Plowing to Win the Peace: The Value of Agriculture in Consolidating the State

When the Second World War began, and the shortage of food imports came to threaten Britain, and the need appeared for increasing the country's agricultural production, the government decided to open the battle of "Plowing to Win Victory."

Throughout all the years of the war, amateur gardeners went on tending their gardens and looking to their cultivation, to improve the food situation. And after victory was won, the British people kept up their attention to agriculture, and so were able to send larger quantities of food to the liberated countries.

Be that as it may, the people had hoped that an improvement in conditions would follow upon the settling of peace, so that they might dispense with some of their garden tools and turn their attention to less strenuous hobbies.

But despite the drawing up of plans at a very early date, and the reckoning of every possible contingency, the food situation in the world has turned out worse than was expected. And Britain, which did not hesitate a moment to play her part in full in aiding the liberated countries, has begun anew to prepare herself for the sacrifices the situation demands.

It is quite an ordinary thing to see people on Saturdays, or in their free hours, going about in their local districts the work their gardens require. There is no doubt that this intense passion for the soil, and this fondness for everything it brings forth, were the chief reason for the success of the "Plowing to Win Victory" campaign.

Before the war there were in Britain about 800,000 allotment holders, and that number increased steadily until in 1945 it reached 1,700,000. There are also about five million private gardens, in which the area planted in vegetables has been greatly increased; and the result was that the amateurs produced an abundant crop of vegetables, which helped greatly during the war to maintain the standard of health among the population.

These allotments produce weekly about two million pounds of vegetables.

Many of the new amateurs still have a great deal to learn, and for that purpose numerous exhibitions have been held in hundreds of public gardens, and the Ministry of Agriculture has prepared articles on "Plowing to Win Victory," of which 24 million copies were distributed free in a single year.

The Royal Horticultural Society has sent experts to every part of the state, and the Ministry of Information has produced instructional films on this subject.

All this had a splendid echo: local allotments were organized, in which civilians and soldiers alike took part, so that you would see vegetables planted along the edges of airfields, in the gardens of fleet stations and army camps, and in every place that could come to mind.

Now the war has laid down its burdens, the military battles are over, and the last battle — the battle to win the peace — has begun. Yesterday we were "the seekers of victory," and today we have become "the seekers of peace." We cannot settle back into ease: the swords have been folded away in their sheaths, but the plow is still at work.