Victory Garden Program Report

              The 1943 Victory Garden Program
United States Department of Agriculture Committee on Victory Gardens
H. W. HOCHBAUM, Chairman
America needs miIiLions of Victory Gardens in 1943. It must have at least 6 million farm gardens and 12 million city, town, and suburban gardens. Vege¬ tables and fruits from these gardens will make a real contribution to the total civilian food supply, es¬ pecially of those vital elements—the vitamins and minerals needed for sustained well-being.
Here are the facts of the situation. One-fourth of our total food production in 1943 will be needed for our armed forces and to help supply our fighting allies and the workers who make their weapons. The size of our armed forces and the length of our battle lines grow daily. That means more food im¬ mediately and more for future use. Planning for military campaigns requires that the accumulation of food stores be started many months in advance so that there will be no uncertainty about food supplies when the fighting starts.
Stock piles of food must be accumulated to follow up the United Nations' armies of invasion. The Axis strategy is to use starvation to beat conquered peoples into submission. The United Nation's food strategy is to build, with food, new power to throw against the Axis. Hitler stripped North Africa of its food supplies. Food from America is helping French soldiers to take their place beside our own soldiers and against the Germans. Food from America made the combined American and British campaign in Africa possible.
The demands of war on metal supplies make it impossible to meet military and Lend-Lease needs for canned foods and still supply normal amounts to civilians. Thirty-five percent of the 1942 pack of the most important canned vegetables was set aside for Army and Lend-Lease needs. Over one- half of the 1943 commercial pack of vegetables will be purchased by the Government. This means that civilians will have to depend more and more upon fresh   supplies   through   home-garden   production.
Furthermore, because of the military and Lend- Lease needs for canned supplies, it will be important for gardeners to plan to store and preserve for winter use as much as possible of the products of the gardens.
The wartime burden on the Nation's transportation system will make it impossible to ship over long distances the normal amounts of fresh vegetables and fruits, especially the more bulky vegetables. This will require production of more of the civilian supplies close to consuming areas.
Victory gardeners can help in many ways to meet the wartime food production problem. Home food production will contribute to the war effort both on the fighting front and on the home front. It will reduce the demand on commercial supplies and thereby make more available for military and Lend- Lease needs and for the needs of those who are unable to have gardens. Home production of fruits and vegetables will reduce the demand on strategic materials for canning. It will help to relieve the food transportation and distributing problem, for the Victory gardener can have his vegetables and fruits right at his doorstep, and on his pantry shelves and in ^- his cellar. Thereby, he and his family will find it easier to maintain good food habits so essential to health. The Department of Agriculture considers that good food habits require eating from four to seven servings of vegetables and fruits daily. The Victory Garden program is aimed at making this possible.
THE PROGRAM
1. Every farm, where climate and water supplies permit, should grow all the vegetables needed for the family's entire year's supply in fresh and processed form.
2. All town and suburban home owners who have sufficient open, sunny space and fertile ground should likewise produce as much as possible of the family's yearly vegetable supply, especially green and leafy vegetables, tomatoes, and yellow vegetables. The larger the home lot the better for this purpose. Though every bit of vegetable produce grown at home will help,  the earnest gardeners, especially
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