779, 



GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



ing from a purely extension project to one whose roots 

 arc reaching into the regular school curriculum. The 

 department is new running upon a three-part basis; 

 Nature-study in the first six grades, elementary horticul- 

 ture in seventh and eighth grades and senior high school, 

 with the garden as an out-of-door laboratory furnishing 

 the ground for actual experiences and real observation. 

 The school garden furnishes the "content" material. 



It is through this organization that the rapid growth 

 of the school gardens has begun in Cleveland. This, of 

 course, is starting in the right direction, when one bears 

 in mind that there is a demand for trained horticulturists. 

 The whole scheme, however, makes necessary a fourth 

 department in which teachers must be trained for the 

 work of teaching. 



At present we are training teachers for the gardens as 

 we go. For training teachers of nature-study in the first 

 six grades, courses are given in Cleveland School of 

 Education during the Summer. The securing of the 

 technically trained teacher is our present problem, and 

 we have plans for teacher-training which we hope will 

 be recognized by the state. A model four-year course of 

 study is being prepared by the department which, it is 

 anticipated, will provide the highest type of training 

 possible in horticuhure and will be recognized by the lead- 

 ing universities in the country. Courses ot study already 

 in existence have been worked over with the definite pur- 

 pose in mind of proposing a four-year course which will 

 prepare the teacher for work in city schools. It is esti- 

 mated that a half dozen of these teachers can be used in 

 Cleveland each year as they are graduated from the col- 

 leges giving the horticulture training, and as the work 

 progresses, Cleveland work will also expand to meet a 

 steadily increasing supply while other cities will, in time, 

 require an increasing number. 



So far I have dealt with facts concerning what we are 

 doing as a result of the National Gardeners' Convention 

 in cTeveland in 1919. There is a great deal more to be 

 said about school gardening,— its philosophy, its prac- 

 tical and cultural values. By way of summary, I have 

 arranged these values, as briefly as possible, in outlme 

 form. 



Practical Values 



(a) School gardening fosters habits of industry in the boys and 



(b) Children with home or school gardens, under guidance fo 

 teachers, learn the real value of home produce. The problem of 

 securing sufficient and better food is the greatest economic prob- 

 lem in the United States. . 



(c) School gardening is a lesson in home economics: children 

 soon see advantages of having fresh vegetables and flowers in- 

 stead of having to buy their produce on the market. 



(d) Children in school gardens show parents that their child 

 can do more than they had expected. This gains a sympathetic 

 attitude of parents for the school system in general. 



(e) School gardening affords teachers an oppotrunity to know 

 better the individual child. 



(f) A chance to bring other school subjects into play is af- 

 forded in the different phases of gardening. 



(g) For those who see the attractiveness of learning while 

 they earn, school gardening offers extra-hour employment. Money 

 earned in this way has been applied by many Cleveland school 

 boys to their higher education. 



(h) Real experience is the keynote of school gardening. In 

 the technical high school the boys perform a series of over a hun- 

 dred operations, the same as those performed in the commercial 

 house. It is an important factor that this real experience is to be 

 found in a public school. It must be remembered that the green- 

 house, the nursery, the home plot, the tract plot — all are real 

 business concerns in that they sell their produce. Skillful labor 

 is necessary and easily obtained when the pupil has a linancial 

 interest. 



(i) Children's minds are open to the possibilities of making 

 profit. This phase may be considered as the linking factor stand- 

 ing between practical and cultural values. The possibilities of 

 profit induce the careless boy or girl to become as skillful as he 

 or she can. 



CULTUR.\L \'.\LUES 



(a) Perhaps the greatest cultural value is the fact that the 

 child educates himself. Nature offers an exceedingly attractive 

 field for any child, with its out-of-doors, its freedom, its beauty. 

 It is no problem to obtain good educational results when the course 

 of study attracts tlie pupil — 



1. Through the stimulating inducements of prizes, profits, 

 and the spirit of competion, the child acquires as much tech- 

 nical knowledge as he possibly can. At the same time he is 

 acquiring an — 



(b) Appreciation for Nature. This comes to him through de- 

 veloping his powers of observation. 



(c) An appreciation of natural phenomena engenders a wider 

 basis of understanding. The place of the child in his environment, 

 his adaptation to the life about him, his relation to other forms of 

 Nature, including other individuals, all tend toward — 



(d) A better social realization. His contact with others, bent 

 on a common enterprise, will reveal to him the inter-dependence 

 of individuals for social well-being. 



(e) Confidence to attempt the new things before him with an 

 open mind is an important cultural advantage. The boy or girl 

 gains this confidence in gardening because he is allowed to measure 

 his own capabilities through doing things for himself. 



(f) The whole scheme builds responsibility in the child. Re- 

 sponsibility is a quality highly desired in children, but many phases 

 of school activities fail to develop it, due, perhaps, to the un- 

 reality of their subject matter, and the lack of opportunity offered 

 for leadership among boys and girls. 



WHAT CONSTITUTES A FRUIT? 



■"P HE question has been going the rounds of the ama- 

 •^ teur and trade horticultural press for many years, 

 and every once in a while it comes up anew, which of 

 the products of our kitchen gardens are fruits and which 

 vegetables, and the battle generally rages around the 

 tomato. One says, "The tomato is a vegetable, it is not 

 a fruit, fruits grow on bushes and trees," and then he 

 complacently takes his seat. Another says, "A tomato is 

 a fruit, because it looks like a fruit," and rests his case 

 there, and a third says, "It has been settled long ago 

 that a tomato is both a fruit and a vegetable." 



Abraham Lincoln once said, "Nothing is ever settled 

 in this world until it is settled right." 



In New York City in 1915 a Judge of one of the City 

 Courts settled the question as far as the tomato is con- 

 cerned, and settled it right. A woman was arrested and 

 brought before him for selling "vegetables," in such a 

 way, or at such a time as to violate a city ordinance. She 

 was selling tomatoes, and in her defence contended that a 

 tomato was a fruit, not a vegetable, and the Judge ruled 

 in her favor and discharged her, quoting as the basis of 

 his decision from Joseph Y. Bergen's "Foundations of 

 Botany.'' The passage quoted was essentially as follows: 

 "A fruit is the ripened ovary of a flowering plant with 

 its contents and whatever parts are consolidated or inti- 

 mately connected with it." 



A few illustrations may help elucidate this statement. 

 A tomato, egg plant squash, pumpkin, cucumber, apple, 

 peach, orange, and the like, and also wheat, rye. peas, and 

 beans and the like are all fruits, because they are the 

 ripened ovaries of flowering plants, with their contents 

 and whatever parts are consolidated or intimately con- 

 nected with them. An ovary is that part of the pistil of 

 a flower which contains the seed. 



On the other hand the edible roots of the turnip, beet, 

 onion, carrot and the edible folia.ge of celery, parsley, 

 mint, lettuce, cabbage, spinach and the like are vegetables, 

 not fruits. 



You have a shilling. I have a shilling. We swap. 

 You have my shilling and I have yours. We are no bet- 

 ter oiif. But suppose you have an idea and I have an idea. 

 We swap. Now you have two ideas and I have two ideas. 

 We have increased our stock of ideas 100 per cent. — A. S. 

 Gregg. 



