from the use of evergreen shrubs under Richmond climatic conditions seems not generally to be appreciated. A knowledge of home beautification on the part of the people might easily double the city's beauty and increase property values. The statement of one Richmond real estate dealer on this point should be convincing. He says: "A home with a well-decorated exterior is half sold."

The plan of laying out as many alleys as streets has both advantages and disadvantages. In these alleys are buildings of all sizes, colors, and conditions of repair (Pl. 3, fig. A). The presence of the alley offers the excuse and easily leads to the habit of dumping everything not needed in the house or yard over the back fence. In some sections of the city (Pl. 4, figs. A and B) the alleys are a disgrace to the town and a menace to public health.

Glen Miller Park is a credit to the city, but its location is such that the people of the central and western part of the town have to go too long distances to visit it often. The central landscape feature of the city seems to have been overlooked. The Whitewater River valley holds great scenic possibilities and has the advantage of being located where it can be seen each day by many residents and all strangers who visit the city.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS.

Homes. Although located in the center of a farming region, the prices paid for vegetables are comparatively high. Prices are standardized by present methods of selling. Considering the low average labor income, the amount spent for vegetable foods is large, averaging $138.87 for a family of five persons. About 30 per cent of the families have home or vacant-lot vegetable gardens, but the methods of planting and cultivation are not intensive, and the money value of the product is small. Of all the homes in the city, less than 10 per cent lack space on which to make a practical kitchen garden; 30 per cent have enough land to produce all the vegetables for the family during the productive season of the garden; and in 60 per cent there is enough to produce fresh and canned vegetables and berries for the entire year, and, in many cases, to have a surplus to sell. There is enough vacant ground so that all of those who are without land could secure enough for a family garden. In most cases the use of vacant lots can be secured free of charge, but when it has to be rented the price of $1 per lot is so small that it would have little effect in decreasing the profits.

Schools. The school year in Richmond is nine months in length and the school day five hours. The children are out of school nearly half of the week days of the entire year, and three-fourths of the days

of the garden season. On school days less than half of the daylight hours are spent in the classroom. All of the children of the city might have occupations two hours per day on school days and four on Saturdays, holidays, and in the summer vacation, and yet have enough time left for play, reading, music, and other special studies. At the present time only 9.1 per cent of the elementary school children have regular productive occupation during vacation, 7 per cent irregular employment, and 4.4 per cent after-school hours. In the Garfield School 19 per cent are engaged in earning money before and after school, and 25 per cent during the vacation. Of the highschool students reporting, only one-fourth have vacation occupation.

Of 889 children in the elementary schools reporting on homegarden space, 6 per cent were without home lots, 39 per cent had an average of 400 square feet, and 55 per cent had 1,000 or more square feet.

In several cities where home gardening was conducted under the direction of the public schools the children were able to produce a net profit of 10 cents per square foot. The children of the nine elementary schools of Richmond should be able, on the basis of the number of square feet reported (see Table 3), to earn from their gardens a total of $62,820, or an average per child of $70.66. The home-garden income from the 516 reporting from the Garfield school would be $34,740, or an average per child of $67.32.

In some cases the same land has been reported on by two children of the same family, one attending an elementary school and the other the Garfield school. These cases will, however, be offset by the large vacant tracts of which no account has been made, and while the figures may seem large, there is little doubt that each public-school child of garden age may produce enough to reduce the cost of vegetables in his home to half the present cost.

A comparatively large number of children leave school each year, some because they need to earn money toward the support of the home and others because school subjects do not interest them. The earnings of these children are small, and their earning powers might be much increased if a more complete education were received. The number of cases of juvenile delinquency and truancy is very much greater in the city than in the country. With each industrial depression, city families turn to the country to seek a means of livelihood. Agricultural instruction is not given in the schools, and thus the younger pupils do not become interested in the subject; older students are unable to pursue the subject vocationally, and those who,

1 In several cities in North Carolina and Tennessee a number of children have produced 10 cents' worth of vegetables per square foot and a few have achieved even larger returns. The figure is used here to set a standard of excellence that teachers should aim to have a large number of children reach.

from financial necessity, seek the country have a small earning power and are unable to adapt themselves to country life.

The beauty of the city might be much increased if the citizens were familiar with the methods of cultivation and care of decorative plants.

GENERAL CONCLUSION.

Value of garden training in Richmond.-A thorough and practical garden training would have great economic and educational value to all of the people of the city. To make the most successful gardens, knowledge and skill are necessary. Profitable gardening may result from years of experience, but the quickest and greatest returns in money and pleasure can be obtained only when experience is combined with scientific study of soil, climate, and crop production. Many people born in the city have little or no knowledge of making practical home gardens, and even those who have lived on farms have little experience in the kind of intensive gardening adapted to the city. The schools were established for the complete education of all the people; they are the logical centers for garden teaching and should be able to do such teaching more economically and permanently than any other agency.

The economical and educational value of garden education as a department of the public educational system of the city should reach all of the people. While the garden teachers would devote their attention primarily to the children, they should also act as a source of information and help to all who are interested in gardening. The following advantages should result from the establishment of such a department:

A thousand children might be employed in healthful and gainful occupation during the out-of-school hours.

All of the unused land and unproductive time of the children might be used to contribute to the wealth of the home and community. Many children will be able to remain in school longer by contributing to the income of the home.

From regular work the children would form regular habits of industry and learn the value of money.

Many of the children are in the psychological period at which gardening is nominally playwork, and under the right system of teaching will not become burdensome to any.

Garden teaching affords the best kind of nature-study teaching. General school subjects will be vitalized by correlation with gardening, and children who have lost interest in learning for learning's sake will renew interest by having the schools take up a subject in which it is possible to learn and earn through doing.

Real interest in school work prevents truancy.

By having regular occupation the pupils will be saved from evils caused by idleness and less liable to commit juvenile-court offenses. Back yards and vacant lots would be cleared and cleaned and home environments improved.

The teaching of methods of planting decorative plants would increase civic pride and city beauty.

A thrifty next generation would be developed who would be proud of Richmond, the city they developed.

RECOMMENDATIONS.1

Based on the facts stated in this investigation, the following recommendations are made:

Board of education.-The board of education of Richmond should commit itself to the plan of establishing in the public schools of the city a complete department of home gardening under the direction of the public schools within the next three years and it should be the policy of the board to demand that those who are employed to direct the gardening adapt their teaching to the needs of the people of the city. The first and principal aim should be to train many people to produce their own vegetables and small fruit foods; the second aim should be to train the people to carry out other avocational home projects which may have economic value to the people of the city; and for those students who attend the Richmond high school from the country, and for those of the city who wish to take up farming as a life work, vocational agriculture courses should be given. The central theme of the school department should be, "By the city for the benefit of the city's people."

High school. (See City Plan of Organization, p. 21.) A teacher who is trained in theoretical and practical agriculture should be employed to teach in the high school and also to be the general homegarden supervisor. This teacher should be employed for 12 months, but not more than one-half his time should be given to the training of the high-school students who wish to study agriculture vocationally and the other half to training, supervising, and assisting the home-garden teachers of each school district.

1 The recommendations here presented were somewhat modified in the local report to conform to the Indiana vocation law. For the modified version, see the Richmond (Ind.)

Vocational education survey report.