I 40 THE NA Tl 'RES TL 'D Y RE I 'IE W [ 2 : 4 — april, 1906 



MACDONALD SCHOOL GARDENS OF CANADA 



The Nature-Study Review has already given, especially in No. 

 1 . 1905, and in No. 2, 1906. much information concerning these gardens ; 

 and several other papers describing the work in particular gardens are 

 in preparation for early publication. The following excerpt from a 

 paper by Inspector R. H. Cowley {Queen's Quarterly, 1905, pp. 

 390-4 1 S) will help readers to understand better the point of view 

 which controls the Macdonald Gardens. 



'• Three leading motives underly the origin and growth o'" school 

 gardens in Europe :-( 1 ) to provide a convenient means of supplement- 

 ing the teachers' income, thereby simplifying the problem of main- 

 taining the public school; (2) to promote a practical knowledge of 

 horticulture and agriculture, thereby increasing the national pros- 

 perity ; (3) to furnish means and material lor the practical study of 

 botany as a desirable department of scientific knowledge. 



The vast majority of European school gardens look to utility. Of 

 the few that recognize the importance of the educational end, nearly 

 all stop shott at the acquisition of a certain amount of scientific 

 information and the habit of careful observation. On the other hand, 

 the Macdonald School Gardens, while designed to encourage the 

 cultivation of the soil as an ideal life-work, are intended to promote 

 above all things else symmetrical education of the individual. They 

 do not aim at education to the exclusion of utility, but they seek 

 education through utility and utility through education. The garden 

 is the means, the pupil is the end. The Macdonald School Gardens 

 are a factor in an educational movement, and for this reason Professor 

 Robertson sought to have them brought under the Education Depart- 

 ment, and not under the Department of Agriculture in each province. 

 The fact that the various provinces already referred to have passed 

 orders in Council incorporating the Macdonald School Gardens into 

 their educational systems at once places these school gardens on a 

 broader educational basis than that occupied by the school gardens of 

 any other state or country. 



The Macdonald School Gardens not only have a recognized place 

 in the provincial systems of education, but they are attached to the 

 ordinary rural schools, owned by the school corporation and conducted 

 under the authority of the school trustees and the express approval of 

 the rate payers. 



The work of the garden is lecognized as a legitimate part of the 

 school programme, and it is already interwoven with a considerable 

 part of the other studies. The garden is becoming the outer class- 



