Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1916 — GARDENS AND CHILD WELFARE [ARTICLE]

GARDENS AND CHILD WELFARE

Experiment Being Made In New York Is of Interest to the Entire Country.

Of far more than ordinary interest is an experiment conducted this spring in New York. There, under the direction of the International Child Welfare league, and with the co-operation of state and federal departments, a practical demonstration of the value of vacant-lot gardening for children is being made. At first it will be confined to Westchester county, where it began in February under the guidance of President Jarvis of the Connecticut School of Agriculture. Outlining the purposes of the experiment, an officer of the league says: “We believe that to abolish’ child labor we must do constructive work. It has been found by actual practice that where children have taken up gardening they can earn more in a summer in that work than they can during an entire year in a factory. The garden products of the children are used first for the family and the surplus is then marketed. “When the parents find that the children can make more money in this way they will be willing to allow them to remain longer in school to prepare them for better positions. In the meantime the children have been buiLding character as well as building themselves up physically. Taking the children from the factories wifi lessen the number of the unemployed. There are now 1,500,000 children in the factories and there are 1,000,000 unemployed. When we are able to take the children from the factories we will leave theirposltions for the adults who are now idle.”