VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION 23 



During twenty years, more than eight thousand families 

 have been assisted, many old people who could no longer 

 keep up the rapid pace of our industrial life, cripples whose 

 physical condition held them back in the race for work, 

 persons who on account of sickness or other misfortunes have 

 been thrown out of the competition in modern business, and 

 unfortunate beings who, though clear in mind and strong in 

 muscle, have been forced to the ranks of the unemployed 

 these have all had an opportunity opened to them : oppor- 

 tunity to enjoy all of the fruits from nature's great storehouse 

 which their own labor and skill might secure. 



The war has forced France, Italy, and England similarly 

 to utilize natural opportunities for subsistence in their 

 enormous tracts of unproductive lands. In Mexico all 

 proprietors will be required to designate what they propose 

 to cultivate and the remainder will either be allotted tem- 

 porarily for agricultural purposes to those desiring them or 

 it will be cultivated under government management. There 

 is no remedy like that for poverty. 



The first man who applied for a vacant lot garden came 

 to the Philadelphia office after the announcement in the 

 papers, so weak and emaciated that the doctor was afraid the 

 poor fellow would be unable to get out of his office without 

 assistance. He was a widower with three girls and a boy, 

 the oldest girl about seventeen. 



He received a garden which contained only about one fifth 

 of an acre. Later he observed that a part of another little 

 farm was left untouched on account of being very rough, 

 full of holes, and covered with stone and bricks. Part of this 

 farm was below the street grade and subject to overflow, but 

 it was larger than the others nine tenths of an acre. He 

 offered to exchange, saying he did not mind the extra work. 



