STATE POAIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 77 



forget the iuterest once fully awakened in the green and growing 

 world around him. To know bj' name the flowers, shrubs and trees 

 of his early home, is tc feel an interest in every flower that grows 

 by field or road side. 



3d. It puts him into possession of facts of practical value. No 

 true scientific knowledge ever comes amiss. He has laid a founda- 

 tion that wiH be directly or indirectly useful to him, in proportion as 

 he carries on his work in this direction. 



No features in the educational progress of to-day compare in 

 interest with the new departures in practical and scientific training. 

 The cooking school has been tested and has not been found want- 

 ing. The manual training school has been found to fill a need 

 long recognized, but which no line of work until this has supplied. 

 But certain countries of Europe are in advance of us in this respect, 

 and have put the practical study of plant life on a level with man- 

 ual training. 1 think I am quoting correctly from a speech by Dr. 

 Rounds, in saying that there are 20,000 school gardens in Austria, 

 and that the experiment has been successfull}' tried in France. 



From the study of the plant in the schoolroom to its actual care 

 and cultivation in the garden is certainly a step at the thought of 

 which we take breath. Such work requires specially trained teachers, 

 appliances and funds. So have cooking schools and manual train- 

 ing schools required all these, and in othtr states, if not in our own, 

 are permanent features of the school system. In the mean time a 

 step has been taken in advance of merely schoolroom work, or more 

 correctly speaking, the work has made some progress beyond the 

 bounds of the schoolroom. I have been interested in reading the 

 reports of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and of some 

 results secured in the direction of window gardening and the care of 

 plants by children. But I have been more interested in the efforts 

 ot this society in our own Stat« the past year in connection with the 

 State Fair. Prizes were offered to the pupils of high schools for 

 collections of pressed flowers and a window garden department was 

 established for the purpose of interesting children in the care of 

 flowers. Plants were furnished to the pupils in Auburn and Lew- 

 iston with directions for their care, which devolved wholly upon 

 the children, and on Children's Day an exhibit was made with results 

 that proved the plan practicable and satisfactory. 



If we could realize at once the millennium in our schools we might 

 possibly be the better for it. But such an experience is not in store 



