100 years ago in The Record

Friday, July 27, 1917

Troy’s wartime home garden project has been ranked first in New York State and second in the entire United States, The Record reports. “In the whole United States there is only one city which stands above it,” our reporter writes, “and that is Los Angeles, Cal., which is situated in the midst of a great farming territory.” The Collar City’s national ranking is based on an inspection conducted this week by Frank L. Griffin of the federal Junior Agricultural Extension department. “It not only means that Troy has reached an enviable height in the conservation of food, but it may mean that the system which it has applied will result in the model which will be used hereafter over the entire country.” According to Albert Hoefer, the board of education’s home-garden supervisor, Troy’s school children are cultivating more than 1,500 gardens to boost the local food supply, while the city’s adults are tending hundreds more. Hoefer estimates that “fully 2,000 families of Troy are furnishing themselves with their supply of garden stuff this summer.” While Hoefer has concentrated on a big crop on the city waterworks property, teachers and volunteers from the National League For Women’s Service have been supervising the young gardeners. “Contrary to pessimistic predictions, not small in number, the children throughout the heat of the summer have kept their enthusiasm and hoed their gardens,” our writer notes, “They have been led carefully, of course, and given reasons and prompted in rivalry to keep at it.”

While “Troy has made good,” not every Trojan has. At the end of the report, our writer explains that “several small vegetable vendors have had to go out of business” due to the rise of home gardens.

MILITARY CONTRACT?

Troy’s Fuller & Warren Company has been offered a big wartime contract to build portable furnaces for the military, but executives aren’t sure that they have the time or manpower to fulfill the contract.

The government wants 15,000 furnaces to heat army cantonment buildings. The furnaces would be “large round structures, set on legs [and] made in such a way that they can be moved easily in time of need.” They’re believed to be “incomparable in heat production” and more efficient than stove heating.

Company president William Henry Warren warns that “the time allowed for the fulfilment of the contract was short.” The furnaces must be delivered to the government by September 15.

Fuller & Warren’s workforce has been depleted by wartime enlistments. If the company accepts the contract, it will probably ask the government to exempt its employees from the military draft.