THE SCHOOL GARDEN 89 



apple, tobacco, banana, cotton, orange, guinea 

 corn, sarsaparilla, pindars, vanilla, grapes. 

 Some insecticides. 



Work in a School Garden offers great possibilities, 

 although it presents many difficulties. Teachers will 

 find that forethought and preparation for the various 

 branches of the work are absolutely necessary to pre- 

 vent many of the children, if not the majority, wasting 

 their time. 



Putting monitors in charge -of small groups, and telling 

 them very definitely beforehand what is expected of 

 them, will be found a useful practice. Pupils should 

 be given certain tasks for various periods of time. It 

 might be one child's duty for a month to keep the 

 garden free of bits of paper, dead leaves, &c. ; another 

 might for a week have to water certain plants, and a 

 third have charge of the walks. 



OBJECTS OF WORK 



What the main object of work in a School Garden 

 should be is still disputed by educationalists and others 

 interested in the subject. Some would insist that the 

 training of a child's powers of observation is the only 

 object to be attained, and that it would be both out of 

 place and useless, owing to the age at which children 

 leave the public elementary schools, to endeavour to 

 inculcate practices and to teach facts that would be of 

 direct use in after life. 



School Garden work may be considered to serve three 

 distinct purposes, and although complete realization of 

 these cannot be hoped for, much of value may be accom- 

 plished in each class. 



