When "The Biggle Garden Book" was first published in 1908, most people were in the habit of raising their own food and flowers. Jacob Biggle felt that a gardener's success had to do with willpower and passion rather than acreage. "The man, woman or youngster who really wants a garden, will somehow manage to have a good one regardless of soil conditions, bad weather, measles in the family, or whether the area of ground at hand is a square acre or a square rod," he wrote encouragingly at the start of the book. That passion for gardening continues today in fields, backyards, and urban community plots across the United States. According to a poll taken in 2009 by the National Gardening Association, more than forty-three million households in the United States grow some of their own food.