The weekly examiner., 1901-05-18
LABORERS' HOMES.
AssuGGESTfON MADE TO ATLANTA'S
 ORGANIZED WORKlNGMEN.

ORGANIZED WORklNGMEN.
 ar. Merriam Thinks the Mechanic and Paints 8 Pleasant Picture Of Its Possibilities.
 The successful farmer is the one who makes living on his farm outside of hts money crop. This money crop may be cotton or wheat, vegetables or dairy products. lit is successful because he makes more than he spends and his money crops-that is, the crop for which he receives the most cash comes in unincumbereaI and gives him q surplus
 1. He is helped toward the accomplish ment of this end by his family. His wife makes butter and raises chickens and eggs, and his children help her and work in the garden, growing vegetables for the family consumption and to sell. ALI of which goes long way toward making him prosperous and independ- ent.
 Now, why cannot the mechanic do this to- certain extent at any rate?
 
 ters In the center of the city and pay high rents for poor accommodations? Why not live little farther out on some one of the many car lines run ming out of the city and have an acre of land which can be cultivated as a garden and where a COW and a few chickens can be profitably kept?
 Here the mechanics family would find healthy and profitable employ ment- His living expenses would be greatly decreased and the thought would not enter his head that his boys and girls might work in the cotton mills fin order to help fill the constantly increasing number of mouths at his table. When the family are helping to- support themselves at home, then the mechanics labor-his money crop-be- comes in measure a surplus which can be devoted to paying for and i'm proving the home.
 Organized labor is resulting in & de creased number of hours for day's' work. At the end of an eight or ten hour day the head of the family finds himself with several hours of daylight on his hands during the summer. 1t would be change and also recrea- ton to put in a part of this time in the garden, where 1t would bring its re- ward in smaller grocery bills. How much more real pleasure also to be at home with the family improving the home than to loaf around town with companions, spending more money than you would have believed possible had you been directly accused of it.
 The objection will of course be raised that houses for sale or to rent with 8 desirable acre attached are not plenti- full, in fact are very scarce, and the home seeking mechanic could not ob- tain them if he would. This is un- [douh hfediy the case at present. for the simple reason that there has been lit tie demand for this kind Of property. People have not been willing to pay for the extra land, and the result is that most houses are built on as small 8 lot as possible, state of affairs con- ducive neither to beauty nor healthful- ness.
 Organized labor, however, has it in it's power to create demand for more roomy property. There are large land companies in the city who hold vast tracts of suburban property which are now lying idle. These companies could no doubt be induced to divide it up in acre tracts and build suitable houses thereon, and arrangements could be made so that these houses could be rented at first and afterward purchas- ed on the instal1ment plan. Taxes would be less outside the city limits and rents correspondingly lower. This, with the increasing produce from the garden, would soon put the mechanic in a position to own his home.
 1t is entirely possible for any man with Q growing family to more than half. if not entirely, support them with a good COW, a few fowls and an acre of vegetables. One good COW should give the family all the milk and butter they need and enough to sell to more than pay for her feed. The Rev. MT. Dodge at farmers meeting at Battle Hill said that his COW had saved him, after paying for her feed, $100 year. Fowls we'll cared for will give their owner a net profit of from $1 to $1.50 for each hen per year. An acre of garden truck here at the south, when we'll cultivated. will not only keep the family in vegetables all the year round, but will help feed the COW and chickens and furnish at intervals something to sell.
 It is not an easy matter to say exact ly what an acre of vegetables will pro duce, much depending on the season and the cultivation it receives. But I believe I am entirely safe when I say that an acre of land properly cultivat- ed, good COW and few fowls can be made to entirely support an ordinary family. In view of the fact that on our Fplace we have produced from $2OO to $4OO an acre net profit on vegetables in favorable years and furthermore that small area cultivated by one person or family nearly always averages more