The American Garden, 



Vol. XI. 



APRIL, 1890. 



No. 4. 



LOOK OVER THE FENCE. 



CENTURY ago, in 1790, there were 

 in this country many more people 

 ing in the country than in the towi ■.. 

 A town is any collection of hous :s 

 containing in one group 8,000 people. 

 Now, during the century the entire 

 population has increased sixteen 

 times and the town population 1 is 

 increased t6o times. The town popu- 

 lation grows faster than the average rate of the 

 whole population. This increase of town resider ts 

 has been chiefly since 1850, and the rate of the in- 

 crease is more and more rapid. In 1850 we had 

 85 cities of an average of 35,000 inhabitants. In 

 i860 we had 141, and in 1870, 226 cities. In 1880 

 we had 286 'cities, and the average population had 

 risen to nearly 40,000. This year a new census is to 

 be taken, and we may confidently look forward to 

 still more cities and a still higher average popula- 

 tion. A hundred years ago one-thirtieth of the 

 people lived in towns; in i860 one-sixth, and in 

 1870 one-fourth of our people were town-dwellers. 



Many people have looked upon this wonderful 

 growth of city population with alarm. They view 

 with regret the continual emigration of the young 

 people from the farm to the factory and shop. We 

 hear much of the decay of farms and of the rapid 

 decline of the whole business of raising food from 

 the ground. We sit in our little gardens and 

 wonder why the farm does not pay better. Would 

 it not be wise to look over the fence, or tear the old 

 thing down and look out over the fields to see what 

 all this means, and what it portends for the future 

 gardens of America ? 



If more people live in towns than a hundred or 

 even twenty years ago, clearly there are more peo- 

 ple to be fed in proportion to those who produce 



the food. What is a garden for ? Why does any- 

 body work on a farm ? To produce food. With 

 the exception of fish, all the food in the world 

 comes from the garden. (The word garden may 

 be used to include the farm, plantation and or- 

 chard.) If at one time one person in thirty de- 

 pended on the other twenty-nine for food, to-day 

 every fourth persori depends on the other three to 

 feed him from day to day. One thing more. The 

 entire population of the world is, at all times, 

 within ten months of universal starvation. Within 

 two years the entire people would be absolutely 

 without means of clothing themselves. The gar- 

 den is our only means of warding off the complete 

 extinction of the race. The cities would perish of 

 cold and hunger in short order if every one should 

 retire from the work of the garden. It is, practi- 

 cally, far more serious than this, because great 

 cities like New York do not and cannot store food 

 in any great quantities. This was painfully il- 

 lustrated at the time of the blizzard two years ago. 

 New York absolutely leans on the garden, and is 

 kept alive from hand to mouth, day by day, by the 

 products of the land. 



This first glance over the fence shows us a great 

 and immensely important field of study. How 

 happens it that with this enormous increase of the 

 number of food-eaters that the business of making 

 food is so unprofitable ? Is it really true that the 

 garden does not pay ? Food is certainly cheaper 

 than ever before. Common cotton cloth was 

 twenty-five cents a yard not so very long ago. It is 

 six cents to-day, and yet the operators in a cotton 

 mill to-day earn more wages and cotton mills pay 

 bigger dividends. Perhaps if we look at this mat- 

 ter of cotton cloth we may get a hint that will 

 help us. When sheetings were high, workmen in 



COPYRIGHT, 1890. 



