"The Most Valuable of All Arts" 87 



is at such times that men see clearly the insecurity of 

 employment, with abject dependence on some one else 

 for food and shelter. It is then they think of the 

 earth as the real mother who never intended her chil- 

 dren to suffer the pangs of hunger. 



Sometimes there is a blessing concealed in high land 

 values. The more land costs, the less of it the average 

 man can afford to buy. It is a case of "the less the 

 better," down to a certain necessary minimum, which, 

 of course, depends upon personal circumstances, in- 

 cluding the size of the family. This is so because a 

 man makes better use of the land and acquires neigh- 

 borhood advantages that would otherwise be beyond 

 his reach. 



Another fortunate "drawback" is deficient rainfall, 

 and consequent need of irrigation. Irrigation is a 

 scientific thing in itself, and the application of it in 

 the best way a genuine art. Furthermore, it usually 

 invokes the necessity of close cooperation among many 

 using water from a common source. And the irrigation 

 system in the West — like the dykes in Holland — has 

 been the prolific mother of cooperative institutions of 

 various kinds. 



Possibly this condition accounts for the priority and 

 preeminence of Southern California in the matter of 

 garden homes, though doubtless something must be 

 credited to the caressing climate and the irresistible 

 call of its mountain-guarded valleys. Whatever the 

 explanation, it is there that the largest number of 

 people have seen the light and gone farthest along the 

 new path. 



"Feed yourself." This is the first maxim of the new 



