Even before the United States entered World War I,
Europe had a crisis on its hands. The year 1916 had
been one of the most disastrous agricultural years the
world had ever known. Two years earlier, 20-30 million
men all across Europe had left their farms to soldier.
This massive deployment caused a critical shortage of
workers of the land.
Prior to this, the Entente nations of Europe had
developed a fine cooperative system for feeding their
masses. Germany provided sugar to England; Russia sent
its wheat to Italy. With the outbreak of the war,
however, this joint effort was thrown completely out of
kilter, and citizens found themselves subsisting hand-
to-mouth.
So dire did the situation become that the entire
continent resorted to meatless days. Those of the lower
class lived primarily upon wheat, breads or pastas, and
even that was sometimes reduced to as little as 7
ounces per person each day.
In England, dairy products became so scant that cream
could only be procured with a physician’s certificate.
Sugar usage dropped from 93 pounds per year to 24.
Italy banned the sale of macaroni, and eggs, milk and
butter were a luxury.
The effect of this blight on humankind was also felt in
the United States. Not only were Americans short on
food, with surpluses down by hundreds of millions of
bushels due to massive crop failures, but they had
pooled their resources with Europe. Since crops took
months to years to provide, something had to be done –
and quickly!
A solution
In March 1917, several months before the United States
would enter WWI, one man, Charles Lathrop Pack,
discerned the emergency. He quickly organized a
committee called the National War Garden Commission
(NWGC), and was joined by 18 others, among them a world
famous horticulturist, a U.S. commissioner of
education, staff members from Yale and Princeton, a
women’s conservation club chairman, a former secretary
of agriculture and the executive secretary of the
American Forestry Association. Their mission was not
only to arouse awareness of this crisis but to begin an
urgent and ardent educational program teaching American
city dwellers how to put idle land to work and grow
food for the world. However, for the effort to succeed,
every available American needed to be inspired.
Posters were hung all across America, touting such
slogans as “War Gardens for Victory,” “Every Garden a
Munition Plant” and “Will You Have a Part in Victory?”
Anti-loafing laws were quickly enacted, and the slogan
for the NWGC became, “Put the slacker land to work.”
President Woodrow Wilson said, “Everyone who creates or
cultivates a garden helps.” And help Americans did – to
the tune of 100 million. For these voluntary
compatriots, the call was not to arms, but to the hoe.
New gardeners
Gardens sprang up all across the nation, utilizing
everything from vacant plots in trailer parks to bare
corporate acreage. Scores of ordinary folks who had
passed the three-score-and-ten mark got busy planting
their own garden plots.
Even the media got involved. Magazines as well as daily
newspapers published articles and dedicated columns and
cartoons to the recruitment.
Children caught the fever, too. One boy from Nova
Scotia wrote: “I have decided to help win the war by
having a war garden. I have just read your notice that
anyone can have a free garden book. Please send it to
me. My father joined the army in 1915 and was killed in
1916.”
To ensure success, these new gardeners needed to be
educated, so thousands of books and manuals were
printed and distributed. Individuals were taught how to
prepare the soil, what kind of seeds to buy and when to
plant them. They were taught the use of hotbeds and
cold frames, how to transplant the seedlings outdoors,
which tools to use, and even how to water.
Amazing success
How successful were their contributions? In 1917 alone,
these mini food-production patches (nearly 5.3 million
of them) produced an estimated $350 million worth of
fruits and vegetables. Canning their provender amounted
to more than 500 million quarts. By 1918, that number
soared to nearly 1.5 trillion quarts, valued at $525
million.
In fact, so great was the response that a new problem
arose – that of preserving the crops so that they
weren’t wasted. “Victory necessarily brings a large
increase in our obligation,” Pack wrote. “We must not
only produce food as close to the kitchen door as
possible, we must (also) save a vast volume … for
winter use.”
Thus more books had to be printed to teach gardeners
how to preserve what they had grown. One patriotic
poster suggested a sure way to stop the German leader:
“Can Vegetables, Fruit and the Kaiser, too!”
Pack would later write of this extraordinary effort:
“During that year (1918), the answer was given by the
American people with true American spirit. The war
gardeners responded with a vigor which carried the War
Gardens over the top to victory. … Their responsibility
did not end with the coming of peace. … it must now be
called a Victory Garden in the full sense of the
words.”
Indeed, a precedent had been set. Three decades later
in World War II, the War Garden became the Victory
Garden, and the contribution would be just as amazing.
Susie Schade-Brewer lives in Adrian, Missouri, with her
family and pugs. Her first historical fiction novel,
The Sacrifice of the Sage Hen, is scheduled for a
spring 2008 release.
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That's great, Elaine, that your Grandfather did that!
As to your last comment, though, feeling to offer a reality
check. ;) I'm from Chicago, and I still have friends back
there, most of whom live in apartments or pretty small
houses either right downtown or closeby...and three out of
five of them have food-growing gardens. Two in apartments
have extensive hydroponic systems ongoing for years, and
the third has her whole small yard converted to a garden...
I'm sure many might say what you're suggesting, but there
are probably more folks than you think finding ways! ;)
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