VACANT LOT FARMING. A plan for re lieving destitution by permitting those in need to cultivate, under supervision, vacant lots in the city or its suburbs. The scheme originated in 1894 with Hazen S. Pingree. Mayor of Detroit, as a mode of relieving distress during the hard times then prevailing. Several thousand acres of land were offered to the committee appointed by Nlayor Pingree, but only 430 acres were accepted. This was prepared for cultivation. and appor tioned in small lots among 945 families. Seeds and tools Mere furnished by the committee. whose superintendent had control of the practical execu tion of the work. Produce estimated at a value of $12.000 was raised the first year, at an ex pense to the committee of less than $4000. The pronounced philanthropic as well n financial success of the plan caused its trial in a number of cities during the next year. In New York the work came under control of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. Vacant lots on Manhattan Island being too scattered, offers of land in Long Island City were accepted, and acres, were cultivated. Eighty-four persons held plots averaging seven-tenths of an acre in area. As in Detroit. the chief crop was potatoes. The expenses of the managing com mittee were $3800 and the total value of amps raised $8800. A feature of the work was a self supporting cooperative farm of 38 acres. In 1895 vacant lot farms were cultivated in many cities, including New York. Detroit. Boston. Denver. Minneapolis, Omaha, Seattle. and Toledo. It was taken up during the next two years by other cities, including Chicago, Kansas City, and Philadelphia. In the majority of cases the man agement has been in the hands of private chari table societies, as in New York and Boston. In Denver an independent committee was estab lished; in Philadelphia, the Vacant Lots Culti vation Association has been specially chartered. Finally, the administration has in some instances been in the hands of the municipal authorities, as in Buffalo and in Detroit.
The most important single influence on the success of vacant lot farming is the personality of the superintendent, who must not only be a practical fanner, but must have executive ability, tact iu handling people, and commercial knowl edge enough to dispose of the crops profitably.
The cultivators and their families usually con sume a portion of their produce, but the larger part is generally sold in the local market. In most cases land has been lent for the pur poses of cultivation, but sometimes, as in Boston, it has been rented. After the initial outlays for preparing the land, supplying seed, tools, etc., have been made, the running expenses do not in clude much beyond the superintendent's salary. The scheme involves less danger of pauperizing the recipients than do ordinary methods of poor relief, while the work offered is educative in itself. Objection has been raised that it com petes unfairly with self-dependent farmers, but while this charge has some weight against vacant lot farming as a permanent establishment, it hardly makes against it as a relief measure in times of economic distress. As a matter of fact financial results have generally been satisfactory. With the return of industrial prosperity, atten tion to vacant lot farming diminished. Phila delphia is among the few cities in which it has continued to increase. The association culti vated nearly 200 acres in 1902, as against 130 in 1900, and 27 in 1897. The number of persons affected has grown during the same period from 578 to 3775: the value of the total produce in 1902 was $50,000, the total outlay $5557. while the cost per plot sank from $18.25 in 1S97 to $7.00 in 1902. The purely educative side of vacant lot farming has recently been developed in the children's 'home gardens,' or city 'farm schools,' which have been started in New York and elsewhere. Consult : New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, Notes, vol. i., Nos. I and 2 (1895-9(3) Speirs, say, and Kirkbride, "Vacant Lot Cultivation," in Charities Review, vol. viii.. p. 74 (containing bibliography). The Philadelphia and other so cieties publish reports.