66 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i. 2, march, 1905 



exhibited, the largest production being two mammoth whaleback 

 squashes weighing twenty-eight and twenty-nine pounds apiece, 

 and the most unique, a handsome pepper plant, full of peppers, 

 growing in a tin pail. The flower table included all common 

 varieties from the showy nasturtium and marigold to the dainty 

 pansy and the sturdy dahlia. The finest golden marigold plant 

 that I have ever seen, one literally covered with huge blossoms, 

 was grown and exhibited in a large pot. A little girl was the 

 proud owner and she won the first premium for marigolds. Many 

 people sought the attendant to inquire if the exhibit was entirely 

 the work of the children, none of whom were over fourteen years 

 of age, the youngest were but five, and the average was probably 

 not more than ten. 



I doubt if any summer ever spent by the children of the Down- 

 ing St. school has been as profitable as this one. They had defi- 

 nite, pleasing, out-of-door occupation ; and not once have I heard 

 a complaint, heard so often summers before, that the mothers 

 would be glad when school began so that boys and girls would be 

 away from the street and its dangers. 



WHY SOME SCHOOL-GARDENS ARE FAILURES 



BY T. R. CROSWELL 

 Supervisor of Training School, Los Angeles, Cal. 



What is a school-garden ? On your answer depends very much 

 the success or failure you will make of one. 



The school-garden of certain parts of Europe forms a portion 

 of the income of the tenant schoolmaster. It is more than an 

 experiment in showing how things grow. It represents a suc- 

 cessful venture as well as an object lesson in elementary agricul- 

 ture. Such conditions do not exist in the public schools of 

 America. Yet many writers, advocating the school-garden for 

 our schools, cite these foreign ones as models. 



One of the best known school-gardens in the United States 

 consists of limited beds in all sorts of available corners of a limited 

 school-yard. In one corner a group of children care for a bed of 

 flowers, in other angles other varieties are cared for by other 

 groups. Some are wild flowers, some are domesticated. Through 



