SEVENTEEN] CONCLUSION 
even the State of New York has under tillage less 
than one-half of its acres. 
It was the fashion of forty years ago for pro- 
gressive economists to discuss a reform village, 
built in squares, one house on each corner, and a 
community boarding-hall and kitchen in the center 
of each square. Some experiments were made 
along such lines, but they fell to pieces over the 
table question. It is not easy for four families to 
agree on a menu three times a day, and on the 
qualities of the cooking. As a rule, every woman 
must be mistress of her own kitchen. 
A more satisfactory coéperation lays out a few 
acres in garden form, with houses occupying advan- 
tageous points. This park home should have a 
single tidy barn, where the few families interested 
may have a cow, a horse, and hens, owned in com- 
mon. In charge of such a place, a man, or possi- 
bly a family, can be hired by the commune. In 
this case each family owns and controls its own 
house, orchard, and garden, while the drives and 
the park and the driven well and the barn are kept 
by common funds. By such a system the cost of 
hired help may be greatly reduced, and the servant- 
girl question almost, if not entirely, solved. 
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