g 7 VACANT LOT 



GARDENING 



1907 over eight hundred families raised on about 

 two hundred acres, crops worth $40,000. 



There are plenty in New York City who want 

 land, but Vacant Lot Gardening there has a 

 serious drawback lack of land within easy reach 

 of congested centres, that can be had free; how- 

 ever, thirty acres in the Bronx was loaned by the 

 trustees of the Astor Estate. Only fifteen was 

 cultivable, the rest being woods ; the land was so 

 rough that sod and stone, making ridges three or 

 four feet high, were removed by the gardeners 

 before the soil was in condition to plant. 



An announcement in the papers brought in 

 a few days more than three hundred applications, 

 coming from the five Boroughs and some from 

 Jersey City and from Newark. Applicants were 

 sent to the manager at the Farm to secure a 

 definite plot varying in size from an ordinary city 

 lot to one-half acre. Such persons or families as 

 needed assistance were supplied with seeds and 

 tools by the Association. 



A hotbed was made to supply early plants. 

 An expert gardener was employed in the begin- 

 ning to instruct the gardeners in preparing the 



