“if you will see the children of Berlin you must go out to the arbor colonies outside of the city.  There is where our children are.”  Subsequent visits to these colony gardens showed that Berlin is by no means a childless city.  To judge from the multitudinous arbors to be seen from the windows of the belt line cars there must be 50,000 to 75,000 of them.  As far as the eye reaches the flagpoles, the orderly fences, and the little structures can be seen; and since the city has 2,000,000 inhabitants, it is very likely that an estimate made by a city official of several hundred thousands of children thus living in the open air, is not excessive.  The most beautiful and best-arranged gardens are not found in the vicinity of railroads, but several miles out toward the north and the south of the city.  Here, where the soil is better, fine crops are raised.

If we turn our eyes homeward and contemplate the many thousands of small efforts made in this country toward the alleviation of city children’s misery, we can say truthfully that we in America are perhaps fully alive to the necessity which has prompted the people of Berlin to action; we only need to be reminded of Mayor Pingree’s potato patches on empty city lots, our children’s outing camps, our occasional children’s excursions, and the like.  Still, there is nothing in this country to compare with the thousands of Berlin “arbor gardens” and their singularly convincing force.  Like a circus, all this is supposed to be for the children, though it usually seems to need about two grown people to escort each child.  The elders enjoy the gardens even more than the circus.

The arbor gardens of Berlin should not be mistaken for the numerous “forest schools” (Waldschulen) in Germany.  These schools “in the woods” are for sickly children, both physically crippled and mentally weak.  The pupils have their lessons in the open, and the teachers live, play, and work with them; long recesses separate the various lessons and a two-hour nap in the middle of the day out in the open is on the time-table of every one of these schools.  These special open-air schools for weaklings and defectives are now found in many parts of Germany, notably in Charlottenburg, Strassburg, and the industrial regions of the Rhineland.

The example of Berlin has been followed in other German cities, such as Munich, notably in Dusseldorf on the Rhine, where the arbor gardens are called “Schreber gardens” in honor of the man who promoted their establishment.  There is a large colony of such gardens along the Hans-Sachs street, where Lima beans, peas, lettuce, cucumbers, potatoes, and many other garden vegetables are raised; even strawberries, raspberries, and fruit trees are found here.  But the city being more lavishly provided with parks and open spaces than others of its size, the necessity for open-air life has not made itself felt as forcibly as in Berlin.