68 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



any part of the school. A little attention given to providing amusement here, 

 will solve the question, how to preserve the ornamental grounds, much better 

 than the attempted enforcement of such rules, though in this matter we do not 

 give the scholars due credit for the observance of rules. I know in some recent 

 work in Grand Eapids we have all been very agreeably surprised at the readi- 

 ness with which the scholars accepted the new order of things, although it 

 deprived them of a large portion of their play ground. 



One of the main objections made against this sort of work is that it will not 

 pay, and cannot be afforded, but considered in the right way as an influence 

 in mental development, to say nothing of the purifying and refining influence, 

 I believe it will pay largely, and should be considered a necessary expense as 

 much as any other part of the school. 



H. Dale Adams — Land is very scarce in our county. There is so little of it 

 that only four or five people of my acquaintance m our immediate neighbor- 

 hood think that more than one-tenth of an acre can be spared for school 

 purposes. Here is where we must begin in the discussion of the subject of 

 school ground ornamentation. We must get more land to be appropriated for 

 school purposes. No school yard should contain less than an acre. Let this 

 Society send out its fiat that at least an acre of ground in each district shall be 

 devoted to the children, and I would like to see a great deal more. I would 

 enjoy having the school yard the most attractive place in the neighborhood, 

 and will ever stand ready to help make it such. 



J. D. Baldwin said he had offered to give evergreens to school districts that 

 would take the trouble to simply dig them up and transplant them, but no 

 applications came. 



S. M. Pearsall — The children are our hope, and we live for them — certainly 

 we should not hesitate to grant them anything in this line that will be for 

 their highest good. 



E. M. Potter — When in a large number of school districts they only hold 

 sessions of school long enough to draw public money, we have pretty poor 

 material to work upon in order to secure the embellishment of the school 

 yard. I confess I am not very enthusiastic, notwithstanding I see the crying 

 need of effective work in this direction. 



D. K. Shoop — I am wholly in accord with the spirit of Mr. Haigh's paper, 

 and rejoice that our Society is taking hold of this matter earnestly. I should 

 advocate even more territory for grounds than suggested by our friend Mr. 

 Adams. Two acres is little enough to ornament and reserve a good play 

 ground. Every school should have its gymnasium, and, in order to avoid 

 gross errors, I would have the grounds laid out by a landscape gardener, that 

 by and by, when the trees are grown up and the shrubbery fully developed, it 

 will exhibit a prophetic eye in the arrangement. I hardly think it advisable 

 to bring very many flowers or fruits in the yard, but let there be a wealth and 

 diversity of evergreens and deciduous trees and shrubs. 



Geo. W. Bridgman — I wish to put in a good word for the flowers. I believe 

 they may be employed with excellent effect, not only for the outward adorn- 

 ment of the grounds but for inner embellishment of the school room, and 

 there is nothing that can be used in the school room with better effect to 

 awaken observation and develop analytic power in the young minds. 



Mr. Haigh pleaded for some definite action by which there should result 

 some influence with the educational department of the State. 



Prof. Lawton — We cannot expect much from people who take no pains to 

 ornament their own homes. Any good results in this direction must arise from 



