104 



The Canadian Horticitlturist. 



public grounds — made beautiful by 

 tree and flower planting — is cele- 

 brated throughout the world. The 

 result is that a great majority of the 

 homes, whether magnificent or mean, 

 are adorned with fine trees and 

 flowers. If the influence on mature 

 natures is so great, what must it be 

 upon voung children, whose tastes 

 and habits of thought are not fixed ! 

 The celebrated Locke declares that 

 he gained more ideas before he was 

 five years old than in all the rest of 

 his life, and the Jesuits say that if 

 they can have the education of a child 

 until he is seven, they don't care 

 who teaches him afterwards. Indeed, 

 the permanence of early impressions 

 has become a proverb. We cannot, 

 then, begin too early to establish 

 right conceptionsof moral andnatural 

 beauty in the hearts of the young. 



The recent words of the school 

 committeeman who, in reply to the 

 charge of lavish expenditures for 

 schools, declared that " a child is at 

 least as valuable as a paving stone," 

 deserve immortality. 



School grounds should be separated 

 into two distinct portions — one for 

 an outdoor gymnasium, and devoted 

 entirely to that purpose ; the other 

 should be devoted to turf, trees, 

 shrubs, flowers and walks. Pupils 

 should be taught that everything 

 which adds to the beauty of this 

 place must be carefully preserved. 

 Every plant should be labeled and 

 catalogued, and most carefully nur- 

 tured. The play-grounds should 

 have seats against the fences, a 

 shelter from rain and heat, and a 

 supply of pure water. All outbuild- 

 ings should be screened by lattice 

 work, or, better, by climbing vines 

 like the Woodbine, Virginia Creeper, 

 etc. Pupils should be early led to 

 take an interest in the cultivated 

 part of the grounds. They will soon 

 love the plants and learn how to care 

 for them. When this occurs, thefts 

 and destruction of flowers, so com- 

 mon in many places, will almost 

 entirely disappear, and most happy 



results will come in the evident ele- 

 vation and refinement of the moral 

 sentiments of our children. 



Rightl}' improved, trees, vines, 

 shrubs and flowers can be made most 

 important auxiliaries in instructing 

 and developing our young children, 

 furnishing means for numberless 

 object lessons, even in our primary 

 schools. Such lessons are learned 

 without effort, and even with delight 

 by children who find other school 

 tasks irksome. I have been told by 

 several persons that they first learned 

 to love school through their nature 

 lessons. Such instruction will never 

 be forgotten, and will produce im- 

 portant results in mature life. In 

 the words of that excellent paper. 

 Garden and Forest, " Appreciation 

 comes with knowledge, and until our 

 people learn about our trees — their 

 value, their qualities and uses, the 

 history of their lives, their distribu- 

 tion and relationship to the trees of 

 the rest of the world — they will never 

 really appreciate nor value them, or 

 learn to care for and protect them. 

 If there is ever in the United States 

 a stable, successful and popular 

 system of forest control and forest 

 management, applicable alike to the 

 forests of the State and to the humble 

 wood lot of the smallest farmer, it 

 will rest upon a basis of a knowledge 

 of trees and their importance to the 

 community, commenced in the pri- 

 mary schools," 



The time is near when, as in Ger- 

 many, there will be connected with 

 all our school grounds cultivated por- 

 tions, in which can be found flowers 

 in bloom, from the early snowdrop to 

 the late-blooming chrysanthemum, 

 and typical specimens of our finest 

 native trees and shrubs, and small 

 beds of broken ground where seeds 

 can be sown from which children 

 may see the mystery of germination 

 and plant development. These will 

 serve the double purpose of beautify- 

 ing the premises and affording aid in 

 practical instruction in natural 

 science. 



