SCHOOL GARDENS. 453 



the garden will afford the pupils their only opportunities for study- 

 ing, describing, drawing, and painting such insects. 



How the garden is supported, and how the necessary work is done, 

 are interesting questions to those who think of starting a garden. 

 Since 1891 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society has offered 

 every year a premium of fifteen , dollars for the best school garden, 

 in connection with the best use of it. This garden has competed 

 with others, and won the premium every year. Five dollars pays 

 for the annual enrichment of the soil, and ten dollars for the labor of 

 the janitor, who, during the long summer vacation, weeds, hoes, and 

 waters the plants, and cuts the grass periodically. In spring he 

 wheels in and spreads fertilizing material, prepares new beds or rows, 

 and resets old ones with plants changed from other localities. Dur- 

 ing the school season in spring and autumn teachers and pupils do 

 considerable work in weeding and transplanting; the former being 

 able to distinguish choice plants, however small, from weeds, which 

 many a so-called good gardener is frequently unable to do. 



Reasons that are good for introducing the elements of science 

 into elementary schools are equally good for supplying adequate and 

 seasonable elementary science material to work upon. Plants are 

 so available for the purposes of instruction, their structure, uses, and 

 functions are so varied and interesting, that it is generally conceded 

 that the best elementary science material on the whole is found in 

 the vegetable world. 



The repulsion that is so often felt in studying animals or animal 

 physiology is unknown in studying plants, and the cycle of plant life 

 from seed to seed furnishes a lesson in biology that is unsurpassed 

 in value. Moreover, living plants, out of doors, are necessarily con- 

 nected with mineral forms — air, earth, and water — as well as with 

 various forms of animal life — butterflies, moths, beetles, wasps, ants, 

 grubs, and worms — all together furnishing constant illustrations of 

 correlation under the best conditions. 



The elements of zoology may be studied in the schoolroom with 

 some profit by means of dried and alcoholic specimens, skeletons, dia- 

 grams, and books, but visible correlation will of necessity be wholly 

 left out. The same may be said of mineralogy or mineral substances 

 generally. But in the school garden the interdependence of 

 animals, plants, and minerals is always obvious, and teachers 

 and pupils can take advantage of it without taking time and 

 money to go to the country for the purpose of seeing the three 

 kingdoms of Nature properly related. Of course, the excursion 

 is better in many respects, since many instructive things may be 

 seen which are not possible for a school garden; but the excursion 

 at best is seldom practicable. On the school premises, pupils are 



