66 
with the geography and nature study courses of the elementary 
schools. Over 8,500 children attended these lectures, a large in- 
crease over the attendance of last year. Lectures to children on 
other subjects had an attendance of 6,448, while over 18,000 were 
reached by lectures at schools and clubs. These numbers, espe- 
cially for the lectures at the Garden, could be greatly increased 
if the work was conducted on a different, but educationally less 
profitable, basis. The classes coming to the Botanic Garden are 
divided into small groups, so that each child may receive’ per- 
sonal attention and direct teaching. In this way much more time 
is consumed than in the more usual method of handling larger 
groups as a unit. 
Assistance in Home Gardening—We selected three districts 
for this work during the past summer : the tenement district in the 
vicinity of P. S. 43, near Willliamsburg Bridge; near P. S. 89 in 
the Flatbush district ; and in the vicinity of P. S. 98 in the Sheeps- 
head Bay district. 30 to 40 gardens were visited in each district, 
some of them many times by the student teachers who are taking 
our course for Teachers of Children’s Gardens. Although the 
work was much interrupted by the epidemic of infant paralysis, 
this method of specializing on certain districts proved more satis- 
factory in some respects than the plan of general, unsystematic 
visits to gardens throughout the city. 
As noted in previous reports, the department of elementary 
education puts up penny packets of seeds for the Brooklyn boys 
and girls ; 25,000 packets were distributed in 1914; 85,600 in 1915; 
and 112,000 in 1916. Our annual children’s horticultural exhibit 
was held September 29 and 30. Because of the sickness in the sum- 
mer and the late opening of school, it was thought that the exhibit 
would be far inferior to that of 1915. But, while the number of 
exhibitors was not much greater than that of the preceding year, 
the quality of the exhibit was far better. P. S. 152 again won 
the first prize in Class A for the best general exhibit and received 
the Bronze Trophy of Victory, now their property, having been 
won three times by that school. The exhibit in Class B, the 
best Box Exhibit, which won first prize, should be spoken of. 
This was the work of P. S. 43. The exhibit covered one side of 
the exhibition room. The number of exhibits was not the main 
