A VALUABLE HINT.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 90, 29 July 1895, Page 3

A VALUABLE HINT.

A hint which may bo useful to enter' prising philanthropists wishing to do something for the unemployed comes from Detroit, and is thus put in words by the Now York correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald:- “MrPingrce, mayor of Detroit, when the times two years ago grew very bad, concrdved the notion of utilising the unused areas round the town as a means of practical poor relief. There were 6,000 acres of vacant land in Detroit, and the owners of 400 acres readily consented that he should do as be pleased with them on condition that he would accept six month’s notice to leave. He raised a fund for ploughs and seeds, then himself ploughed up the soil, and spent a whole day showing poor applicants how to raise potatoes, onions, and other similar market produce. To the man who had absolutely nothing small advances of money were made, say JO cents on each day’s elective work, under the super vision of a volunteer head farmer, and these have been repaid as the crops have been marketed. 8o much real good was effected that the fame of “ Pingree’s Potato Patch” has spread all over the United States, and in Now York, Chicago, and nearly all the large cities, waste land is now being occupied in the same way, either at a nominal rental or as a freewill offering on Iho part of the owners. Better still, many of the persons who thus from necessity have learned how to make the earth yie'd forih her increase are showing a strong inclination to betake themselves permanently into parts of the country where a farm can bo had almost for the asking, and the offer of one capitalist to sell off a large tract of many thousand acres at a low price on credit has found already many takers.”