THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN SCHOOLS 



Vol. 2 MARCH, 1906 No. 3 



SCHOOL-GARDENS 



BY B. M. DAVIS 

 State Normal School, Chico, California 



[Read before the California State Farmer's Institute in joint session with the 

 California Teachers' Association, December 26, 1905.] 



I wish to discuss two phases of my subject : (1) its relation, together 

 with nature-study, to the curriculum ; (2) its practice (a) in the cities 

 (b) in the country. 



The school-garden is the outdoor laboratory for carrying on just 

 such work in elementary agriculture as has been called to your atten- 

 tion. It is a huge slate where problems in plant growth may be put 

 on and then rubbed out and new ones put on. There can be little 

 doubt in the minds of any of us who have listened to the interesting 

 address ' and the interesting discussion following it that this is a 

 desirable form of school activity. Yet whatever progress the school- 

 garden movement has made in this country has been against the same 

 protest that is often raised against other new subjects : " The curri- 

 culum is already too crowded." 



This attitude of the teacher, and especially of those who make 

 courses of study, is readily understood when we recognize the fact 

 that the course of study, as we find -it in this country, is not a pro- 



1 " Why the Friends of Agricultural Products Believe that Agriculture Should 

 be Taught in the Public Schools." A. C. True, Director Office of Experiment 

 Stations, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Dis- 

 cussed by : E. W. Hilgard, Professor of Agriculture, University of California ; 

 L. D. Harvey, Superintendent Stout Training Schools, Menomonie, Wis.; T. O. 

 Crawford, County Superintendent of Schools, Oakland ; R. L. Beardslee, Assem- 

 blyman Twenty-third District, Stockton ; et al. 



