Cooperative Extension Service Farm Labor Program Collection

Collection

Identifier: MS0399

Staff Only

Content Description

The Cooperative Extension Service Farm Labor Program Collection contains reports of the Information Service in the Cooperative Extension Farm Labor Program during the years 1943 to 1947. The reports are illustrated with photographs and include recruitment information, sample recruitment materials such as posters and brochures, and farm labor stories from and about various volunteer farm labor groups during World War II. These groups include the Women's Land Army, the U.S. Crop Corps, the Victory Farm Volunteers, and others. The collection also contains reports on the activities of the chiefs of five divisions, specifically Administration and Organization; Recruitment and Placement; Labor Utilization; Women's Land Army; and Victory Farm Volunteers.

Dates

Creation: 1943-1947

Conditions Governing Access

Contact Special Collections for access.

Organizational History

Farm labor shortages during World War II led to the establishment of several volunteer programs addressing the urgent need for workers to support wartime food production.

The Women's Land Army (WLA) was formed in 1943 as part of the Emergency Farm Labor Program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Extension Service. The WLA recruited, trained, and placed women volunteers as farm laborers throughout the United States. The organization was headed by Florence L. Hall, an economist who had previously worked for the USDA's Bureau of Dairy Industry and the Extension Service.

The Victory Farm Volunteers (VFV) consisted of United States Crop Corps members between the ages of 14 and 17, many of them non-farm youth, who volunteered to work on farms. The VFV were recruited and organized by the extension services of land-grant colleges, with the help of educators and others. In 1943, the youth volunteers totaled 700,000, and in 1944, their numbers rose to 875,000.