Sept&mHer 13, 1913 



HORTICULTURE 



369 



REPORT OF SCHOOL GARDEN 



COMMITTEE OF S. A. F. 



By Benjamin Hammond. 



In the city of Milwaukee tliere is 

 a beautiful ornamental park on Grand • 

 avenue, in which is a monument of 

 George Washington. At the foot of 

 the pedestal stands a mother and her 

 young son, the mother pointing up- 

 ward to Washington. This is an ob- 

 ject lesson of the first order, inspiring 

 the child to high ideals. Home gar- 

 dening in Milwaukee is being well 

 looked after and the results in that 

 direction have set an example country 

 wide. The work of the school garden 

 is an economic incentive that is pro- 

 ducing valuable results; the home 

 garden transforms many a barren lot 

 into a bit of productive land, carrying 

 with it habits of industry and thrift. 



The florists of America scattered 

 the country over, in the smaller cities 

 and villages, are a local object lesson 

 to inspire the growth of practical 

 beauty. The products of the green- 

 house, large or small, are visible In 

 the cheering and beautifying of home, 

 school or public occasion. Your com- 

 mittee, realizing this important work, 

 has as far as lay in its power, aided in 

 stirring up this spirit by sending an 

 illustrated circular letter, nicely print- 

 ed, to every superintendent of schools 

 where a member of the Society of 

 American Florists resides, and to each 

 commissioner of education in every 

 state. The school garden work is en- 

 thusiastically done in many cities. 

 Here in Minneapolis and St. Paul will 

 be found notable examples of school 

 gardening at its best. In Milwaukee 

 our committee-man, Mr. Whitnall. has 

 made a mark in beautifying plain 

 places. In Washington. D. C., 30 years 

 ago and less, it was unkept and un- 

 tidy, today it is largely a "tidy town." 

 One woman was a prime mover there, 

 Miss Sipe, and the government depart- 

 ment followed suit. In Cleveland, Ohio, 

 Miss Miller has done more. I believe, 

 to improve plain home surroundings 

 by her school garden work than Mr. 

 John D. Rockefeller with his huge 

 benefactions. 



At Wilkesbarre. Pa., is another ex- 

 ample. Mr. Seybold, who. at Baltimore, 

 helped start the school garden work 

 in that city, is now transforming 

 Wilkesbarre. In Georgia, in the city 

 of Athens, teachers for other schools 

 are being trained as time will permit, 

 and this work wherever it is done, 

 starts a spirit of local leadership in 

 tidiness and beauty. Wherever you 

 find the taste developing among the 

 people for tidiness, there conies with 

 certainty the demand for flowers. The 

 larger cities have led off in this work, 

 and, of course, the cities are the great 

 commercial markets for flowers, and 

 the school garden and the home gar- 

 den create a desire for these beautiful 

 products of the florist's vocation. 



Children who may never make profes- 

 sors or bookkeepers would take an in- 

 terest in this work and stick to it, 

 developing mentally along that line of 

 practical benefit, without doubt, for 

 future years. In Canada the value of 

 school garden work is probably more 

 appreciated than in the smaller towns 



View of the Trial Grounds of H. F. Micliell Co., Andalusia, Pa. 



of the U. S. At Guelph, Ont., atten- 

 tion is given to giving the teachers 

 some personal instruction to be used 

 in their professional work. In Louis- 

 ville, Ky., much work has been done 

 in flower growing, especially bulbs, 

 hyacinths, tulips, narcissus, daffodils. 

 In Philadelphia, work in the school 

 garden line is keeping up. William 

 Penn's original plan was to make and 

 keep his new town a green town 

 where sunlight may shine an4 com- 

 fort and peace prevail. In 1912 over 

 92,000 children attended these gardens. 

 At Rock Hill. S. C, the teaching of 

 school garden work and mill hands 

 how to make gardens, is being pressed ' 

 by J. L. Carberry, under direction of 

 the U. S. Department of Plant Culture. 

 In Rhode Island at the State College, 

 Kingston. Ernst K. Thomas is in real 

 earnest in developing school and home 

 gardens. He advocates flower borders 

 for each vegetable bed, and in a school 

 garden plot puts a flower bed in the 

 center. At Hartford. Conn., in a tour 

 of the parks, recently, evidence was 

 visible of the home culture of door- 

 yards and the opportunity for the little 

 folks to learn how to make gardens 

 for flowers, etc. 



The Panama-Pacific International 

 Exposition at San Francisco is plan- 

 ning to have a grand showing of 

 school gardens, and in all this work 

 no man stands in more effective posi- 

 tion to uplift his community than the 

 member of the Society of American 

 Florists. The school garden fosters 

 the activities of child life; the home 

 garden certainly develops the sense of 

 ownership and respect for private 

 property. This we witnessed in our 

 own community, and no florist's es- .■, 

 tablishment ever did a town anything 

 but good. These examples here cited 

 are only one here and there, picked 

 out from a mass of correspondence, 

 showing the interest in this work. As 

 has been said the committee thus far 

 has simply gone as far as practicable 

 ill suggestions with the school men 

 in charge of the local schools to have 

 an eye on a grand good work, that is, 

 Srhfiol Oiinlciiing, wherever it may be 

 taken up. 



CONNECTICUT STATE FAIR. 



At the Connecticut Fair, held at 

 Hartford last week the floral depart- 

 ment, under the direction of Alex. 

 Cumming. Jr., was of unusual extent 

 and excellence. The Bon Ton Flower 

 Shop won a $20.00 cup with a wreath 

 of American Beauty roses. Other 

 prize winners Included: B. F. White, 

 Terry ville. gladioli; G. L. Stillman, 

 Westerly, R. I., dahlias; C. K. S wen- 

 son, Elmwood, zinnias; J. H. Albison, 

 New Britain, asters; E. C. Lewis, 

 Taunton, gladioli; T. H. Judd, Dan- 

 bury, asters; A. R. Adams. Hartford, 

 gladioli, etc.; F. W. Lorenz, Meriden, 

 asters; J. H. Slocuni. New Haven, 

 dahlias; M. E. E. Hastings, Windsor, 

 collection; A. Righenzi, decorative 

 plants, dahlias, etc.; H. L. Metcalfe, 

 asters; N. Nelson, collections, plants 

 and flowers; C. W. Brown. Ashland, 

 Mass., gladioli; W. S. Mason. Farm- 

 ington, hardy perennials, annuals, etc.; 

 J. M. Adams, gladioli; A. B. Howard 

 & Sons. Belchertown, Mass.. verbenas 

 and petunias; A. B. Goodrich. Glas- 

 tonbury, asters; H. F. Whiting, geran- 

 iums, fuchsias, etc.; Louis Chancy, 

 groups of flow^ering plants; W. W. 

 Hunt & Co., collections of shrubs, ev- 

 ergreens, etc.; J. F. Huss, stove and 

 greenhouse plants, hardy perennials, 

 annuals, etc.; John Coombs, palms, 

 ferns, etc. 



An organization to be known as the 

 New York State Nurserymen's Asso- 

 ciation was formed at Utica on Sept. 

 a. by nurserymen from many sections 

 of the state. The following officers 

 were chosen: President. E. S. Os- 

 borne of Rochester; vice-presidents, 

 J. Pitkin of Newark, Maxwell Sweet 

 of Dansville. F. A. Guernsey of Scho- 

 harie, and F. J. Smith of Fredonia; 

 secretary, ,Tohn Watson of Newark; 

 treasurer, Horace Hooker of Roches- 

 ter. On the executive committee are 

 .T. n. Morris of Dansville and John 

 Rice of Geneva. 



