54 THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 
on the spirit of the workers themselves. It built up 
a feeling of good-fellowship not previously existing. 
It engendered a spirit of cooperation that carried over 
into the work of the shop. It created that intangible 
and invaluable thing, esprit de corps. It was produc- 
tive of many good results throughout entire communi- 
ties, which were reflected in the general financial and 
social conditions within those communities. 
No less marked were the gains from the employers’ 
point of view. The contented workman is the efficient 
workman; and gardening, by providing better food than 
can be had in the markets, and by virtually adding 
to the worker’s income, makes him more contented. 
Money that otherwise would have to be spent for food 
can be used for the purchase of those small comforts 
and luxuries that make for added happiness in the home. 
Of great worth, too, is the recreational value of 
gardening. The toiler in a noisy mill, or the worker 
in a smoky forge or factory can find no avocation, 
no recreation, that will build him up physically and 
refresh his energies as will the cultivation of a plot of 
ground. 
Unexpectedly enough, also, war gardening resulted in 
a lessening of the labor turnover. One striking testi- 
monial on this latter point was contained in a report to 
the Commission from a busy manufacturing city in the 
Middle West. “ Workers here,” said this report, “re- 
fused to leave the city to take work at higher wages 
elsewhere because they had planted fine war gardens 
and were so proud of them they would not leave them. ” 
