profitable employment; among others, that the worker must come out
into the open air and sunshine; must exercise, and put forth
exertion,--all of which are conducive to health, and, most important
of all, he knows that all he raises is to be his own. This is the
greatest incentive to industry.

The Vacant Lot Cultivation system is a school wherein gardeners are
taught a trade (to most of them a new trade), farming, which offers
employment for more people than all the other trades and professions
combined: a trade susceptible of wide diversification and offering
many fields for specializing. But little capital is required; any
other field would require large outlay. Its greatest advantage,
however, is that the idle men and the idle land are already close to
each other--the men can reach their gardens without changing their
domiciles or being separated from their families.

It was not until after several years that the full effect of the
work was realized. A few gardeners each year from the beginning
have, after one or two years' experience, taken small farms or plots
of land to cultivate on their own account, or have sought employment
on farms near the city; but the number is quite small compared to
the whole number helped. Now more than ten per cent of those that
had gardens previously have for the last two years been working on
their own account. Out of nearly eight hundred gardeners, more than
eighty-five either rented or secured the loan of gardens that season
and cultivated them wholly at their own expense, and many others
would have done so had suitable land been available. The number of
gardens forfeited on account of poor cultivation or trespassing was
only two out of 800 plots given out.