Beginning in the spring of 1917 and continuing through that and the following year the stimulation of production was carried on by setting before the farmers of the country and, indeed, before all the population, the urgent need for more food than the nation had ever before produced. The appeals to grow food went to the owners of back-yard gardens in cities and towns and villages, to all who had or could obtain the use of a few square feet or a few acres of soil, to farmers all over the land. The Agricultural Department used all its avenues of reaching the farming population, agricultural colleges aided the movement, newspapers and magazines published discussions of the subject and advice for the amateur. It has been estimated that during the first year of the war at least 2,000,000 “war gardens” were planted, over and above the usual garden planting, and that number was considerably increased during the second season. Most of them bore good results and their products added immensely to local food supplies and so lessened the drain upon exportable foods. The “war garden army” included men, women and children. Business men spent leisure hours hoeing and planting, thousands of women, in addition to those who worked in home gardens, turned their attention to agricultural labor and did what they could in the lessening of the serious problem of help on the farms. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts did efficient work, school boys who were old enough and strong enough to make their labor right and worth while went by the thousands from cities and towns to country districts to work upon farms.
Guaranteed prices for wheat, established in accordance with the conclusions of the Food Administration and its committee of expert advisers, prevented the sky-rocketing of prices and assured the farmer a staple return for his labor. This, in addition to what the farmers already knew of the need for food, resulted in the planting of immense acreages. In 1917 there were planted 35,000,000 acres of leading crops beyond the average of the five-year period immediately preceding the war, and 22,000,000 acres in excess of the previous year. But 1918 exceeded even this vast acreage with a planting of 289,000,000 acres, an increase over the preceding record of 5,600,000 acres. The bitter winter of 1917-1918 killed much wheat and the next summer drouth withered much corn. Nevertheless, the aggregate yield of the leading cereals in each of these years exceeded that of any preceding year in the nation’s history except that of 1915, when unusually favorable weather produced a more bountiful harvest from a smaller acreage. With the expectation that the war would continue until at least well into the next summer, the Government appealed in 1918 for a still greater production of wheat for the following year. The farmers responded with a planting of winter wheat amounting to over 49,000,000 acres, which, it was calculated, with average winter weather and an average crop of spring wheat, would insure for 1919 a wheat production of over a billion bushels, an excess over that of 1918 of probably 200,000,000 bushels.
All the principal kinds of live stock—horses and mules, in spite of the big exportation to Europe for army needs; milk cows, other cattle, hogs, and even sheep for the first time in many years—were increased in number by from one to twelve millions. Meat, milk and wool production showed signal increase, that of beef of a million pounds and of pork twice that amount.
The zeal of the whole country for increased food production appeared not only in the multiplied thousands of war gardens, the desire of every one who had access even to a few feet of soil to make something eatable grow upon it, and the immensely increased acreage devoted to the sorely needed cereal crops, but also in a striking growth of interest in agricultural matters of all sorts, whether of farm or garden. To all such subjects newspapers and magazines began devoting much more than usual attention, while for books dealing with them publishers noted a sharply increased demand.
The Food Administration was so organized as to decentralize its operations as much as possible and bring them into direct touch with the people. Under the United States Food Administrator, and also appointed by the President, was a food administrator for each state who selected one for each county in his state. These county administrators in turn appointed special committees or committee chairmen to keep track of and solve local food problems and to keep each locality in touch with the aims and operations of the national organization. Upon these local committees were representatives of local grain and food trades, of hotels and restaurants, of clubs and associations of various kinds and directors of educational work. Through these assistants educational campaigns were aided and directed, close watch was kept to prevent both hoarding and profiteering and a nation-wide survey of the food situation was in constant progress. It was all voluntary service, from that of the United States Food Administrator down to the county chairmen and the local committees, given with enthusiasm and the best ability each could bring to the service, with the single-hearted hope of helping the nation to win the war.
The primary purpose of the Food Administration was to make sure that there should be sufficient food to meet the needs of our fighting men on land and sea both at home and abroad, to provide such a supply for our people at home as would maintain them in health and comfort, and to furnish to the nations associated with us for their armies and civilians as much of our surplus as they might need. To make that surplus as large as possible called forth its most strenuous endeavor. In addition, it aimed to maintain an even supply of the essential foods and to stabilize prices by preventing, as far as possible, hoarding, speculation and profiteering.
The problem of food for the Entente warring nations was reduced in the spring of 1917 to the determination of the amount of food that could be drawn from North America, of which, of course, the chief portion would come from the United States. The surplus over our normal consumption, in all classes of food, which we usually exported, had always been small and would have to be multiplied many times over in order to meet pressing needs, in order, even, to win the war. Moreover, we had diverted from eight to ten million men from their usual productive activities and set them to the making of war and supplies for war.
The situation could be met only by a nation-wide program of conservation which would save vast quantities of the sorely needed food out of the usual prodigal consumption and waste of our own people. With complete confidence that the American people would respond of their own good will the conservation measures were all made voluntary. People were asked to eat more carefully, to waste nothing, to use less wheat, meats, fats and sugar, to combine flour from other grains with wheat flour and especially to use more corn. Grocers were directed to see that their customers purchased pound for pound of these other materials and wheat flour. The nation was requested to reduce its sugar consumption by fifteen per cent and housewives and other buyers of food were told that it was necessary to limit their purchases of sugar to three pounds per month for each individual. Homes and hotels and restaurants were counseled to institute wheatless and meatless days. Appeal was made to all who had charge of the providing of food for others and to every individual consumer to waste no food of any sort.
Pledges sent out by the Food Administration which bound every signer to observe its requests and rules were distributed by many thousands of volunteer workers, men, women and children, who saw in the work of securing signatures opportunity for patriotic service. Pamphlets and leaflets setting forth the reasons for what was asked, giving expert advice on the use of foods, analyzing the food situation, and urging compliance with the requests of the Food Administration were sent all over the country. Posters contributed by well known artists were hung on hoardings, in windows, and on home and office walls in cities, towns, villages. There was hardly a newspaper or a magazine of any sort in the whole United States but freely gave space to the always cogent and interesting articles furnished in great quantity by the Food Administration in support of the purposes it had set itself to achieve. Speakers who could present in living words the urgent need of food and the crucial test laid upon the country of producing and saving immense quantities of meat, fats, wheat and sugar addressed general and special audiences in many cities. Experts in home economics gave lectures and demonstrations and conducted classes that were attended by thousands of women, rich and poor alike. Especial effort was made to furnish this sort of education to the women of poor and ignorant families in order that they might learn how to provide food that would give equal nourishment at less expense.
Colleges and schools aligned their vast educational equipment with the food production and conservation movement and gave important service. When the colleges and universities for women or admitting women were asked, at the end of 1917, if they would undertake to give special instruction looking toward the aiding of the Food Administration’s purposes seven hundred of them, practically every such institution in the country, replied within a week asking to be supplied at once with the necessary material. Courses were outlined and supplied, prepared by experts upon the subjects, which dealt with the world food situation and the part the United States should take in it, with food values and the principles of nutrition. During the winter and spring of 1918 40,000 young women took these courses, which were repeated at summer schools in nearly all the colleges of the nation and were offered again in the autumn. They were also opened to men students, who saw in them a means of patriotic service. Under a secretary for each state appointed by the Food Administration, the graduates of these classes were organized and their services directed by the State Food Administrator. They gave to local administrators and committees efficient service of varied sort, depending upon the locality and the need of the moment.