90 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS 
CONDUCTED BY 
MRS. FRANCES COPLEY SEAVEY. 
THE MILWAUKEE SETTLEMENT GARDEN, 
The conductor of this department realized so much 
of pleasure and profit from attendance at the annual 
meeting of the Milwaukee Branch of the American 
Park and Outdoor Art Association held June 12th at 
the home of Mrs. Charles Catlin, Farwell avenue, Mil- 
waukee, that she feels she can hardly do improvement 
workers better service than by calling their attention 
to a phase of work practiced there which seems to 
promise great good to children, and, through them, 
SCENE IN THE MILWAUKEE SETTLEMENT GARDEN. 
for a settlement garden. Arrangements were made by 
which Mr. McKae, a competent gardener, was to have 
free house rent and a garden plot in exchange for the 
services he might be able to render in assisting the 
association to carry out its plans for a School Garden 
at the University Settlement. 
Mrs. Daniel Folkmar was made chairman of the 
committee to take charge of the gardens. Mrs. Folk- 
mar appointed as her assistants Mrs. Gates, Mrs. Cook 
and Miss Matilda Schley. 
Mrs. Dutcher also offered to assist when in the city. 
Preparation of the Ground. 
The land donated by Mr. Coleman was a strip of 
sodded ground dotted with a few orchard trees. Mr. 
McKae Did it off into 70 garden plots, 5x16 feet, 
leaving grass walks i>4 feet wide 
between the plots. 
The soil is a fine rich loam, well 
suited to truck and flower garden- 
ing. The plots were spaded up by 
Mr. McKae. 
Two thousand packages of vege- 
table and flower seeds were sent by 
Representative Otjen from the U. 
S. Bureau of Agriculture, for use 
of the association. Among these 
were peas, beans, radishes, lettuce, 
corn salad, mignonette, golden 
wave, pot marigold, ageratum, as- 
ters, Chinese pinks and candytuft. 
As these were not all the varieties 
that it seemed desirable to 1 have the 
children grow, additional seeds 
were bought from Currie Bros., 
to older persons. The report of the Settlement Garden 
Committee is here given in full, as it makes the meth- 
ods and results of the entire undertaking so clear as 
to be a guide to those who care to take up a similar 
line of endeavor. 
It is only fair to the young gardeners to say that the 
photographer chose to make the accompanying picture 
on a holiday, which accounts for the dressed up and 
somewhat unbusiness-like appearance of the children. 
University Settlement Gardens. 
Annual report for 1903 bv Mrs. Daniel Folkmar, 
chairman of Settlement Garden Committee, to the sec- 
retary of the Milwaukee Outdoor Art and Improve- 
ment Association : 
In response to your request the following informal 
report of the work done at the University Settlement 
is respectfully submitted : 
Early in the spring of 1903 the M. O. A. and I. A. 
secured from Mr. Coleman the permission to use a 
strip of ground adjoining the University Settlement 
turnips, carrots, black seed lettuce, 
kohlrabi, pepper grass, spinach, Swiss chard, parsley, 
parsnips and potatoes. 
The tools, hoes, rakes and weeding claws, were fur- 
nished by the association. 
Work With The Children. 
(a) Talks. 
On April nth and 18th, Mrs. Folkmar met the chil- 
dren and gave talks preliminary to the work. At these 
talks the following topics were touched upon : 
1. Plans of the association as to home and settle- 
ment gardens. 
2. Preparation of the soil and sowing of the seeds. 
3. How moisture is held in the soil. 
4. Our garden helpers. 
5. Germination of plants. 
May 2nd a brief talk was given the children on 
thinning and cultivating. 
June 6th a talk was given on the function of the 
leaf in the growth of the plants. 
