LOCHHEADl 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 87 



It will be well to go slow; we can do naught else in comfort and safety. 

 The time may come when the country school becomes a centre for the spread 

 of the arts and sciences in its district. It will have a teacher's home in con- 

 nection with it, and the tenure of the teacher's office will be for his life. 

 Or it may be that the consolidation of schools will raise the school to its 

 proper place. In either case, the school-garden will be part of the equipment. 

 We are not dealing with a possibility, however, but with a condition." 



Professor Mc Cready believes that for the present the best 

 form of work that can be undertaken is home experimental plots 

 and home gardens in connection with the Ontario Agricultural 

 and Experimental Union which has its headquarters at the 

 Ontario Agricultural College. Such home work will, he thinks, 

 lead in due course to school plots and school-gardens. The 

 scope and aims of the Experimental Union are outlined, and 

 followed by a list of the experiments for 1906 in field Agricul- 

 ture Forestry and Horticulture. While agreeing in a general 

 way with the views so admirably expressed in the bulletin, the 

 reviewer is of the opinion that the system of home gardens and 

 home experiments would tend to isolation of the worker from 

 his fellows and to consequent lack of interest in his work. The 

 enthusiasm which is aroused when a number of children are 

 working together would be wanting. Enthusiasm is a good 

 thing in school effort and should be strongly encouraged. Again, 

 when children work independently at their homes, a spirit of 

 rivalry of the wrong sort is set up, which would tend to keep 

 the workers apart in sympathy. Co-operation and organization 

 for a common good are woefully lacking among farmers ; and 

 the school-garden, with its common plots, should be a means of 

 fostering and cultivating the very traits which are so much 

 needed for the welfare of the community. 



With regard to the long summer vacations. Inspector Cow- 

 ley says : 



"There is no insurmountable difficulty or serious problem in keeping the 

 school-garden decent during the long summer vacation. Even it the garden 

 were to deteriorate from neglect during holidays, the fact will be of altogether 

 minor consequence against school-gardens, since a well-ordered pupil rather 

 than well-ordered garden is the supreme end of it all. If the pupils do not 

 provide for their plots during the vacation, by all means let the weeds grow. 



