PROGEESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 579 



cliildroii of the alliod picpiinitorv schools, the Horace Mann and the 

 flames Spe^'ers oxpcrinicntal schools. 



In a few other cities of the North Atlantic States vegetahle oarden- 

 ing' is being attempted in connection with the schools. Such woi'k has 

 been reported at Elmira, N. Y., and at Trenton, Newark, and Prince- 

 ton, N. J. 



SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES. 



In the whole stretch of coast States from Delaware Bay to the (lulf 

 only two school-garden centers are reported. These an^ at Hampton, 

 Va., and Washington, D. C. At Hampton school gardens are con- 

 ducted at the Whittier School in connection with the Hampton Normal 

 and Agricultural Institute for Negroes and Indians. Two hundred 

 plats, varying in size from 4 b}^ 6 feet to 11 by 15 feet, are devoted to 

 this work. (PI. XXXIV.) Each plat is worked by two i)Upils, and all 

 of the work is done under the supervision of a man who is employed to 

 take general charge of the gardens, j)lant the border beds, and keep the 

 paths in order. Every child in the school, from the kinchu'garten to 

 the seventh grade, is re<[uired to work in the gardens two recitation 

 periods a week. (PI, XXXV, lig. 1.) When this work began nearly 

 three 3^ears ago, not a few of the pupils thought it a disgrace to work 

 out of doors, but at the present time there is not a pupil in the school 

 who doe^i not look forward with eagerness to the gardening periods. 

 The work is conducted on pedagogical principles, and is so correlated 

 with the other school exercises as to make it truly educational. It is 

 also arranged in such a way that i)upils tinishing at the AVhittier School 

 ai'c fully i)r('pari'd to take up the agricultural work in the institute. 

 Many of the negro schools in the vicinitj" of Hampton and Norfolk 

 have begun school-garden work under the direction of Hampton 

 graduates. 



Instruction to the school children ot" Washington in growing flow- 

 ers and veiretal)Ics bcnan in the normal school about a vear and a half 

 ago through the cooperatioii of the l)ei)artment of Agiicultuic and 

 the instructor in liotany in the normal school. The first year nothing 

 was attem])ted except home gardening on the part of thi^ normal school 

 students; but this ex])eriment was so successful that plans were made 

 for broadening the work. Last winter the Department tui'ned over 

 to the use of the instructor in botany and her normal school students 

 a small greeidiouse and a workroom, where the students met once a 

 week and i'eceiv(Kl instruction as well as piactical experience in exam- 

 ining and handling soils, germinating seeds, planting. ])otting, trans- 

 j)lanting, making cuttings, and gi-afting. ^^'hen spring came each of 

 the I'T noiMual school students was recpiired to start a home gai'deii in 

 which she might b(>al)le to carry out the insti'uction and expeiMcnee of 

 the class room and worki'oom. Coiniccted with the normal school are 



