HORTICULTURE IN OUR SCHOOLS. 



for timber, for it requires more courage 

 than most men have to thin out a row of 

 tfees when once they are established. 

 The farmers at the Institute meeting at 

 Glen Allan, estimated that a farm hav- 

 ing loo shade trees well arranged would 

 sell for $500 more than a similar farm 

 alongside, other improvements being the 

 same. When young trees can be found 

 not more than a mile from the place 

 where needed, the loo trees can be 

 selected, dug, trimmed, and planted for 

 $5 if the work had to be hired, but most 

 farmers are strong-handed enough to 

 plant 100 trees every spring. 



Possible injuries. — (i) Where planted 

 too thickly so as to form a wind-stop, 

 which is not desirable. A free circula- 

 tion of air might be prevented and thus 

 encourage insects and fungus growth. 

 (2) Encroachment, adjacent crops will 

 certainly be injured, but a good wind- 

 break or line of ornamental trees are 

 well worth the land they occupy. 



Decided advantages. — Evaporation is 

 lessened and the moisture in the soil 

 assimilated by growing crops instead of 

 being hurried in the air by heavy winds 

 For illustration of tliis point, refer to 

 Prof. Panton's experiment in the Report 

 of the superintendent of Farmers' Insti- 



tutes for 1895-6, page 60, which shows 

 that wind hastens the moisture out of 

 the soil. (2) Protection of bloom from 

 cold, rough weather will ensure a good 

 crop which might from exposure result 

 in a light yield. (3) Snow and leaves 

 are retained and help to retard fruit 

 bloom in localities subject to late spring 

 frosts. (4) Less injury is sustained 

 from wind when trees are loaded with 

 ice which ruins so many fruit trees ; also 

 the loss from windfalls is reduced. (5) 

 Erect growth in fruit trees is difficult 

 without protection from prevailing winds. 

 (6) Encouragement of insectivorous 

 birds. This advantage alone is worth 

 the land and care required to have a 

 good wind-break where the birds will 

 build their nests and rear their young 

 largely on insects that destroy our crops. 

 These birds and their nests should be 

 protected by legislation, including the 

 extermination of the English sparrows, 

 which are driving useful and friendly 

 birds out of the country by destroying 

 their eggs and taking possession of the 

 nests for their own use. (7) A farm 

 beautified by shade trees is enjoyed both 

 by the travelling public and by the 

 farmers themselves." 



HORTICULTURE IN SCHOOLS. 



WORK FOR OUR HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



'E are no advocates for in- 

 creasing the burdens of 

 school children by placing 

 in their hands a manual of 

 Horticulture in which the art of culti- 

 vating fruits and flowers is reduced to a 

 science couched in technical terms, and 

 thus necessarily made distasteful to our 

 young people. 



But if some means could be devised 



of giving practical training to such 

 scholars as desired it, in a school garden, 

 it would be a pleasant diversion from 

 the severer studies, and at the same time 

 give the best training to the eye and 

 hand, resulting not only in a generation 

 of farmers better skilled in the art o^ 

 gardening, but also with more taste and 

 inclination for to pursue it. A writer in 

 Vick's Magazine says — 



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