90 THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 
postmasters; school superintendents and college in- 
structors; superintendents of park departments and 
health officers; women’s clubs and home demonstra- 
tion agents; insurance companies and railroads; lumber 
and mining companies; banks and business houses; 
commissions for beautifying cities and tenement- 
house inspection officers; lighthouse-service supervisors 
and bureaus of municipal research; public libraries and 
church societies; ministers of the gospel and leaders of 
boys’ clubs and many others who were able in various 
ways to cooperate in spreading the message and in 
rendering active assistance in getting the vacant places 
of our cities and towns to work growing food. This 
service was given in both the production and the con- 
servation campaigns of the Commission. 
This cooperation took many forms. In some cases 
it was of an active and constant character, beginning 
with the start of the drive to get the war gardeners 
lined up in the army of the soil and continuing until 
the last tomato was pulled and the final potato dug; 
or until the last canned or dried vegetable had been 
placed on the pantry shelf and the final prizes awarded. 
In other cases it consisted merely of the distribution 
to interested parties of a supply of the Commission’s 
gardening or canning and drying manuals, with a word 
to each home food producer wishing him success in his 
patriotic work and praising him for his undertaking. 
More than 4,000,000 of the Commission’s books on 
gardening and canning and millions of its bulletins and 
leaflets were given interested persons in 1918. 
