60 The Nature-Study Exhibition 



The Plots. The land receives two loads of manure (farmyard) 

 every year, and is laid out into fourteen plots (one plot for each boy), 

 each plot containing an apple-tree. These trees consist of seven varieties 

 of dessert and culinary fruit. 



The Crops. (See the plan of Garden.) The seed has been kindly 

 given each year by Messrs. Rogers & Co., seedsmen, Hereford. 



Although each boy has a particular plot, he participates in the general 

 instruction of the whole garden. 



The Conservatory is the holding of the head-master, but is utilized 

 this year for instruction in tomato -growing, three dozen plants being 

 cultivated. The boys water the plants, and fertilize the flowers by 

 means of a soft camel-hair brush. 



Allied Lessons. Oral and experimental lessons are given during 

 the year on grafting, budding, pruning, and garden pests. These 

 lessons are generally given on wet days, when it is impossible to work 

 the garden. 



Sale Of Crops. The produce is readily purchased by the parents 

 and teachers, good measure, as a rule, being given to ensure a ready 

 sale. The proceeds, together with the grant from the Board of Edu- 

 cation, defray the expenses connected with the instruction. 



General. The Cottage Gardening is a great success, as evidenced 

 by the intelligent and enthusiastic interest taken in the work by the 

 scholars. It is very exceptional to find a boy absent from instruction." 



The following account of the gardening at Lea School, 

 Matlock Bath, may be found useful: 



"My teaching of Gardening commenced some twelve years ago, 

 which was long before the subject was suggested by our educational 

 authorities. The conditions surrounding our early efforts were not 

 of the most promising nature. There was no lack of land in close 

 proximity to the school, but it was of the roughest description, full of 

 stones, shallow and poor, and situated on a steep hill-slope. I saw, 

 however, that labour and patience would greatly improve matters ; and 

 the enthusiasm and delight of the boys, selected to form a class, helped 

 to remove all difficulties. My own gardening tools, together with some 

 borrowed from the boys' homes, were soon utilized ; and in a few days 

 the appropriation of ordinary playtime resulted in the turning in of a 

 large piece of old turf, the riddance of a vast bed of nettles that had 

 luxuriated in a particular spot for many years, and the building of rough 

 dividing walls from the stones removed from the soil. Our turf, buried 

 two spits deep, obviated the necessity for any manure in the first 



