2 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



beauty, and good order. Surely any combination of space and 

 power which, rightly utilized, could produce results so essen- 

 tial for citizenship would be well worth the price. By "honor- 

 able profit " he means, of course, profit through production. 

 Plainly this is a garden's special contribution. Children in 

 this way become producers. Any ten-year-old who raises a 

 handful of radishes for breakfast, a fine head of cabbage for 

 dinner, and a bunch of sweet peas for " mother's table " has 

 already tasted the delights of the productive life. Having 

 thus early become a producer, a boy or girl in later life will 

 hardly be satisfied with the treadmill existence of the middle- 

 man. The result will be that we shall get more first-rate 

 producers and fewer second-rate citizens. 



That society to-day is swarming with middlemen — with 

 clerks and agents and bookkeepers — we are well aware. 

 Though useful in making wealth available, this class adds 

 nothing directly to the wealth of the world. Besides, the 

 supply far outstrips the demand. In consequence the average 

 middleman leads a life that is joyless and poorly paid, and he 

 is, moreover, haunted continually by the fear of being displaced 

 by young and eager applicants. For this overwhelming pro- 

 portion of "go-betweens " we have ourselves to thank. It is 

 the logical outcome of the schooling that has been dealt out 

 to country and city children alike, fitting them almost exclu- 

 sively for the clerical, the "clean-handed," occupations. 



How easy for a young person to drift into this current. 

 On approaching their teens boys and girls get restless. They 

 long to push out a little into the larger world. Fathers and 

 mothers see no harm in this. They see, on the contrary, cer- 

 tain advantages in letting children enlarge their horizon and 

 satisfy their love of adventure by getting into a wholesome 

 relation with the real activities of the world. The youngsters, 

 on reaching the crossroads, naturally take the beaten path. 



