CERTAIN USES OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 83 



Portuguese, although among the poorest paid of the operatives, 

 were able to withstand the long strain of the strike with less suffer- 

 ing than the better paid workers who had no garden produce to fall 

 back upon. The entire absence of violence in any form during this 

 strike was doubtless largely due to the fact that the farmers of the 

 surrounding country brought in food supplies almost daily to con- 

 tribute to the townspeo])le in distress. This seems to me a notable 

 illustration of the imperative need for systematic efforts to bring 

 the industrial population into closer relation to the soil. 



The school in such a factory town can promote the economical 

 welfare and incidentally the aesthetic benefit of the community by 

 teaching children the art of gardening. 



The city school garden meets needs unknown to suburban or 

 rural districts. It is often the means of introducing the child to 

 the life which sustains it. It opens a Avhole new world of interest 

 to the city child and a life outside the city comes into the range of 

 possibility. The city school garden does not effect an exodus into 

 the country but it stimulates a movement into suburban districts 

 which is of inestimable benefit. 



AVe often forget that a large proportion of the dwellers in our 

 crowded districts are by training adapted for country life. Such 

 work as is carried on by the Italian and Jewish colonization societies 

 is in recognition of this fact; but such private efforts must necessa- 

 rily att'ect })ut few in number. The little city school garden reaches 

 out to the great numbers of the children of these newcomers and 

 teaches them that the agricultural life of their parents is not to be 

 despised. 



The contribution the city garden makes to the problems of the 

 city neighborhood seems to me of inestimable value. We are so 

 apt to forget that the casual passer-by has capacities for enriching 

 our community life. I have had more than one experience while 

 occupied with our gardens in city streets which has seemed to me 

 significant. There are always many city-bound people in whom 

 the sight of children working in the garden awakens memories. 



The love of the soil is almost racial in the Italians, for instance, 

 and their eager faces pressed against the high grating which separates 

 our Hancock School garden from Prince Street is a sight I shall 

 never forget. Another of our gardens is on Batterv Street, close 



