Country Life
GARDENS FOR THE MILLION.
A new effort in gardening for the million—especially for the two million six hundred thousand of unemployed—is being made ; and has, in my view, qualities that may permanently influence our civilization. Now it has long been a sort of hobby of mine for many years to make a journey to the scene of any experiment in the technique of a return to the land or in reclamation ; chiefly in England, but also in other places ; Holland and Guernsey, for example ; and indeed in Canada and Australia. Most of them have had some merit, some influence for good, even where the failures or defects have been most conspicuous. I suppose the most expensive, where least of the capital or interest has been returned is the group of settlements on newly reclaimed, newly irrigated land in New South Wales and South Australia. But at the worst attractive communities are in being where food is produced and life is healthy and pleasant. How well I remember visiting one of these in its very early stages and finding that one of the few equipments thoroughly completed was a group of hard lawn-tennis courts !
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