136 
the Hartford (Conn.) School of Horticulture, 1900; the gardens 
at Hampton Institute (Va.), about 1901; and the Children’s 
School Farm in New York City, 1902. We note that none of 
these were officially related to schools; in fact, most so-called 
school gardens have been organized by individuals or organiza- 
tions independently of ‘official connection with the schools. As 
examples of such outside encouragement are the gardens estab- 
lished by the following: Home Gardening Association of Cleve- 
land, Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Twentieth Century 
Club of Boston, Woman’s Institute of Yonkers, Massachusetts 
Civic League, Missouri Botanical Garden, National Cash Reg- 
ister Company, Vacant Lot Cultivation Association, United States 
Department of Agriculture, numerous local agricultural societies, 
and the Park Department of New York City. In very few cases 
before ro10 did boards of education help officially by providing 
funds; but in many schools gardening was regarded as important 
work, supplementary to or a substitute for nature-study. 
With regard to the aims of the common types of American 
gardens, I have found little suggestion in printed descriptions of 
their operation, and still less in my own observations, to convince 
me that they were intended to be or succeeded in being, voca- 
tional, that is, trainers of future gardeners. On the contrary, 
it seems to me that the leading American school gardens have 
always been of general educational value along nature-study 
lines. They have made the children interested in useful plants, 
they have led to aesthetic appreciation of plants, they have given 
a glimpse of the relation of plants to human life, they have given 
training in observing nature for the joy of learning facts. In 
short, the typical American garden has been a most successful 
nature-study laboratory. 
A new aim for children’s gardens has been introduced by our 
geovernment’s movement for war gardens during the years 1917 
and 1918. It is that children’s gardens should be made to con- 
tribute to the food supply. I notice the computation that five 
million children might next summer raise $50,000,000 worth of 
the food that beyond doubt will be much needed in this war- 
stricken world. ‘This line of encouragement deserves hearty 
approval if it leads to a vast increase in gardening by children, 
