VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION 29 



have had in the open air, but in the glasses of beer and ab- 

 sinthe that my husband hasn't taken." " Quite right, mother, 

 quite right," came from a man near by. "The world can 

 never know the evil we men don't do while we are busy in 

 our little gardens." 



Further, pillage of crops, which was always urged as an ob- 

 jection to raising fruits or truck on open grounds, has proved 

 to be a baseless fear. Where any of the gardeners are allowed 

 to camp or put up shacks on the patches, theft does not occur 

 and various superintendents repeat that " the few and trivial 

 cases of stealing from vacant lot plots or school gardens were 

 almost all at the places that were fenced." 



Perhaps our locks and bolts tend to suggest breaking in. 



The Garden Primer issued by the New York City Food 

 Supply Committee gives simple but incomplete directions for 

 planting and tending a vegetable garden. For those who 

 need that sort of thing, these are just the sort of thing they 

 need. They will be useful if you do not follow them. The 

 Primer tells you how to get some kind of parsnips, chard, 

 spinach, common onions, radishes, cabbage, lettuce, beets, 

 tomatoes, beans, turnips, peas, peppers, egg plants, cucum- 

 bers, corn, and potatoes. 



Don't grow these things, unless it be for your own imme- 

 diate use. Every one grows them and ripens them all at the 

 same time. In many places these are given away or thrown 

 away this year. Grow anything that every one wants and 

 has not got, like okra, small fruits, etc. ; you can get a much 

 better return in cash or in trade than by spending your time 

 "like other folks" who do not think. 



So I refer to these directions for their instruction, and for 

 your warning. However, they give the following admirable 

 injunctions. 



