1916] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 797 



"What shall be our policy concerning gardening in the elementary city 

 schools? C. D. Jaevis (Nature-Stiidy Rev., 12 (1916), No. 4, pp. ll.'i-llS.— 

 Productive gardening is discussed as one of the best available means of train- 

 ing children in habits of thrift and industry, developing stronger bodied ch41- 

 dren, making it possible for them to remain in school longer and contribute to 

 the support of the family, etc. A plan for conducting the work is outlined, 

 and the conclusion is drawn that garden work is of groat benefit in the train- 

 ing of children in towns and cities ; that the work should be conducted on an 

 intensive businesslike and profitable basis, to insure which qualified teachers 

 should be provided and retained throughout the summer, for groups of children 

 not exceeding 200; further, that the work should be made so attractive that it 

 will not be necessary to offer prizes to maintain the interest of the children. 



A graded course of garden work and nature-study, R. W. Guss {Nature- 

 Studij Rev., 12 (1916), No. 5, pp. 213-225). — An outline is given of a course in 

 garden work and nature study in the eight grammar grades and the first year 

 of the high school in Cincinnati, in which an attempt is made so to grade the 

 garden lessons and to correlate the nature study that each may help the other 

 to educate the children through activities suited to their capacities and interests 

 at different stages. 



More than 500 children share the school garden of three acres near the 

 school. In the first four grades the children have class or group plats, in the 

 fifth and sixth individual plats, while in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades 

 the work is more optional and increasingly commercial or intensive (prevoca- 

 tional), larger areas being assigned to single applicants or to groups, usually 

 for the growing of one crop. As a rule, these are pupils who have no land at 

 home. Many of the children, however, have home gardens and the school 

 gardens are used for learning gardening methods and as a laboratory for 

 nature study and for growing nature study material. Much emphasis is laid 

 upon summer supervision of both the school and the home plats. 



Home gardens, G. B. Goldsmith (Nature-Study Rev., 12 (1916), No. 1, pp. 

 22-26). — The author discusses the value of home gardens for children, and 

 suggests important considerations in flower and vegetable gardening. 



Exercises in indoor gardening (for the use of schools), F. Watts (Imp. 

 Dcpt. Agr. West Indies, Pamphlet 82 (1916), pp. [o'l+^S, pis. 10).— In this 

 pamphlet the commissioner of agriculture for the West Indies outlines a series 

 of practical exercises which may be carried out indoors so that discipline may 

 be easily maintained. They are to be used in connection with the text. Nature 

 Teaching (E. S. R., 17, p. 603), and are preparatory to the more extended work 

 of the school garden itself. 



