all others which made the war garden a
thing not only to be desired but actually to be demanded. Our allies and the neutrals, as far as
possible, as well as our own people and our army, must be fed–this was the cry from the
tower-top, this the call of hungry peoples which had to be answered. Our task was
Herculean!
There was one great difficulty in the road to accomplishment; the
problem of common psychology. It is recorded that when God called Moses to lead his fellows forth
from Egypt, Moses replied; "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharoah, and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel out of Egypt?" Even so did the average American regard the appeal made to him
to raise food and save the world from starvation. The difficulty was that the average American, like
the deliverer of Israel, lacked imagination. He could not visualize the collective contributions of
million of backyard and vacant-lot gardens. He was like the little girl, who, when asked to save a
slice of bread to help feed the army, replied; "Papa, I don't see any reason why I should save a
slice of bread. It can't feed an army." Her father took her down to the harbor in New York City and
showed her a great transport at the wharf, waiting for food to carry to Europe. He then told her
that if every little schoolgirl in the United States saved a slice of bread a day, their combined
savings would fill eight large transports every week. Her blue eyes opened wide as the great truth
flashed upon her, and after that she didn't want to eat anything at all.
In his nursery days, the average American had learned that
Little drops of water, little grains of
sand,
Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.
Unfortunately, however that infantile lesson had been put away with other childish things when he became a man. The task the National War Garden Commission set itself was to make the average American feel the full truth, the actual force, of that childhood jingle. The truth–the truth that was to set us free– was striking enough. Among the garden records of the National War Garden Commission is the story of a certain garden in Pennsylvania, which was very much like other American back-yard gardens in many respects.
IN AN
ITALIAN GARDEN
In New Haven, Connecticut, the side lawn of
a handsome home was converted into a food plot. In addition to growing a lot of vegetables, so
delighted was the owner that she said never again would her family be without the pleasure which
this experience had given them.
In size it was 40x40 feet. The gardener kept a careful record during one entire year of the quantities of food produced in that garden. His figures are as follows:
Beets–25
bunches
Cucumbers–100
Carrots–2
pecks
Celery–450 stalks
Radishes–15
bunches Rhubarb–10
bunches
Rutabaga–64
Scallions–12
bunches
Early
peas–32 quarts
(pods)
Parsley–used
freely
Potatoes–7
pecks
Dried beans for winter use–20
quarts
Cabbage–20
heads
Peaches, from two trees in corner of garden–7
baskets
Cauliflower–14
heads
Lettuce–equivalent of 60
heads
Tomatoes–6
baskets
Horseradish–all
desired
Bunch
beans–2-1/2
pecks
Onion sets–3
quarts
Telephone
peas–40 quarts (pods) Onions dried–1/2
bushel
Peppers–9
dozen
Pole beans–108 quarts
If this production, such as could be had from any ordinary back-yard garden with good soil, were reduced to pounds and ounces, it would be found that this one yard had yielded considerably more than half a ton of foodstuffs. It is reckoned that there are more than 20,000,000 families in the United States. If every family could have a garden, and each garden could yield half a ton of food, the total annual production would aggregate 10,000,000 tons, or almost twice as much in weight as we normally shipped to Europe in a year in pre-war days. of course it was not possible for each of our 20,000,000 families to have a garden, but with 45 per cent. of our people living in the country or in small towns, and with such vast areas of vacant lots in the larger cities, it would be entirely possible to have 10,000,000 war gardens. These gardens, could they produce at the rate of this Pennsylvania garden, would yearly supply in weight as much food as before the war we annually shipped to Europe. Such were the possibilities of garden production that stimulated the National War Garden Commission to maximum effort.
Of course, garden food does not possess, pound for pound, anything like the food
value of the concentrated foods sent to our allies and to our armies, but garden food is provender,
and it is wholesome food. Peas and beans are great meat-conservers; potatoes, both sweet and white,
important cereal-savers; and a little larger bulk of many garden products, such as potatoes, will
take the place of a smaller quantity of meat r other concentrated foods. To figure out the exact
food values of the total products that might be raised in our gardens is of course both impossible
and unnecessary. The point is that millions of pounds of food could be produced right in our own
yards and in neighboring vacant lots and that by eating these foods we should so lessen the demand
on our commercial supplies that these would be sufficient to meet the heavy demands upon
them.
to reach the entire population of the United States, to convince one
hundred million people of the necessity of gardening, and to convince them to the point of action,
was such a colossal task that the Commission hardly dared to hope for the creation of more than one
million war gardens during the first year of its activities. Yet the estimated total was in excess
of 3,000,000; and i 1918 a very careful canvass set the number of such gardens at 5,285,000.
IN THE CHAMPION GARDEN CITY
This is a
small home garden in Marion, Indiana, which boasts of holding the record in the United States
for a city of its size in number of war gardens. With a population of only 20,000 persons, it
had 14,081 vegetable plots, or almost one for every two inhabitants. Louis De Wolf, chairman of
the War Garden Association there, was very active in the work.
