132 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [18:3— Mch., 1921 



It can truly be said of this town that fully one-half does not know 

 how the other half lives. Children from the west side are for- 

 bidden by their parents to go below the tracks, and many grown 

 people who have lived in Duquesne all their lives, have never been 

 in the lower section and have no conception of its conditions. 

 That these conditions have been improved greatly in the last ten 

 years is no doubt due largely to the Welfare Activites of the Steel 

 Corporation. 



In 1 9 13 the Welfare Department determined to add gardening 

 for children to its other activities, and a teacher was obtained from 

 Cornell University to direct the project. 



The land selected for the experiment was some belonging to the 

 Steel Co. located in the slummiest part of Duquesne, bounded on 

 the east and south by the tracks of the Union R. R. There are 

 trains loaded with hot slag constantly passing and repassing along 

 this track and a constant shower of hot cinders is expelled from the 

 engines all over the gardens below. On the west an alley that 

 forms the back boundary line to a row of tenement houses extends 

 the whole length of the gardens. This land was at that time pure 

 clay, and covered with as fine a collection of tin cans, bottles, rags, 

 old wire bed springs, and miscellaneous litter as could be found any- 

 where in the U. S. A., the reason for this being that Duquesne has 

 not taken over the task of collecting its garbage, but allows it to 

 be done by private individuals who charge by the week or the 

 barrel, which of course results in its being dumped on all vacant lots. 

 Well, the Steel Co. had this land cleared and filled in with good 

 loam. Then they fertilized it and the gardens were planted^upon it. 



The children who worked these gardens were gathered thru the 

 meditmi of the public school, but practically every child lived in 

 this congested district below the track, was born of foreign parents, 

 and some member of the family worked for the Steel Co. This 

 was not a condition necessary to membership, but simply the result 

 of the location of the gardens and the occupation of the population 

 of most of the town. 



After establishing these gardens, they turned their attention to 

 the town in general and established six small community gardens 

 as they were called, as model gardens in different parts of the town. 

 These were taught by volunteer women of the town who in turn 

 received instruction from the Supervisor provided by the Steel Co. 

 There were six of these gardens laid out in individual plots 4x4 



