SUMMER COLONIES FOR CITY PEOPLE 267 



and spend only occasional Sundays and holidays with 

 them. 



The people, especially the children, getting some infor- 

 mation concerning the treatment of the crops from compe- 

 tent advisers in school and out in the arbor colonies, derive 

 great good from their horticultural and floricultural work. 

 Families who are aesthetically inclined devote their space to 

 flowers and trailing vines exclusively; others, utilitarians 

 from necessity, plant potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, beans, 

 strawberries, and the like. The feeling of ownership being 

 strongly developed in the children in seeing the results of 

 their own labor, the crops are respected by the neighbors 

 and pilfering rarely occurs, except perhaps in a case of great 

 hunger. 



Several hundred or a thousand of such patches of land, or 

 gardens, situated in close proximity to each other, form an 

 arbor colony, which has a governor, or mayor, who is an un- 

 paid city official. He arranges the leasing of the land, col- 

 lects the rents, and hands them over to the gratified land- 

 owners who don't even have to collect them. There is 

 always a retired merchant or civil officer to fill the office, to 

 which is attached neither title, emolument, nor special honor. 

 He is assisted by a "colonial committee" of trustees selected 

 from the colonists, who act as justices of the peace, in case 

 disturbances should arise. If colonists prove frequent dis- 

 turbers of the peace or are found incapable of living quietly, 

 their leases are not renewed. Of course there are such cases, 

 but they are rare. 



Since the size of an " arbor garden " is from about two six- 

 teenths to three sixteenths of an acre, say two or three New 

 York City Lots, those forming a colony make a considerable 

 community, in which the authority of the committee, or 



