A vegetable garden in St. Anthony, ca. 1920

Many fishing families engaged in subsistence agriculture and kept vegetable gardens, fowl, sheep and other animals. During the 1930s and 1940s the Commission of Government tried to encourage agricultural development in Newfoundland and Labrador. It relocated about 365 families from St. John's and depressed fishing communities to areas that could potentially be farmed. It hoped that if people learned how to cultivate the land they would become more self-sufficient and depend less on government relief.

Photographer unknown. From the International Grenfell Association Lantern Slides Collection. Reproduced by the permission of the Maritime History Archive (PF-323.019), Memorial University, St. John's, NL.