While the fighting of World War II remained on the other side of the ocean, the effects of the war were deeply felt in New York City. Wartime ramifications included serious food shortages, as much American-grown food was being shipped overseas for troops and allies abroad. By 1943, the government had created a push for the cultivation of private lands for locally grown crops. These "victory gardens" sprouted up (pun intended) all over the city. The statistics for New York victory gardens were impressive: 400,000 victory gardens on 600 acres of private land which, over the course of the war, produced 200 million pounds of vegetables! Check out the bounty of New York's wartime farmers!