Inquiries and Answers 211 



between the owners of adjoining beds in the 

 school-garden, and pride in the appearance of 

 the school-grounds has been stimulated. An 

 interest in birds and insects, and an apjM'cciation 

 of the beauty of wayside flowers and other 

 common things, have been developed; and the 

 roughest children have been made more gentle 

 by handling the beautiful flowers that they have 

 grown, the result of their own care and pa- 

 tience. A regard for the property and rights 

 of others is among the results of this coopera- 

 tive gardening, also an appreciation of the 

 advantages of working together, and a certain 

 forbearance and loyalty to one's partner, all of 

 which are lessons of inestimable value, espe- 

 cially to colored children, ^^'hcn we atld to 

 these unconscious influences of school-gardening 

 the conscious self-respect and self-reliance that 

 come from the ability to produce from the soil 

 something of one's very own, it will be admitted 

 that this subject is worthy of an honorable 

 place in the course of study of our common 

 schools, of which the Whittier School is only 

 a type." 



