How TO Teach Horticulture. 165 



which to work, for there is no better way in which to reach 

 the people of the country than through our normal schools, 

 if the proper instruction is begun there, in the way of home 

 adornment and embellishment. 



It is a beautiful thing to have beautiful home surround- 

 ings, as that is one of the ways in which the children are 

 taught to appreciate the good and beautiful, I want practi- 

 cal things taught so the children will know how to do those 

 things. "When you make the school premises beautiful the 

 leaven is there that will go through the whole district. We 

 tried it and found that the influence went into almost every 

 family in the neighborhood. It is exactly like the story 

 that was told of a teacher who went into a community and 

 put a scraper before the school house door, and it was only 

 a little while before there was a scraper before each door in 

 the neighborhood. I want horticulture to be the same way. 

 I want the children to understand why a vine is more beau- 

 tiful than a straight tree. There is a lesson in that, that he 

 can enlarge upon and employ in a thousand ways to give him 

 satisfaction and enjoyment. At one time I was elected a 

 director, and when I came to hire the teacher I said: "I 

 want you to teach this school. I know what you know 

 about some things, and I know you like botany. Now I 

 want you to take it right into the school, and I do not expect 

 you to teach it ^entirely out of books. I want you once a 

 week to take a day and go into the woods, and I want you 

 to make it so interesting for the children in the woods that 

 you will not have any trouble at all with them." She went 

 to work and did it, and at the end of three months she was 

 to have her pay and I found out that with all the influence 

 I could possibly bring to bear, they voted to cut out every 

 one of those days in paying her, and I had to pay her myself. 

 That is an instance of some of the difficulties we have to 

 contend with in teaching horticulture in Michigan, and we 

 have a college and agricultural college in which horticul- 

 ture is made the special feature. Now I have thought of 

 this subject a great deal and I have some opinions in regard 

 to it. I think that a teacher in an agricultural college who 

 will be the most successful will be the one who can do 



