BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT RUMFORD 29 



free from weeds; seeds and garden utensils being furnished free. 

 Rumford justifies this on the ground that skill in the use of the 

 shovel for intrenching can be obtained by digging in the garden. 

 They were permitted to sell the products, and received pay for all 

 their work. Rumford's military gardens anticipated our Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Stations, for by means of them he introduced 

 new varieties of crops throughout the country. When a soldier 

 went home on a furlough, he took with him a collection of garden 

 seeds and a few potatoes, and in this way Rumford^id for Bavaria 

 what Parmentier did for 



leness and waste were the two great evils against which Count 

 Rumford fought all his life. A beggar and a lazy soldier were his 

 especial detestations. Having put the soldiers at productive work, 

 Rumford next attacked the problem of poverty, led not so much, 

 perhaps, from sentimental love of his fellow-men as by his innate 

 hatred of waste, whether of time or property. A very large pro- 

 portion of the population of Bavaria at that time was given to 

 begging. Even along the highways in the country almost every 

 person one met on foot held out his hand for alms, and in the 

 cities professional beggars invaded the churches and houses, and 

 besieged the people in the street, exposing loathsome sores, and 

 exciting sympathy by means of maimed and ill-used children. 

 Each beggar had his particular beat or district, and vacancies 

 were eagerly sought for and fought for. Out of a population of 

 60,000 in Munich, Rumford found 2,600 beggars and indigent 

 persons. This mendicancy and the lying, stealing, vice and abuse 

 of children resulting from it Rumford laid to the injudicious dis- 

 pensation of alms, due to a false ideal of charity. Instead of 

 punishment or moral suasion he recommended the improvement 

 of conditions, first, by providing food and employment for every 

 man, woman and child. Only when this is done can the penalties 

 against vagrancy be enforced. 



Accordingly, he began by establishing a House of Industry in 

 Munich, and, then, by the aid of soldiers "rounded up" all the 

 beggars in the city, and brought them to the large and handsome 

 building provided for them. Here they were given such work as 



