THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 17 



528,285,000 pounds of food. Actually, as we shall see 

 later, the yield was many times as great. Yet the hand- 

 ling of that vast weight of provender called for hardly 

 a single public carrier of goods. The army of men 

 which otherwise would have been needed to transmit 

 this food from producer to consumer was thus released 

 for other essential labor. It probably would not be 

 possible to figure just how much was accomplished in 

 this manner by the war gardeners of the United States; 

 but it is safe to say that the men thus released for 

 other work numbered many thousands. 



While this conservation of labor was being accom- 

 plished there was a concurrent saving in still another 

 way, through the release of thousands of freight-cars, 

 motor-trucks, and wagons, for purposes other than the 

 hauling of food. This saving, too, was most vital. At 

 a time when every freight-car in the country was ur- 

 gently needed for the hauling of raw materials to be 

 used in the manufacture of munitions of war, for the 

 transportation to the seacoast of finished products, and 

 for hauling lumber and supplies to cantonments and 

 army camps, it was essential that not one foot of freight 

 space should be wasted. War gardening released 

 thousands of cars for these essential needs. This saving, 

 it must be remembered, involved also the conservation 

 of coal and steam-power required in hauling, and pre- 

 vented, as well, a great amount of wear and tear on 

 railroad tracks and equipment. 



To secure all these ends a campaign of education 

 was necessary. This campaign had to be extensive in 



