PARSONS] CHILDREN'S SCHOOL FARM 259 



stration hall, a model housekeeping apartment, a storage room for 

 garden implements, etc. Household industry and shopwork will 

 be correlated with the garden. Materials *for nature-study will 

 be supplied to the schools, or can be viewed in natural sur- 

 roundings. 



Four hundred and fifty individual plots are now (July, 1905) 

 planted ; and upon the gathering in of the first crop, three hundred 

 and sixty will be transferred to new owners for a second crop. 

 Counting the housekeepers, the Farm will have given happiness 

 and instruction to 1,000 children in a space 250x130 feet, so solv- 

 ing the problem of intensive farming successfully done by many 

 children in a small piece of ground in the heart of a crowded city. 



What makes this work so different from all other work of its 

 kind? First its completeness in touching every side of social life. 

 Work is not done for work's sake, but every day shows a com- 

 pleted task accomplished, within the scope of the child's ability 

 and understanding, and necessary to be done. Some of the 

 lessons taught to visitors as well as children are brotherhood, 

 cooperation, self-respect, honesty, the power of courtesy and 

 justice, economy of time and material, simplicity, the dignity of 

 labor, that the task properly performed will bring well-earned 

 rest, while the task poorly done is never finished ; every side of 

 social life is brought into play. 



But the sun is sinking to rest over the Jersey hills, the strains of 

 music from the band on the warship lying at anchor just opposite 

 on the bosom of the noble Hudson reach our ears, the little 

 farmers have wended their way home, and on all sides are indica- 

 tions that the day is melting into night. With reluctance we tear 

 ourselves away, our intended fifteen minutes having stretched into 

 hours never to be forgotten, joining the group of sincere and 

 earnest instructors who, having removed the evidences of the day's 

 work, file out the little wooden gate, simply closing it after them, 

 leaving this beautiful garden nestling between the fine buildings to 

 the right and left of it, with its toothsome vegetables and well 

 raked paths to the care of the neighborhood — a trust which for 

 three years has not been misplaced. 



Another unique feature of this garden is the noble hearts it has 

 found in the officials in every city department through two admin- 

 istrations. These men may look stern and unapproachable to the 

 uninitiated, but the Children's School Farm has been the key to 



