STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



119 



And some parents will connive with their children to devise 

 excuses. 



The school garden is in the same category as nature study, 

 manual training and domestic science. In fact, it furnishes the 

 most rational basis for nature study work. It furnishes the 

 growling plant in an environment much more natural than the 

 fiower pot in the school room, and much more available for city 

 children than the virgin forest or the open field. Xature study 

 excursions are in many localities impracticable, and in all cities 

 they make relatively heavy demands upon the time of the school 

 children. The school garden is near at hand, always available. 



Childrens' gardens overlooking the Hudson River in New York 

 City. The chickens are given a daily walk in the garden. 



and the time devoted to it need be no greater than is now given 

 to ''waking-up exercises" or other diversions intended to relieve 

 the monotony of study. School gardening should be put on the 

 same basis in our schools as manual training and domestic 

 science. To a limited extent it should be required of every 

 pupil in the lower grade, but further than that it should be made 

 optional, just as manual training and domestic science are now 

 optional in many of our best city schools. Not every boy is 

 interested in manual training, not every girl in cooking or sew- 



