34 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [12:1— Jan., 1916 



cellar should be drained and kept dry. Such care will prolong 

 the life of the house, indefinitely. 



So anywhere in the house we may look for these little enemies 

 of ours which destroy the things we want. Keeping things dry, 

 and well open to currents of air, which means the same thing, 

 and looking out for spores where we can tends to keep the molds 

 out. They grow best in summer when the temperature is above 

 8o day and night, and when the air is moist. Then we have to 

 show the most vigilance. 



The Best School Garden I Know 



Margaret Knox 



Principal of P. S. 15, Man., 728 Fifth Avenue, New York City 



You will not agree with me in this I am sure for when you picture 

 the best garden anyone knows, you immediately think of well- 

 trimmed grass plots, a few shade trees, attractive looking shrub- 

 bery, and always a wealth of garden flowers. 



The garden I know has none of these, and yet, for all that, 

 it is the very best sort of garden because of the very useful life 

 it leads. 



Let me describe it. It is down in the most crowded part of a 

 very big and very crowded city. It is between two very high 

 brick walls and the only shade tree that it is acquainted with is 

 one poor ailanthus tree; all the rest are just trunks of some 

 monarchs of the forest, cut down long ago and brought to this 

 big crowded city to be used to attach pulleys for clothes lines 

 reaching out from the tenement house windows on both sides of 

 the space left between the houses crowded on two streets. 



This garden space is in the yard or play space of a big public 

 school which 3200 boys and girls attend. The whole space is 

 about the size of a city lot 20 x 100 feet but the garden occupies 

 only a little strip down each side of this lot and a little square 

 bit at the back where the ailanthus tree stands. This tree was 

 left there by request when the residence was torn down to make 

 this play space for the children of this big school. The little 

 square plot of ground with the ailanthus tree standing on it used 

 to be the backyard of an old fashioned city house 



"How could anyone have a successful garden amid such sur- 

 roundings?" I hear vou ask. Well, here is your answer. 



