Science in Public Affairs 



Another point in connection with these gardens 

 is well put by a writer in the Economic Review. 

 He says : 



"There are 434 acres under cultivation, and at 

 the ascertained average yield per acre of ^59, 8s. 8d. 

 per annum, this gives a total of ^2585, js. per 

 annum. Under ordinary methods of farming the 

 yield was previously less than .5 per acre per 

 annum that is, the total yield of the 77 acres 

 which are at present opened out used to be about 

 385 per annum. Thus, at the present time, these 

 77 acres produce more than six times the value 

 of their former produce, and, in addition, at the 

 same time, house, under ideal conditions, a popu- 

 lation of nearly two thousand people." 



But good as this is, it is for the children that I 

 specially rejoice in the idea of the gardens. 



" The cry of the children " has wrought many 

 changes in the statute-book, and it is none the 

 less influential if one knows from intimate friend- 

 ship how many wrongs are endured without cries ; 

 how many sins of social omission are borne in 

 silence, as if they were by eternal laws the birth- 

 right of " the lower orders." 



The children of our large towns how one 

 aches as one thinks of them ! Let us stand 

 and watch them as they play in the noisy, dirty 

 street. How stunted they are, ugly, half- washed, ill- 

 nourished. It seems foolish to neglect the body, 

 and thus make inadequate preparation for an adult 

 life which must depend for its sustenance mainly 

 on its physical strength. 



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