Plan Your Victory Garden, 1943

International Harvester’s advertisement, March 1943, The Progressive Farmer

Food is being rationed in the land of plenty! America is at war, and FOOD is a weapon as powerful as all our planes and battleships. If FOOD fails, we cannot win the peace.

This year farm production will be strained to the utmost, but farm fields alone cannot produce enough food to meet the nation’s needs in 1943.

This year that great American institution—the family garden—will come back into its own. Millions of Victory Gardens will yield a vast store of vegetables and fruits, and Uncle Sam will give his blessing to each and every one. Home-grown health and energy will supply the tables all summer and stock the pantry shelves against the winter. Millions of tons of precious food will be released for shipment to our Armed Forces and to supply the vital requirements of our fighting allies on every front.

The Victory Garden Program, sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and the Office of Civilian Defense, can make all the difference between war and Peace!

Have a Victory Garden this year and make plans for it now. It will take planning, and it will mean extra work for your busy household, but there will be big rewards in health and in profits. You will be thankful in summer to have fresh vegetables every day for the family table—and doubly thankful next winter to have abundant food when the markets are bare of canned goods.

Plan a big garden. If you had one last year, don’t be afraid to double your acreage. Remember, it’s for Victory in a year of scarcity! Plan the long rows that are quickly cultivated with other farm crops, and see that the soil is fertile and rich. Plan your way through picking and harvesting, the canning and serving, the disposal of your surplus crop. Plan to share your garden—both the work and the yield—with families in town who have no room for gardens. And buy a War Bond with your Victory Garden profit!