FLOWER WORK IN THE RURAL SCHOOLS. 249 



It seems to me that with Prof. Hayes' model garden in the 

 school and with the home garden in which to carry out experiments 

 tried at school, with the constant help and stimulus of a monthly 

 magazine and the privilege of writing to the society and of receiv- 

 ing answers through the pages of the magazine, and with a realiza- 

 tion on the part of each child that he is a "really and truly mem- 

 ber" of this great and growing organization, results would cer- 

 tainly be evolved that would be advantageous to the cause of 

 horticulture and that would strengthen this society. But what is 

 of more importance than that is that it would bring a new element 

 into the lives of many lonely children. 



Of course if all of the children could go to the agricultural 

 school — or would go there — this undeveloped field in horticulture 

 would not mean so much. But they cannot all go — and all who 

 can go do not care to. This scheme would reach them before they 

 have begun to make plans for the future — would help to determine 

 the nature of that future and would doubtless interest hundreds of 

 boys and girls in agriculture and horticulture who would. otherwise 

 be drawn in other directions. 



Mr. C. M. Loring: I feel a good deal like I used to feel 

 when a boy when I used to go out to my good uncle's in the coun- 

 try ; I feel literally stuffed. I wish every member of the society could 

 have heard the paper of Mrs. Barnard. I know the work she has 

 been doing, and I know this thing has done more good than any- 

 thing else the Improvement League has done. There is 'one fea- 

 ture I would speak of, late as it is, and that is in regard to a 

 report that was made by a gentleman at Buffalo at a national 

 meeting of improvement associations. A gentleman from Cleve- 

 land said they sold their flower seeds. They bought them at 

 wholesale, the ladies put them up in packages, and 40,000 of those 

 packages have been sold at one cent each; and they seemed to 

 think it was really better to purchase the seed and sell it to the 

 children than to give it to them outright; but the report made by 

 the gentleman was about the same, that the children do become 

 interested in it and are largely benefited by it. At Dayton, Ohio, 

 Mr. Patterson, of the Cash Register Co., by very hard work, suc- 

 ceeded in interesting forty boys to work in a vegetable garden, and 

 every 'one of those boys raised vegetables enough to help support 

 the family, and many of them had enough to sell so they could 

 clothe themselves. The next year instead of having trouble in 

 securing forty boys, the trouble was in getting land enough, be- 

 cause every boy wanted to be a vegetable grower; and those boys 

 worked off their surplus energy in that garden, and there was no 

 more truancy in that neighborhood. I think there is a vast_ work 

 this society could take hold of. You must begin with the children, 

 and it is surprising how they will take hold of the work, and they 

 will soon learn how to take care of the flowers. 



