28 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



Avenue was rented at $15 per acre per annum. Some sixteen 

 families became interested, and Mr. D. F. Rowe, who had 

 been one of the most successful gardeners, became manager. 

 They had the land thoroughly fertilized and plowed, and then 

 subdivided. Some took separate allotments, as under the 

 Vacant Lot Association's plan, and others worked for the 

 manager at an agreed rate of wages per hour. The whole 

 nine acres were thoroughly well cultivated, and a magnificent 

 crop harvested. 



As soon as there was produce for sale, a market was es- 

 tablished on the ground and a regular delivery system or- 

 ganized, which later attracted much attention. It was 

 carried on by the children, of nine to twelve years of age, 

 from the various families. Each child was provided with a 

 pushcart. There were many and various styles, made from 

 little express wagons, baby coaches, and produce boxes. 



The children built up their own routes, and went regularly 

 to their customers for orders. They made up the orders, 

 loaded them into their little pushcarts, charged themselves 

 up with the separate amounts in a small book, and at the 

 end of each day's sales each child settled with the manager 

 and was paid his commission (twenty per cent of the receipts) 

 in cash. These little salesmen and salesgirls often took home 

 four to five dollars per week and yet never worked more than 

 three to five hours per day. The work was done under such 

 circumstances that to them it was not work but play. You 

 can get the full report from the Philadelphia " Vacant Lot 

 Cultivation Associations." It's interesting. 



"The greatest value that our little garden has brought us," 

 said a French woman, mother of a goodly number of rather 

 small children, "has not been in the fine vegetables it has 

 yielded all summer, or the good times that I and the children 



