160 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



no other seeds, however choice. In many cases, too, the flower 

 work has proved to be the long desired link between the school and 

 the home, most helpful to all concerned. 



The growth of the work has been gradual, as befits our northern 

 latitude. In 1894, twenty-eight schools were supplied with seeds, 

 representing 4,416 children; in 1893, 7,105 children, in thirty-three 

 schools; in 1896, 8,500 children, in thirty-four schools. These figures 

 represent, not tbe total number of pupils in these schools, but the 

 number who reallj^ wanted the flowers badly enough to work for 

 them, promising to cultivate their gardens themselves. Eight 

 thousand five hundred is not a large percentage of the pupils en- 

 rolled in our public schools, which. claim a total of nearly 40,000; but 

 even so the amount of work accomplished by over 8,000 little gar- 

 deners, most of them enthusiastic in their efforts toward the im- 

 provement of nearly as many homes, means a great deal to a city 

 and still more to its children. Long before the seeds are ready for 

 distribution or the season far enough advanced to safely entrust 

 them to the children, these expectant little gardeners are busy with 

 their preparations, carrying in their arms rich earth long distances 

 and spending hours and sometimes weeks in the construction of 

 elaborate designs in the formation of flower beds, of fences when 

 chickens are at large or of window or roof gardens when they are 

 not so fortunate as to have a door-yard. 



As a means of determining results and of keeping in touch with 

 the children, the league offers prizes in the form of framed pictures 

 to hang on the school-room walls. These prizes are awarded with- 

 out competition to any school-room showing a certain percentage 

 of successful gardens. Fifty-two such prizes were awarded by the 

 league in 1896. They are carefully selected reproductions of cele- 

 brated works of art, which are of aesthetic as well as educational 

 value to the schools, thus serving a double purpose. When the seeds 

 are distributed in the spring, the children are told to whom they are 

 to report their gardens, if tbejr are successful. (Remember we 

 have nothing to do with failures — an individual failure one year 

 often means complete success the next). The gardens have then to 

 be examined by metnbers of the league or their representatives, who 

 are often teachers in the schools. This is the most interesting part 

 of the work; the most indifferent worker can be converted into an 

 enthusiast by sending her upon such an expedition. To see the 

 children in their homes, to hear from the parents what the flowers 

 are doing for them is all the argument one needs to become con- 

 vinced as far as the children are concerned that the movement is 

 successful. 



Let us take such a tour. That it may be a thorough test, let us 

 visit the children of a school where the principal and teachers have 

 been too busy to give their attention and the children have been 

 left to their own devices. With carefully arranged lists we start 

 on our journey. All seems clear until we try to find some of these 

 places; then the difficulty begins; every number except the one you 

 are looking for becomes painfully conspicuous. At length some 

 one seized with a fit of inspiration remarks, " Perhaps it is a side 

 door or upstairs, or somewhere else." This throws a flood of light 



