THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



So each district has three prize-winners each 

 year, and each year the prizes go all over town. 

 Again, no garden may take the same prize two 

 years in succession; it must take a higher one 

 or else wait over. 



"This prize-garden business is just all right !" 

 said one of the competitors to our general secre- 

 tary. "It gives us good things to say to one 

 another's face instead o' bad things at one an- 

 other's back, it does!" 



That is a merit we claim for it; that it oper- 

 ates, in the most inexpensive way that can be, to 

 restore the social bond. Hard poverty minus 

 village neighborship drives the social relation 

 out of the home and starves out of its victims 

 their spiritual powers to interest and entertain 

 one another, or even themselves. If something 

 could keep alive the good aspects of village 

 neighborship without disturbing what is good in 

 that more energetic social assortment which 

 follows the expansion of the village into the 

 town or city, we should have better and fairer 

 towns and cities and a sounder and safer civili- 

 zation. But it must be something which will 



158 



