The San Francisco call., 1896-04-02
FARMING IN CITIES.

The New Y York Association for Improv-
ing the Condition of the Poor has been in
spired by the remarkable success of Mayor
Pingree of Detroit, the originator OF the
plan for farming vacant lots in cities. AL
though the Pingree idea was put in opera
tion as late as 1894 and had only two years
OF demonstration. it has proved successful
beyond all calculation and may be re-
garded as the most promising of modern
philanthropic movements. 1t might seem
strange that a great and crowded city like
New York, with its uncounted thousands
OF suffering poor, could prod uce sufficient
number OF accessible vacant lots with
which to try the Detroit experiment in the
hope of ameliorating the sufferings of an
appreciable number of poor people, but
the association has gone earnestly to work
and has already made some important dis
coveries. 1t has issued report showing
that there are II ,329 vacant lots (more than
1400 acres) in the city below West One
Hundred and Forty-ffth street and the
Harlem, and announces that if the vacant
land be within three miles of the homes of
the poor they will use it. If the land is
sterile it can be enriched from excavations
and street refuse. 1t is confidently ex-
pected that New York will make the ven
ture successful. If it be true of that city,
where the obstacles are greater than in
any other, every city in the country will
have any easy task. New York is not
alone in adopting the Detroit plan. Buf-
falo, Omaha and Seattle have assailed the
problem of relieving the unemployed by
the same means.
The lessons already learned are these:
l. A large number of the destitute are
willing to work if they have the oppor-
tunity.
2. A very small piece of ground will fur
nish family sufficient food.
3. "The needy are thereby assisted with
out creating the Generalization in the
habits of the people that gratuitous help
always entails
AS much of the future greatness OF Cali
fornia will come from more thorough de-
velopment of its agricultural resources, the
subject has a peculiar interest for the
cities of this State. The immediate relief
which it brings to the poor is by no means
the sum of its benefits. Beyond that con-
sideration lie Others of lasting value. This
is indicated in the following report by F.
B. Dickerson, superintendent of poor of
Detroit: "The poor, hard-working people
see that upon little patch Of half an acre /
they can produce enough to half support
themselves. and it sets them to thinking
They reason thus, IF I can almost live
on half an acre l could make comfortable
living on few acres, and they begin to
figure on getting into the country. In
answer to a question asked me, i asserted
that at least 100 families had sought and
found homes in the country as direct re-
suit of their experience OF last year. / fell
far short of the mark, however, for one
gentleman, the Hon. Joseph Waltz of
Waltz, Mich. "a small village in this coun-
ty), writes: I see in the papers what you
say about city farming, and think you are
right in the matter, as twenty-five ia miles
from the city have located hereabouts. If
twenty-five families have located in the
vicinity of one little village, the number
Of families who have located in other Sec
tions of the State must far exceed 100."