736 



Rural School Leaflet. 



tion with every city park and public school in the country. Gardening 

 becomes a habit, and it is a very wholesome and healthful habit. If 

 children begin young enough, and have some older person interested 

 who can help them to make the growing of plants a success, they will 

 spend more and more time in the work as the years go by. It will help 

 to make them stronger and better men and women. It will be a resource 

 for them through all the coming years. 



The school garden should be a place in which children learn to know 

 and to grow plants which they will afterward want about their own homes. 

 Every garden in connection with a park or school should be a place in 

 which children will be able to make a choice of the trees, shrubs, and 

 garden crops that they would like to have on their home grounds. 



Fig. 65 — Ithaca school garden. The pond in the center is used for local aquatic life 



The public expense of such an enterprise would be small compared with 

 the better citizenship it would bring about. 



But the well-organized garden with competent gardener or teacher 

 in charge is more or less of an expense in a community, and in all places 

 the public is not sufficiently prepared to realize its importance and to 

 support it. The day is coming when there will be gardens and play 

 grounds in every community. Busy little minds and hands should not 

 be seeking employment and amusement. It should be the duty of 

 citizens to provide for the leisure hours of the children. 



