As the First World War dragged into its final year, Canada established a new program to supply farms with workers by recruiting young teenage boys from urban high schools. They were called “Soldiers of the Soil.”
In April of 1918, the Soldiers of the Soil’s recruiting tour came to New Brunswick.
“Parents:” an ad ran in the Saint John Standard newspaper “let your boy enroll in the SOS. Suppose he likes the work and decides to make farming his vocation? Wouldn’t you be glad? He may have lean years but he [would] also have fat ones. He may have problems, but who
doesn’t.”
It wasn’t necessarily the most compelling argument in the world.
The outbreak of the First World War caused upheaval in global food supply chains. In some parts of the world by 1918 blockades and food shortages led to mass starvation, political upheaval, and even revolution.
While these extremes were by and large restricted to Europe, Canada still experienced massive shifts in food consumption and production which disrupted the ordinary lives of citizens.
Canada had been called upon by its allies in Europe to increase its food production to make up for their own shortages during the war.
By 1917 this had dramatic effects. Farmers had taken to stopping growing many of the crops they had before the war in favour of growing goods that were suddenly in higher demand in Europe. This led to less food being available in Canadian shops.
A generous take would be that farmers did that out of patriotism for the war effort. However, it is worth noting that exports to Europe sold for much higher prices than domestic food production.
The most notable example was meat. Martimes’ farmers could sell low-quality meat to be frozen and shipped overseas for vastly higher prices than local markets would ever pay. This led to meat shortages, and blame being heaped on farmers.
Farmers, however, claimed they were hardly becoming wealthy and blamed middlemen and large suppliers. They claimed that these business interests –who didn’t have to do the hard work of actually farming– were the ones massively profiting from the war.
Discontent only grew in 1917, when the government introduced conscription. This meant drafting eligible men to force them into the army to fight in Europe.
During his election campaign, Prime Minister Borden’s Union government had explicitly
promised farmers they would be exempt from conscription but broke that promise. This triggered a shortage of farmers which led to the creation of the Soldiers of the Soil.
SOS recruiter A. H. Chapman made a pitch to potential recruits and their parents on March 26th, 1918 at Saint John’s Rotary Club.
He was introduced by Reverend Dr. Keirsted, who warmed up the crowd by discussing “the extreme gravity of the food shortages situation, the scarcity of labour, and the urgent need of helping the farmer.”
Chapman then announced he was looking “to secure a small army of boys to work on the farms.”
In the rest of Canada, Soldiers of the Soil were between 15 and 19 years old. However, in New Brunswick boys as young as 13 were permitted to join.
Chapman told the potential Soldiers of the Soil recruits they would get uniforms, which The Standard newspaper noted caused a ripple of excitement in the crowd at that first meeting in Saint John.
The boys who joined would be sent away to farms to live, often for three months straight (though specific details could be negotiated by parents).
While living on the farms they would be fed, as well as paid an undetermined wage that their parents negotiated with their employer. The wages were paid to the parents, which seemed to be a major selling point during the harsh economic reality of wartime freezes on wage hikes, yet also a time of high inflation.
The boys would have some form of schooling while working on the farms, but would not have to do any tests or exams. This was widely acknowledged to be the single biggest selling point for the boys who joined.
At the end of their service, they would be presented with a bronze medal to commemorate their service.
The Daily Telegraph noted that “there was an unusually large attendance at the meeting” and that “the boys present were greatly impressed … and many evinced their willingness to do their bit by working on the farms.”
Being a Soldier of the Soil was an arduous job. Often the work day began at 6am and ended as late as 9pm. One boy quipped that “insomnia was never a problem.”
That August a gala event was hosted in King Square to honour the returning Soldiers of the Soil and present them with their medals. The Daily Telegraph newspaper commented that the boys were awfully sunburnt and rather beleaguered looking as they were greeted by a band and an honour guard.
Premier Walter Foster told them “There is nothing so great and glorious as service to one’s country, no matter in what sphere it is applied, and no sphere of service is more important than that in which you have served and assisted: the production of food.”
It wasn’t just men and boys who were asked to help on the farms, though. Women and girls were also called upon to help aid the war effort. The women’s effort to fill vacant roles in the farms was called The Farm Service Corps, sometimes nicknamed “The Farmerettes.”
Backed by local Womens’ Institutes, the contribution of women to the war effort would become a point of pride. For example, a Miss Winter from Carleton County proudly declared “When the women make up their mind to do something, they generally accomplish what they want done.”
While a difficult and often rather dangerous job, the young men and women in the Soldiers of the Soil and the Farmerettes provided an important -and often completely forgotten- role in keeping the country fed during the First World War.
