weed] SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL ROOM GARDENING 135 



from one to forty. Each pupil is given one of these numbers 

 and assigned the corresponding space. It then becomes a com- 

 paratively simple matter to conduct the gardening operations and 

 to have each pupil care for his own plants from beginning to end. 



Next to the shallow zinc trays the most important item in 

 this program is the paper flower pot. It is a constant source 

 of wonder to me that so few Nature-Study teachers and super- 

 visors have realized how essential these pots are to successful 

 school room gardening by individual pupils and I am convinced 

 that this individual care and responsibility is about the only kind 

 of school room gardening that is worth while in our large city 

 schools. These paper pots have the advantage that the evapora- 

 tion takes place chiefly from the surface of the soil rather than 

 the sides of the pot as is the case with the ordinary pottery flower 

 pots. On this account one can grow plants in three inch paper 

 pots in the school room where it would be out of the question to 

 do so in pottery pots of the same size. The paper pots also 

 have the additional advantage that the sides can be pressed in 

 where crowding is necessary, so that more of them can be used 

 on the trays than would be possible with the pottery makes. 

 There are two kinds of these pots now on sale and they can be 

 ordered through the larger seed houses. One is the Neponset 

 paper pot the other is the Peirce paper pot. I have used both 

 and have found them satisfactory. 



The best foliage plants for such school room use are Aspar- 

 agus Plumosus, Asparagus Sprengeri and Tradescantia. There 

 are also many small ferns which can be used successfully. 

 Among the flowering plants the geranium is of course the most 

 satisfactory. The spring flowering bulbs, however, furnish the 

 most desirable plants for this individual gardening and should 

 be largely grown in all schools. We have found that the Paper 

 White Narcissus and the French Roman Hyacinth will blossom 

 successfully if kept in the school room from the first, while most 

 of the other forms require a period of root development in a 

 cool basement. 



The accompanying picture shows the methods and some re- 

 sults as they have been obtained under ordinary city condition 

 in the Bartlett Training School at Lowell. In the first grade 

 low, zinc-lined tables were substituted for the window trays, so that 

 the children could more easily care for the plants. The re- 

 sults have been especially gratifying in these rooms. 



