Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/406

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��Popular Science Monthly

���Under an agricultural expert the prisoners of a Philadelphia penitentiary are planting vegetables on the prison roof

��College of Pennsylvania, who is a specialist in agri- culture. Between lectures the student has the benefit of an additional correspond- ence course on the same subject. But the most appreciated part of this undertaking in the neces- sarily monotonous lives of the prisoners is the practical demonstration of the course, as shown in the roof garden. Robust radishes, crisp lettuce, the bountiful bean and other vegetables in common usage are planted and flourish under the sci- entific cultivation and lend interest and variety to the prison bill-of-fare.

��A Penitentiary Roof Garden — An Example of Scientific Farming

THE very flourishing roof garden shown above is not over the top floor of any gilded hotel, or millionaires' club. It sur- mounts a very different kind of hostelry — the Eastern Peniteatiary, in Philadelphia.

There the convicts are cultivating what might be called, according to the times, a "war garden but as far as the men them selves are concerned, the open air occupation and the pride in their fine crops afford the prison- ers such real satisfac- tion, akin to pleasure, that the place seems in itself a peace garden.

The men are not chosen and sent to this work. Of his own volition any of these future scientific farmers may make application for en- rollment in the class of agriculture which is taught in the peni- tentiary. Having been enrolled, the member of the class attends three lec- tures a week given at the prison by a pro- fessor of the State

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���Making newspaper candles. Mrs. Cushee rolls the strips, ties each one securely and boils them in paraffin

��Newspaper Torches to Take Place of Candles

IF you want to do your bit toward making the world safe for democracy and don't know how to do it, you might take up the work started by Mrs. Edward Cushee, of New York city. She is making torches for our troops who will soon hold a sec- tor of trenches in France. The torches are to take the place of candles, and they are made of old newspapers and par- affin.

To make one torch she takes six strips of news- paper, two columns wide, and rolls them up, tying them securely with cord. After boil- ing each roll of paper in paraffin for twenty minutes it is ready to light. It will burn for forty-five minutes and give off a better light than the ordi- nary candle.

In this "bit" of patriotic endeavor the boys and girls can also lend a hand — the boys to collect the old papers, and the girls to cut the paper into strips and roll them.

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