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STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



teacher in the Kormal School, and serves as a training school in gar- 

 dening for the normal students. It is regarded b}' Secretary Wilson, 

 Dr. Galloway, and other competent experts in the Department as an 

 almost unqualified success. 



In all this work some attention should be given also to the subject 

 of school ground improvement, which has been successfully introduced 

 as a feature of school work in Eochester, Cleveland, Washington, and a 



number of other cities. Children have planted lawns, set out and cared 

 for trees and shrubbery, and otherwise made the school surroundings 

 more beautiful and wholesome. Schoolhouses and school grounds should 

 be as attractive, at least, as the homes from which the children come. 



School gardens in connection with rural schools, are somewhat diffi- 

 cult to maintain, owing to the scattered population and to the fact that 

 these schools are closed during so great a portion of the growing season, 

 but some instruction in the elements of plant growth might be given, 

 and children be encouraged to grow plants of their own at home. They 

 will gladh" do this if given an interest in the crops they grow. In Illi- 

 nois, Iowa and Ohio, experimental clubs have been organized among 

 the school children, the members of which co-operate with the agricul- 

 tural colleges in those states in growing two or three varieties of pure- 

 bred corn or sugar beets. They also hold regular meetings, have in- 

 stitutes corresponding closely to farmers' institutes, and in Illinois they 

 have regular lecture courses, including among the speakers such emi- 

 nent professors as Dean Henry, of Wisconsin ; Dean Davenport, of Illi- 

 nois, and P. G. Holden, of Iowa. 



Another difficulty in the rural school work, and indeed in all this 

 nature study and garden work, is the lack of qualified teachers. But 

 the teachers will prepare themselves for this work if they are convinced 



