VALUE OF A SMALL PLOT OF GROUND. 3 



village. (See pi. II.) The operatives pay a nominal rent for the 

 use of the dwellings, rarely exceeding $1 a month per room. The 

 average size of house is three to four rooms per family. The houses 

 are built on separate lots, which vary considerably in size in the dif- 

 ferent villages. One- fourth of an acre is a fair average size. This 

 extra space on the house lot is intended especially for garden or 

 poultry uses. This organization of an industrial community is pe- 

 culiar to cotton-mill villages. In addition to the land around the 

 houses provided for gardens the company often sets apart a pasture 

 immediately adjoining the mill village for the free pasturage of the 

 operatives' cows. 



Some mill owners offer other inducements to the operatives. One 

 company has a demonstration garden of half an acre. An expert is 

 employed to grow a great variety of vegetables, showing the best 

 cultural methods for each variety. The plot is intended as a model 

 in planning a garden and creates much local interest in gardening. 

 Another mill owner has a pure-bred dairy bull, whose services are 

 free to the operatives owning cows. 



In a number of villages interest in gardening is stimulated by 

 offering prizes for the best gardens. The scoring is based on general 

 appearances. This has the general effect of cleaning up the village 

 and encourages the growing of flowers as well as vegetables. The 

 front yard is beautified along with the back yard (see PI. III). In 

 no village visited, however, were prizes offered on the quantity of 

 vegetables raised in the garden. This logically might be the next 

 step. The family raising the most vegetables naturally will tend to 

 keep the surroundings of the home in good order and at the same 

 time to be better off financially. 



QUANTITY AND VALUE OF FOOD RAISED BY COTTON-MILL 



OPERATIVES. 



A large number of families were visited in nine different mill vil- 

 lages in the western parts of North Carolina and South Carolina to 

 gain an idea of the economies of the vegetable garden, the small 

 poultry flock, and the family cow under village conditions. The 

 survey method was used in collecting the information. Effort was 

 made to avoid the unusual and to study plots representing average 

 conditions. 



Records were taken of 548 gardens, 165 poultry flocks, 74 cows, 

 and 62 hogs. It is felt that the number of records of each enterprise 

 is sufficient to arrive at a fair average of actual conditions. Some of 

 the families fed their stock at a loss and others had poor returns 

 from their gardens. The data thus represent the result of poor 

 management as well as of good. 



