358 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



School Gardens for Teachers. 



PROF. W. LOCHHEAD^ ONT. AGRI. COIvLEGe;, 

 GUE;IwPH. 



^'^HAT school 'gardens will play a very 

 A important part in the new education 

 movement which is being inaugurated in 

 Ontario is the opinion of our foremost edu- 

 cators. Ontario is away behind many of 

 the States and most of the northern coun- 

 tries of Europe in the adoption of school 

 gardens as a part and parcel of her school 

 system. France has more than 28,000 

 school gardens, and in many of the other 

 European countries state funds are not 

 granted unless a garden is connected with 

 the school. In an article, by me, published 

 in The Canadian Horticulturist for July last 

 year, the value of school gardens is fully set 

 forth. 



Believing that the school garden is of 

 great value in school work, the dire,ctors of 

 the summer school for nature study at the 

 Macdonald Institute, Guelph, decided to 

 have every teacher in attendance make and 

 keep a small garden. Although the usual 

 season for planting gardens was over, yet 

 it was still possible to get many of the seeds 

 to germinate and grow. With the assist- 

 ance of Mr. W. Hunt, the college florist, the 

 garden plots were marked out by the teach- 

 ers themselves, the land prepared and the 

 seeds planted. Talks were given at the 

 plots on the preparation of the soil and the 

 use of manures and fertilizers, on the pro- 

 per planting of the different seeds, on the 

 use of the garden line, on the best way of 

 caring for the plot after the seeds were 

 planted so as to conserve the moisture, and 

 on the care of garden tools. 



Each plot was 12 x 12 feet, with paths 

 18 inches wide between the plots, and each 

 teacher prepared a sketch plan for himself 

 of the plot, which was discussed and criti- 

 cized, and much valuable information ob- 

 tained as to the best arrangement of the 



rows in the plot. It was pointed out that 

 probably a better sized plot would be 10 x 

 15, or 10 X 20, in that it could be more 

 readily worked. 



Soon after planting heavy rains came. 

 The soil being a heavy clay loam, caked on 

 drying, and there was found the necessity 

 for raking the surface to conserve the mois- 

 ture and to prevent excessive evaporation. 

 In fact, practical problems came up for so- 

 lution at every turn. At present writing 

 the seedlings are up nicely and the plots are 

 in good shape and condition. The next 

 problem will be the weeds and the thinning. 



Spraying Mixtures Under Test. 



A CAREFUL examination was made 

 July 19, 20 and 21 in the Niagara 

 district to ascertain the results of the 

 various experiments made last spring with 

 spraying mixtures for the San Jose scale. 

 The object of the tests was to determine the 

 relative merits of the lime-sulphate wash, 

 the McBain mixture, the sal soda and other 

 combinations. The examination was made by 

 Professors Eochhead and Harcourt, of the 

 Ontario Agricultural College; Inspectors 

 Smith and Hodgetts, of the Provincial De- 

 partment of Agriculture, and a special com- 

 mittee of the Niagara District Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Association. 



The scale began to run a week or more 

 before the date of the examinations, so that 

 the first brood only were showing. All of 

 the remedies were found to have done good 

 work. On unsprayed trees the fruit was 

 in, many instances already spotted with the 

 young scale and would soon be rendered 

 unsaleable. Scale-infested trees suffered 

 severely from the winter, and many or- 

 chards between St. Catharines and Niagara, 

 that were once considered models, are now 

 completely destroyed. They furnish a ter- 

 rible example of the destructive work of 

 this scale and of what neglect in its treat- 

 ment will bring about. 



