The San Francisco Chronicle, 7 July 1918
Already planted your victory garden but still looking for ways to follow President Wilson’s request for voluntary food conservation? Or simply looking for ways to fight the rising cost of food during the war years? Raise chickens in your backyard!
During World War I, the United States was the major supplier of food for the war-ravaged nations of Europe. And once America entered the war, it had to feed its own troops as well. As a result, food prices on the home front skyrocketed–flour went from 3.3 cents a pound in 1913 to 6.6 cents in 1918, milk rose from 8.8 cents a quart to 13.2 cents, and eggs jumped from 26.3 cents a dozen to 42.4 cents. So Herbert Hoover (appointed United States Food Administrator in 1917), wanting to avoid formal rationing for as long as possible, asked Americans to voluntarily conserve food and reduce their consumption of food needed overseas.
The San Francisco Chronicle, 7 July 1918
The government suggested that one easy way of “Hooverizing,” as it became known, was to raise chickens in your backyard, and the Department of Agriculture pushed the slogan “In Time of Peace a Profitable Recreation, In Time of War a Patriotic Duty. ” Chickens were relatively inexpensive and easy to care for. Essentially all they needed was a coop and food (which could simply be table scraps), and in return they would provide eggs, meat, and fertilizer. As each chicken could be expected to lay over 100 eggs a year, surplus eggs could be sold for extra cash.
The San Francisco Chronicle, 7 April 1918
Enough people kept backyard chickens that some newspapers ran advice columns about the birds. The San Francisco Chronicle, for instance, ran a column every Sunday about the care and raising of poultry, and Everybodys Poultry Magazine became widely popular. The Chicago Tribune even featured a story of a woman who met her husband under unusual but hilarious circumstances due to her raising chickens.
“Food will win the war!” declared Hoover. And he was right. From victory gardens to backyard chickens, voluntary Hooverizing decreased domestic food consumption by 15 percent.
The San Francisco Chronicle, 7 April 1918
Search through Fold3′s collection of historical Newspapers for more articles about raising chickens during WWI. Interested in starting your own backyard chicken coop? Check out backyardchickens.com.
