358 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [11:8— Nov., 1915 



school he finds one of his required industrial activities to consist in 

 doing his part to care for the plants, trees and lawn of the school 

 premises. As he becomes older or reaches the third year of his 

 training he enters the class in vegetable gardening and is assigned 

 a small tract in the school garden which becomes his farm. Upon 

 this tract he exercises all the rights of a tiller of the soil. He pre- 

 pares and fertilizes it, plants the seed and gathers as his own the 

 fruits of his land. In addition to the tract in the school garden a 

 home garden is required of him. Usually this home garden is at 

 the boy's home but frequently several boys combine interests and 

 cultivate a vacant lot. In every community are many such gar- 

 dens on lots which before thrived with weeds and were not only 

 unsightly but were a menace to the health of the community. 

 So the garden work becomes the industrial requirement of the 

 pupil. It is conducted under the guidance of a teacher who daily 

 visits the school garden and makes at least weekly visits to the 

 home gardens. The boy finds it as necessary to secure a passing 

 mark in this work in order to be eligible for promotion as in any 

 of the three R's. Each month of the year he works his land' and 

 learns how to keep it producing. A close study is made of seasons 

 and of plants best adapted to each season. Remarkable results 

 have been secured and the neighbors have been surprised at what 

 the boys were doing in the way of numerous harvests from the 

 same land. During the past school year some 3200 schools had 

 vegetable gardens and about 43,000 home gardens were cultivated 

 by school pupils as prescribed school work under the supervision 

 of teachers. These numbers would be multiplied several times 

 were there included the thousands of gardens of the people which 

 have been planted as direct result of the school boys' successful 

 gardens. Besides the actual growing of plants, the pupils are 

 taught seed selection, soil facts and how to use the vegetables 

 grown. 



For several years special campaigns have been conducted as 

 features of the garden work. One of these was a three year cam- 

 paign to promote the production of corn and its use as a human 

 food. Each year the campaign grew until during the past year 

 43.759 boys grew corn and 11,000 girls were instructed in the 

 preparation of palatable corn dishes with such cooking utensils 

 and ingredients as are available in the average home. More than 

 half a million people attended the various corn demonstrations 



