390 



Popular Science Monthly 



Under an agricultural expert the prisoners of a Philadelphia 

 penitentiary are planting vegetables on the prison roof 



College of Pennsylvania, 

 who is a specialist in agri- 

 culture. Between lectures 

 the student has the benefit 

 of an additional correspond- 

 ence course on the same 

 subject. But the most 

 appreciated part of this 

 undertaking in the neces- 

 sarily monotonous lives of 

 the prisoners is the practical 

 demonstration of the course, 

 as shown in the roof garden. 

 Robust radishes, crisp 

 lettuce, the bountiful bean 

 and other vegetables in 

 common usage are planted 

 and flourish under the sci- 

 entific cultivation and lend 

 interest and variety to the 

 prison bill-of-fare. 



A Penitentiary Roof Garden — An 

 Example of Scientific Farming 



THE very flourishing roof garden shown 

 above is not over the top floor of any 

 gilded hotel, or millionaires' club. It sur- 

 mounts a very different kind of hostelry — 

 the Eastern Peniteatiary, in Philadelphia. 



There the convicts are cultivating 

 what might be called, according 

 to the times, a "war garden 

 but as far as the men them 

 selves are concerned, the 

 open air occupation and 

 the pride in their fine 

 crops afford the prison- 

 ers such real satisfac- 

 tion, akin to pleasure, 

 that the place seems in 

 itself a peace garden. 



The men are not 

 chosen and sent to this 

 work. Of his own 

 volition any of these 

 future scientific 

 farmers may make 

 application for en- 

 rollment in the class 

 of agriculture which 

 is taught in the peni- 

 tentiary. Having 

 been enrolled, the 

 member of the class 

 attends three lec- 

 tures a week given at 

 the prison by a pro- 

 fessor of the State 



the 



Making newspaper candles. Mrs. 

 Cushee rolls the strips, ties each one 

 securely and boils them in paraffin 



Newspaper Torches to Take 

 Place of Candles 



IF you want to do your bit toward making 

 the world safe for democracy and don't 

 know how to do it, you might take up the 

 work started by Mrs. Edward Cushee, of 

 New York city. She is making torches for 

 our troops who will soon hold a sec- 

 tor of trenches in France. The 

 torches are to take the place of 

 candles, and they are made 

 of old newspapers and par- 

 affin. 



To make one torch she 

 takes six strips of news- 

 paper, two columns 

 wide, and rolls them up, 

 tying them securely 

 with cord. After boil- 

 ing each roll of paper in 

 paraffin for twenty 

 minutes it is ready to 

 light. It will burn for 

 forty-five minutes 

 and give off a better 

 light than the ordi- 

 nary candle. 



In this "bit" of 

 patriotic endeavor 

 the boys and girls 

 can also lend a hand 

 — the boys to collect 

 the old papers, and 

 the girls to cut the 

 paper into strips 

 and roll them. 



