70 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



is handling real things under real conditions. Therefore, the 

 mental life of the child is stimulated, his mind opens to the ques- 

 tions which nature asks him and interest is never forced. Here ob- 

 servation is natural. We all remember the old type of normal 

 school lesson plan in which one of the steps was observation — a 

 step often forced so that it became a side issue. In the garden 

 with the increasing interest developed from the growth of real and 

 living things, observation must naturally be stimulated. You can 

 scarcely walk through a garden and not stop here and there to 

 observe some interesting phenomenon of life. 



During the season of 1921, we took from our children's garden 

 area of about three-quarters of an acre, at the Brooklyn Botanic 

 Garden $3,220.97 worth of crop. We did not start out to make 

 that sum. We started out to do the best gardening that could 

 possibly be done under our given conditions. We gained our 

 results through the most careful work and observation of such 

 rules as those we should follow through life, as, neatness, preci- 

 sion, dependence upon self, and obedience to simple directions. 

 The other factors which made it possible to obtain these results 

 were those brought about by actually studying our problems 

 so that not an inch of ground was idle; so that one crop followed 

 another crop, and the crops which were used were studied carefully 

 so that they succeeded the right crops and made not too heavy 

 demands upon the soil. Very small matters indeed contribute 

 to the real success of work. 



Our training for the 1921 garden started weeks before the 

 garden was open. It started in our Saturday morning classes 

 where the beginners were taught exactly what crops were to be 

 planted first and why. Then lessons were given on depth of 

 planting, on spacing and on the plan of the garden. This plan 

 is made on the floor and is exactly the size of the plot the child is to 

 have. The class sits around in the form, of a circle as the children 

 in the kindergarten do, and the different places for the drills are 

 measured off; the seeds are placed upon the floor. By this 

 arrangement, the child receives a feeling of exact size, photographs 

 on his brain a plan of that garden and becomes proficient in measur- 

 ing off his distances. He also knows the order and proper sequence 

 of planting his crops so that that lesson does not have to be taught 

 him in the field. He knows every seed by sight and feeling 



