258 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



by experts, to see that it is suitable for trucking and market 

 gardening. 



The object should be to make a sort of vacant lot gardening 

 plan on a grand scale. Heretofore the trouble has been that 

 we have been unable to get land where there was any assur- 

 ance that we could have it again the second year, and that 

 the limited amount of land makes it impossible to give the 

 men as much as they ought to have. They do not need much 

 land, because a man working at intensive culture with only 

 the rough plowing done for him cannot take good care 

 of much more than one acre of land. He will probably make 

 as much money out of one acre of land as he will out of two. 

 Those who are willing to work should be given one acre of 

 land, with the assurance that they can have it as long as they 

 work it faithfully and comply with the simple rules which we 

 have found so effective in the Vacant Lot Gardening work, 

 which are practically, that a man should attend to business 

 and not annoy his neighbors. No contract or lease should 

 be given the men, or indeed the women, for both work such 

 gardens, as they have been doing for the past twenty years 

 in several large cities, making at least a living upon the land 

 and often a very large return. 



There must be a competent superintendent, for everything 

 depends upon him, who would show the men what land they 

 should use, what they should put in, instruct them how to do 

 it, and market their products cooperatively. Experience 

 in Philadelphia, and in some score of other cities where they 

 have established Vacant Lot Gardens, shows that about ten 

 per cent annually of the people prefer to work for others, 

 and consequently take places in the country after they have 

 learned to do market gardening. Some others, being dis- 

 satisfied with so little land, and wanting to own their own 



