THOMAS] CHILDREN'S GARDENS IN A STEEL TOWN 133 



feet and accommodating about eighty children. While the two 

 gardens on the S|:eel Co. property were respectively loo by 120 

 feet and 100 by 75 feet and accommodated about 150 children 

 (plots 10 ft. X 10) . The writer had the pleasure of visiting all these 

 gardens in 19 13 and was delighted with them. 



Oddly enough the next spring a call for a teacher for these same 

 gardens resulted in the selection of the writer of this article, who 

 has remained there until the present time. 



The second year I was there we cleaned up and fenced another 

 lot on the Steel Co. property.- This accommodates about thirty 

 children being divided into larger gardens usually about sixteen 

 feet square. These are reserved exclusively for the use of the older 

 and more advanced children, those who have made a good showing 

 in the smaller gardens, winning garden or vegetable prizes. There 

 is a great demand for these larger gardens. They happen to be 

 situated on much richer ground, so the growth of the vegetables is 

 quite luxuriant, and being so large they will produce enough to 

 almost feed a family, of course they are a great help when ' ' We have 

 six boarders." So its woe to the child who neglects and thus loses 

 a large garden, his parents have no sympathy for him. 



The Steel Co. pays all the expenses of the gardens on their 

 property, including the building of fences, toolhouses, repairs on 

 them, furnishes tools for all the children, all the seeds used, plowing, 

 fertilizing, etc. They have never been asked for anything in the 

 way of equipment that they have not willingly furnished. They 

 have piped water to each garden and this year have improved the 

 system by laying pipes thru them so several hose may be attached 

 and used at the same time. During the first three years they fur- 

 nished a laborer whose services could be had at any time during the 

 year. However it was decided that it was better to make the 

 children feel that they themselves were entirely responsible for the 

 appearance of the gardens. Now we have a laborer to lay out the 

 paths making the individual plots. This takes about a week in the 

 spring. After that the children do every bit of the work, unless in 

 case of sudden emergency after heavy storms. 



We have storms there that fill up the gutters and cau e the 

 flooding of the gardens, sometimes they are covered with water a 

 foot deep for three days at a time. If the vegetables have got most 

 of their growth little harm is done. But if the storm comes while 

 they are small many of the individual gardens are six)iled. 



