PLOTTING AND PLANNING 69 



Nothing is more exhilarating on a bright day than the sight 

 of a superb market garden in full swing. The smell of the 

 rich earth, the orderly furrows sketched in living green upon 

 the black soil, seeking with one accord a vanishing point in 

 the far horizon, and the unhurried industry of this complete 

 little world where each man is bound up in his special work, 

 — all these captivate the imagination. To crown all comes the 

 economic test. A noble harvest of foodstuffs is waiting in 

 bountiful heaps, to be delicately packed for shipping and for 

 the city market. Inquiry proves beyond question that the 

 financial status of such an industry is solid. The business is 

 organized to earn every possible penny. 



It is remarkable how quickly youngsters catch the rhythm 

 of a place like this. Many a one who has started out of a 

 morning in the spirit of frolic will come back from his visit 

 quite sobered. Whatever else may have been accomplished, 

 the trip will not be likely to fail in giving exactly what was 

 expected of it — a capital idea of a true market garden. 

 Nevertheless, to hold this up as the one and only standard of 

 excellence for a school garden would of course be a mistake. 



It is plain enough that if this point were overemphasized, 

 the miniature-farm idea might lead to mere superficial imi- 

 tation. This would ruin, educationally, the promise of a gar- 

 den's best work, where a small space is to be worked, not by 

 one dominant mind — of an Olympian, shall we say ? — but 

 by many minds as well as many hands. A method in which 

 there are few, if any, difficulties is one which has sometimes 

 been adopted in a cooperative garden to secure a farmlike 

 basis for vegetable growing without at all cramping the ambi- 

 tions of the individual planters. First divide the entire space 

 into long strips four or five feet wide, with paths of not less 

 than three feet between. These strips, by the by, should prefer- 

 ably run north and south, so that the sun will fall impartially 



