CHAPTER II. RAPID TRANSIT 

 TO THE TABLE 



TIME was when people used to debate 

 the favorite topic whether the city 

 or the country offered the greater 

 advantages and pleasures. Doubtless 

 such discussions are still in vogue, but 

 at present the ambition of those most 

 interested is to combine the advantages, in 

 what are called garden cities the cities of the 

 future. 



In these garden cities, of which England and 

 Germany have so far provided the best examples, 

 laborers with modest incomes, no less than the 

 well-to-do, can dwell in clean, roomy houses, 

 breathe fresh air, raise their own flowers and 

 vegetables, and live like epicures. 



To be able to dwell in such a civic garden 

 altogether is indeed a privilege. For those 

 who cannot do so there are various expedients, 

 the most tempting of which is the allotment 

 gardening which had become so popular in 

 some German cities, notably Dresden, before 

 the war. There anybody could for a small sum 

 rent a lot, from twenty to fifty feet square, on 

 the edge of the town, where those whose occupa- 

 tion kept them indoors could go with their fami- 

 lies in the evenings and on holidays. Each garden 

 was surrounded by a vine-covered fence, and there 

 was a padlocked gate to which the owner alone 

 had a key. Some of the larger lots contained 



