62 
THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 
had much to do with stimulating the progress of the 
undertaking. An exhibition was held in a shed at the 
factory at the close of the season. 
In the first year of this work, 1917, there was grown 
in 500 gardens covering thirty acres of land, food valued 
at $10,000. This added to the food supply of the work- 
ers 4,000 bushels of potatoes, 254 bushels of beans, 
223 bushels of tomatoes, five and a half tons of turnips, 
more than two tons of carrots, three tons of cabbage, 
and nearly a ton of parsnips, besides a large quantity 
of other vegetables. 
Similar statistics were gathered by the Firestone Tire 
and Rubber Company, of Akron, Ohio, as to the value 
of the crops produced by the Firestone workers on a 
tract of forty acres. The average value per acre of 
these crops was $280. The men raised $14,205 worth 
of food. The total expenses were $3,024. The net 
profit was $11,182. It was figured out that the men 
earned on the average almost a dollar an hour for the 
time spent in cultivating their plots, the exact figures 
being ninety-four cents an hour. 
Gratifying as these financial rewards were, the work- 
ers were perhaps even better pleased with the realization 
that they were aiding in bringing victory nearer. They 
knew that they were cutting market and grocery bills 
by raising a part of their own supplies; but they also 
realized that to win the war, “food must be kept fol- 
lowing the flag. ” 
No class of people in the country was in a position 
to realize more fully the immense value of war gardens 
