214 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [i, 5. sept. 1905 



aught but encouragement. We believe the effect of the gardens 

 upon the schools will be seen next fall in the Taggart School, for 

 the 250 children of the 5th and Porter Streets School-Garden 

 practically all come from that one school. 



On March 8, 1904, our Association petitioned the Board of 

 Public Education to establish two school gardens, and the Coun- 

 cils to provide the money for them. An appropriation for the 

 purpose was finally passed on May 5, and on May 24 and 28 

 respectively, two gardens were planted, with radishes, beans, 

 lettuce, and other vegetables, arranged around a central plot of 

 flowers. 



The first garden was in the heart of the most crowded foreign 

 district of the city, at Weccacoe Square, 5th and Catherine Streets, 

 the property of the city. The second garden was at 56th and 

 Lansdowne Avenue, on private property which was lent for the 

 purpose by Mr. John Wanamaker. 



At each garden were 250 individual plots 4^ x 11^ feet, each of 

 which w r as assigned to one of the boys or girls of the upper gram- 

 mar grades, who applied by hundreds, from the schools near the 

 gardens. In addition to the individual plots, there were eighteen 

 general plots at each garden, where were grown grains for the 

 observation and instruction of all. About one-third of the space 

 at each garden was devoted to a playground. These playgrounds 

 proved of benefit chiefly to boy and girls of about tw r elve years of 

 age, for whom the street is the only alternative — since the thirty 

 or more playgrounds opened in the school-yards each summer, by 

 the Board of Public Education, are used almost beyond their 

 capacity by the young children of the neighborhood. The shaded 

 playgrounds served to hold the children during the hot hours of 

 the summer between the morning weeding, picking, and planting, 

 and the evening watering. 



Between May 15th and June 30th, and again from September 

 8th to October 8th. the little farmers were at school, when the 

 hours from four to six were the only times that the children could 

 work in the gardens. For the teachers, however, all the hours 

 were fully occupied ; in the spring they had to prepare lessons, 

 seeds, roll-books, etc., and in the fall to explain the methods and 

 purpose of the work to the numerous eager visitors, and to teach 

 the classes brought by the teachers of neighboring schools for 

 observation. In the early hours they also prepared the nature- 