What these war gardens actually accomplished toward feeding the army was shown by
a careful estimate as to the amount of food which they added to the nation's larder. This was
reckoned in 1918 a having a value of $525,000,000. Taking into consideration equivalent food values,
it was figured on a conservative basis that our 1918 war gardens grew food equal in body-building
power to the meat ration required by an army of 1,000,000 men for 302 days; the bread ration for 248
days; or the entire ration for 142 days. This wonderful saving of commercial supplies made the
war-garden movement eminently worth while from this standpoint alone.
Munitions represent only one of the three M's. Money is another. Money makes the army as well as the
mare go. The value produced by home gardeners went far to meet the increasing demands for money due
to the war. To realize the wonderful financial possibilities of war gardening is almost as difficult
as to grasp the possibilities of food production. The products of the little Pennsylvania garden
already referred to were worth, according to the records of the gardener, $63.50. That valuation was
made at pre-war prices. The same products, in 1918, would have been worth probably half as much
again, or close to $100.00. Even if its products were worth only $50.00 that sum would have enabled
the gardener to buy, with the money saved by gardening, a Liberty Bond.
Suppose all our war gardens averaged as well, what would be the result? The
5,285,000 gardens of 1918 would have yielded $264,250,000. Actually, the results were almost double
that figure, the estimated value of our war-garden crops for 1918 having been $525,000,000! A half
billion dollars! Enough to cover the expenses of the Red Cross, the Y.M.C.A., and all other similar
war-work agencies for a long time; or to build 500 great ships; or to pay for one-twelfth of the
fourth Liberty Loan issue!
In thousands of cases his war garden meant to its
owner the difference between ability and inability to subscribe to a war loan. There were more than
21,000,000 subscribers to the fourth Liberty Loan. The estimate of war-garden production means that
the money saved through war gardening enabled at least one-fourth of these subscribers to become
holders of their country's war-purpose bonds.
Of the three M's there yet
remains the third–men. Just as money saved through gardening can be used for the purchase of
bonds instead of food, so labor saved in one field can be shifted to another. Specifically, men
released from food handling were free for service elsewhere. And the name of the men so released
through war gardening is legion. The products of the little Pennsylvania garden already discussed,
weighed in excess of half a ton. Had these products not been raised at home, it would have been
necessary to bring their equivalent to the gardener's home. He has a family of three. Families of
three do not buy food in half-ton lots–seldom even in one-hundred-pound lots. To put an
equivalent amount of food in his home, therefore, would have required many trips on the part of a
deliveryman, certainly not less than twenty-five. If every war gardener who made enough out of
his garden to buy a Liberty Bond also saved his deliveryman twenty-five trips, the total saving of
labor was enormous. The number of persons employed, before the war, solely to wait on other persons,
was beyond belief. Soon after the United States entered the war, merchants began to face a
readjustment of their business. It was estimated that in New York City alone simplification of
delivery and clerk systems would release 100,000 men for service in the army. In the aggregate, war
gardening aided to an incredible extent in this readjustment.
MEDAL IN COMMEMORATION OF THE WAR
GARDENS
In recognition of the war time service of the War Garden a commemorative medal was
struck by the National War Garden Commission for presentation to the rulers of the United
States, England, France, Belgium and Italy. The illustration at the top of this page shows the
obverse of this medal. The lower picture is a reproduction of the
reverse.
Nor are these all the benefits conferred by war gardening. Nothing is more
essential to success in war than the creation and maintenance of an ardent patriotic spirit. War
gardening fostered this spirit by enabling so many individuals not actually in the army to do
something tangible in the struggle. Millions of patriots joined the army of the soil because of
their deep love for their country, and their desire to help in the hour of
need.
Many of the slogans sent ringing throughout the country by the
Commission breathed the spirit of America and of democracy. That spirit spoke from the commission's
posters and other matter. War gardeners were called on by the beautiful figure of Liberty to "Sow
the Seeds of Victory." Another slogan, a clever paraphrase on the title of a famous song, told them
to "Keep the Home Soil Turning." West Virginia started the message: "Food Must Follow the Flag,"
which became a household word throughout the United States. The Marion (Indiana) War Garden
Association placed is squarely up to the home food producers in this fashion: "Earn the Right to
stay at Home–Plant a Garden." The honored title of "Soldier of the Soil" gave the home tiller
the feeling that he, too, was performing a service for his country although he was not wearing the
uniform; and when he was informed that "Every Garden is a Munition Plant" he knew that he was
helping the boys over there to fight their battles, for "The Seeds of Victory Insure the Fruits of
Peace." The patriotic spirit is contagious and the war gardener helped mightily to spread
it.
Of special value to the nation in its days of need was the habit of
thrift engendered and built up into a common trait by home gardening. Before the war, it is
estimated, there were only 300,000 bond-buyers in the United States. More than 21,000,000 people
subscribed to the fourth Liberty Loan. The significance of that fact is splendidly summed up in a
single sentence by Fred H. Goff, president of the Cleveland Trust company and a member of the
National War Garden Commission. "A nation that saves," says he, "is a nation saved." Truly, war
gardening is as full of hidden blessings as the widow's cruse was of oil.
THE WAR GARDENER'S BOAST
To war gardeners throughout the United
States the National War Garden Commission furnished window hangers, printed in green to
symbolize growing vegetation. These were proudly displayed in the front windows of several
million homes.