30 The Ottawa Naturalist. [April 



This estimate does not include the salaries of attendant 

 teachers. Trained teachers are more valuable than agriculturists 

 without knowledge of pedagogical methods. Teachers not versed 

 in agriculture may be supplemented by a good gardener ; if, how- 

 ever, the teachers do understand gardening, a laborer may take 

 the gardener's place. This man occupies an important position 

 in the work. He supplies the place of a janitor and assists the 

 children in any work that is too heavy for them, such as breaking 

 up earth with a pick-axe or managing a fifty-foot hose. During 

 the fall, when the children are at school most of the day, he acts 

 as a watchman, sending away truants, and during this time when 

 weeds grow rapidly and the children's hours of work are few, he 

 also assists in keeping the garden clean. The supervisor of the 

 garden must be a woman that is capable of supervising and direct- 

 ing the work of preparing the ground, laying out plots, and 

 erecting buildings. Some knowledge of surveying, plotting and 

 draughting is also indispensable to her, as she will necessarily 

 have to plan the laying out of the garden and direct both children 

 and workmen. Upon the supervisor falls the duty ot engaging 

 workers and the responsibility of overseeing each step. Estimates 

 and purchases of seeds and plants and the whole government of 

 the practical gardening is to be planned by her. In addition to 

 this, she usually gives daily nature-study talks, which must be 

 adapted to the varying ages of the children. As harvesting pro- 

 gresses accurate records of produce per child, attendance of said 

 child, effect of work upon his physical, mental and moral being 

 must be registered. All of these steps are worth while because 

 gardening is yet in its infancy and statistics must be obtained to 

 convince those unwilling to embrace the idea, of its merit. Such 

 individual records must be kept for two hundred and fifty children, 

 to be afterwards added, balanced and the average found, more 

 than filling the teacher's time during the hours in which the 

 children are at school. Many interruptions to this work occur in 

 the form of visiting classes to which the supervisor explains the 

 work of the garden. 



In Porto Rico, where school gardens are maintained by the 

 United States government, and are connected with every public 

 school, teachers are regularly trained for the work in the course of 



