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66 
Report on Elementary Instruction, 1918 
By ELten Eppy SHaw 
“Win-the-War Gardens” has been the slogan about which we 
have rallied our forces this past year. During the spring many 
lectures on this subject were given, classes were formed, and 
garden plots inspected, all for war garden work. Forty-six war 
garden plots were thus inspected. Sixteen schools requested 
lectures on war gardens, and over 20,000 children were reached 
in this way. Six clubs, embracing 2,000 people, were spoken 
to; and at five evening meetings, under the auspices of the Lec- 
ture Department of the New York City Board of Education, 
these “ Win-the-War” lectures were given. Two colleges, 
Vassar and Wellesley, were visited in the interest of our Teach- 
ers’ Garden Course, looking to the attracting of young women to 
this work. 
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Very interesting things came out of this intensive campaign. 
I would mention among these the formation of the Erasmus Hall 
Garden Club, of twenty-five boys and girls and two teachers of 
the high school, who were much interested in war gardens, and 
who met every second Wednesday during the spring and fall at 
the Botanic Garden. These students had plots in our outdoor 
garden, Io ft. by 20 ft. in size, cultivated with the idea of obtain- 
ing as much crop as possible from that limited space, 
Another group of twenty boys and girls from Public School 
89 gave up a regular school play-period to come to the Botanic 
Garden and learn the principles of gardening. These children 
organized their little club, came by themselves, and paid their 
own small fees. 
These two examples suggest many new possibilities of useful- 
ness of this Garden; needs which other institutions of this na- 
ture in the city, save one, could not possibly fill, 
The Erasmus Hall Garden Club, besides gardening here on the 
Botanic Garden grounds, also took a plot of land opposite Eras- 
mus Hall and carried on a war garden there. This garden was 
under our supervision for the month of August, while the teach- 
ers connected with the Club were absent on their vacations. 
In view of the urgent need for better and more profitable 
