744 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



Those I'hiUlrcii and all up through the lifth grade attend our Whittier 

 School, and do their tirst work in agriculture in the .school garden. 

 A .section of this garden, as indicated above, i.s cut up into .small beds, 

 varying in .size from 4 l)y ♦> feet for the kindergarten to 11 by 15 feet 

 for the fourth and tifth grades. Two children are a.ssigned to each 

 bed and they care for the bed together. The aim in the garden is to 

 make the work a pleasure to the children ami not let them .see the 

 harder side of it until they have developed a liking for it. This work 

 begins at the opening of school in October, at which time the garden-s 

 are thoroughly spaded, raked, and planted with such crops as spinach, 

 kale, radishes, and onions, which generally stand the winter climate 

 of the region very well, and give the children a crop of radishes before 

 Thanksgi\'ing and early spring crops of the other vegetables. These 

 crops are followed by summer vegetables and flowers, the children 

 being allowed to take home what they raise. At the clo.se of the 

 school, the last of May, volunteers are called for to carry on the sum- 

 mer work. About one-quarter of the school has volunteered each 

 sunmier thus far. There would have been many more volunteers, 

 but the children come from poor families and many have to work for 

 wages during the summer. 



The children come to the garden Ijy classes and class sections of 

 thirty to fifty, each cla.ss working two half -hours a week. Some of 

 the les.sons taught are as follows: How to u.se the spade, hoe, rake, 

 dibber; how to prepare the .soil for planting; how to plant seeds; how 

 to transplant: how to care for the garden after it is planted; how to 

 propagate and care for ^mall fruits. 



During the winter the garden work is supplemented b}' window 

 gardening and simple nature lessons with plants and soils. Ea,ch pupil 

 has a window box 9 by 18 inches by 3 inches deep. In these boxes 

 })lants are propagated by seeds and cuttings to l)e transplanted to the 

 gardeii in the spring. In this waj' the garden is supplied with early 

 cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes, and flowering plants. 



The nature lessons center largelv in the garden and are based on the 

 work done there. The ol)ject of the work is to arouse an interest in 

 plants and animals, and to teach simple facts and principles which 

 will be useful in the garden and on the farm. The AVhittier School 

 enrolled last year 432 pupils, all of whom worked in the garden. This 

 garden and nature work is in charge of one of the instructors of 

 agriculture assisted by the class teacher, normal students, and special 

 agriculture students. 



Work in agriculture for the .second large section of pupils begins with 

 the junior academic class which corresponds to about the sixth grade. 

 These are the pupils who come with more or less prejudice against 

 farming and are approached in the subject through simple science and 

 nature work. During the junior year, an aggregate of live mouths, 



