SECllETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 383 



3. A seed nursery for fruit, a, nursery for the improvement of wild stock and 

 quinces, a collection of berry fruit and a nursery for them, plantations of 

 precious fruit trees, and especially of dwarf fruit trees, and where possible a 

 trellis for wall fruit and f^rape vines. 



4. An agricultural *' experiment garden" of several square metres — that is, 

 an agricultural botanic garden pro})ortioned to the circumstances of the place. 



5. In the borders around the ''experiment garden" there should be a 

 collection of economical and technical plants of the home region; stalk fruit, 

 hoc fruit, leguminous plants, and fodder plants, as far as they do not belong 

 in the "experiment garden;" also aromatic, medicinal, and commercial 

 plants of all kinds. 



6. A collection of the chief poisonous plants of the home region. 



7. A little kitchen garden with hot-bed or leaf-bed and beds for planting 

 out. The leaf -beds are made in boxes and covered with glass, and are good 

 both for raising seeds and planting slips. They can be used in a window or 

 over an oven or stove, and are made of red clay, which absorbs warmth from 

 the sun even if the glass cover is shaded. 



8. In small beds, or singly, flowers, high-bush roses, ornamental shrubs and 

 perennials. 



9. A beehive in a distant part of the garden. 



10. A small plantation of mulberry trees and bushes (in southern regions) ; 

 and where it is practicable, a large water basin. A fountain belongs to 

 every school. 



Since the school has patriotic aims — that is, to build up an army ready for 

 defense and capable of enthusiasm, there should be a gymnastic ground in the 

 neighborhood of the school-house. If this can be within the school garden, 

 it has, like the covered gymnastic hall, found its most beautiful and appro- 

 priate location. 



THE CHILD'S GARDEN. 



Every young creature of the human race descended from Adam shows its 

 garden origin by an instinctive love of stirring the soil in the season of vernal 

 sunshine, and of planting in it seeds and shoots. It should be the business of 

 those who are placed where the}^ are responsible for the future common weal, 

 to see that all who are charged with the education of the youth of the Nation 

 shall take especial care to cultivate this tendency. Above every other tem- 

 poral thing it has power to secure health, peace and competence. A young 

 man or woman who has learned to take interest in a garden and grow plants 

 ■well, is secure from the worst enemies of life; secure of procuring food and 

 clothing by direct means, if indirect ones fail; secure of healthful and con- 

 tenting employment for mind and body, and of innocent objects of attention 

 and interest, countless in number, and changing every day. Fortunate in- 

 deed is one whose early youth has been imbued with a liking for these pursuits 

 and pleasures, and fortunate the society possessing such members. For they 

 are not liable to fall into tlie unlawful courses which conduct the idle and the 

 untrained into vice and crime, and make them the shame and the burden — 

 and often the terror — of the industrious and the orderly. 



Our schools must find some way to teach the eager little ones the principles 

 of plant growth. JMucli can be done in a city school room with small pots of 



