228 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



system, that the adoption of this system js 

 only a question of time. The school com- 

 missioners of the county in which I live have 

 been asked to build two of these central 

 schools. 



The school garden should be a part of the 

 curriculum of these schools, both in the city 

 and country, as it is in Germany, Russia, 



Fig. 2592. Cycle Path. 



France, Sweden, Saxony, and a few other 

 European countries. Children so taught 

 will have a greater respect for country liv- 

 ing, and when a boy understands that it re- 

 quires quite as much ability to make a farm 

 pay as it does to make a store profitable, and 

 that the independence and prosperity of a 

 nation so largely depend upon its agricul- 

 tural supremacy, then and not until then may 

 we hope to have a long line of cultured 

 country gentlemen, the class that has made 

 England such a delightful land in which to 

 dwell. 



* * sic * * * 



If there is one family in your neighbor- 

 hood that is particularly obnoxious by rea- 

 son of its untidy premises, by all means in- 

 vite all its members and treat therji with all 

 the courtesy and tact you possess. You may 

 find to your amazement that this family will 

 take a heartier interest and do more work 

 than many whom you rightfully expected 

 would aid you. If you are successful in 

 winning such people to your side you have 



accomplished at the start one of the objects 

 of improvement association work. It is a 

 singular fact, but one often proven in our 

 work, that a tactful woman who will show a 

 little human interest in such families, and 

 will share flower seeds and cuttings of plants 

 with them, will do more to develop in them 

 a spirit of right living than many genera- 

 tions of slum workers who proflFer an im- 

 pertinent patronage. There is an instinct 

 in the human heart that resents the feeling 

 that any one is better than we. This is .-3. 

 divine instinct, to be encouraged rather than 

 repressed ; for when self-respect is dead be- 

 yond repair, hope is dead. 



I dwell particularly upon the importance 

 of winning the members of such families to 

 your side, because without their co-operation 

 your work will fall short of its full useful- 

 ness. Their premises will be a continual 

 eyesore and they can do much to hamper 

 you. Their children may destroy your 

 shrubs and flowers and trample paths across 

 your lawns. I have learned to know that 

 envy more than maliciousness it at the bot- 

 tom of nearly all this cutting of shade trees 

 and pulling up of flowers. If their own in- 

 nate love of beauty is gratified and their civic 

 pride aroused, vandalism of this sort will be 

 almost unknown. If you cannot get the 

 parents to come, get the children, one after 

 the other. If they will not come to you, go 

 to them and give them flower seeds and 

 show them how to care for them. You will 

 win them in time. 



Be exceedingly cautious in the selection 

 of your officers for the first year. It will 

 depend upon them whether the association 

 fulfills the purposes for which it was organ- 

 ized, or adds another to the long list of socie- 

 ties that simply meet to pass resolutions con- 

 demning public officials for remissness, for 

 which you are quite as responsible as they. 

 Do not choose those wily old taxpayers who 

 cheerfully join every public organization in 



