218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



wish to plant. Then comes the daily lessons, the necessary 

 help over the hard places, the encouragement, the instruc- 

 tion as to .preparation of the soil, and best ways of plant- 

 ing, of dealing with the weeds, fungi and insects, and so 

 on through the list. I challenge all the books in the world 

 to yield such fine education as this. If the child chooses 

 to raise something of real value, I shall pay him the market 

 price, and encourage him to start a savings bank account in 

 his own name. I want each of my children to rear a peach, 

 plum, cherry, apple and pear tree from the seed, and learn 

 the methods of budding, grafting and pruning, and, as well, 

 study the culture of our best varieties of small fruits, — 

 grapes, raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries and 

 strawberries. I want them to learn, by doing the work 

 themselves, the rearing of roses, lilies, moonflowers, bed- 

 ding and annual flowers, shrubs and vines that may aid in 

 making home the most beautiful spot possible, — a place 

 that we shall not want to leave every summer. Since the 

 purpose is mainly educational, I shall want the children 

 to originate plans and designs, and take responsibilities as 

 fast as practicable. In this way the work will embody 

 throughout a part of their spontaneous interests, and be- 

 come truly a part of their lives, a part of themselves. As 

 the years go by, I shall gradually increase their properties, 

 giving to this one a tree to care for, to that one a trellis of 

 grape vines, until practically all the nature study property 

 of the home is passed into their hands and control. And I 

 will warrant that the genuine education and civilization they 

 get out of it will prove of more real worth to them for life 

 than any other one feature of their education. It should 

 also be borne in mind that, instead of detracting from any 

 of the opportunities and advantages of more formal educa- 

 tion, it will supply the best possible foundations, — the 

 cultivation of heart and will, of patience and powers of ob- 

 servation and reasoning, upon which other lines of education 

 may build. 



On the material side, I figure that a boy between six and 

 twenty-one, given a moderate-sized garden, can actually 

 produce property of his own to the amount of one thou- 



