220 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ciall} r since I had invited several prominent members of the 

 Worcester County Horticultural Society to judge the plants 

 and award the prizes, and they laughed at me. On think- 

 ing the matter over, however, it became the most interest- 

 ing flower show I had ever seen ; it woke me up thoroughly 

 to the need of such work. I never realized before that we 

 are raising up children by the thousands in the tenement 

 districts of our cities who have never thought of planting 

 a seed and rearing a plant. Many of these children, almost 

 all of them, in fact, had never in their lives planted a seed 

 of any kind. Again, how much power to observe and reason 

 had they developed? Their yards, from which they had 

 obtained the soil, were full of weeds ; the soil was full of 

 weed seeds. They had not thought of that. They did not 

 have reasoning faculties enough to compare the weeds in their 

 flower pots with those in their back yards. Twice during 

 my sojourn in your historic State I have had fine beds of 

 mignonette, and they were not weedy, either, cut even 

 with the grass by men who pretended to know enough to 

 mow a lawn. It was done the second time after I had 

 pointed out the bed to the man, and cautioned him against 

 injuring it. He was very sorry, and said he "forgot all 

 about it." The matter was explained now. 



After the first year we told the pupils about their seeds, 

 and gave them lessons on weeds and on preparation of the 

 soil and methods of planting ; and the flower shows have 

 grown in beauty and interest from year to year. A school 

 garden was next made, and trees and flowering shrubs have 

 been planted by the children in their school yard. Over 

 eighty per cent of the children, as a result of the work, 

 started gardens of their own at their homes. I have been 

 informed by a resident in the district that juvenile van- 

 dalism had practically disappeared from the neighborhood. 

 As a natural result of their garden work, children must 

 become interested in the study of insects, in insectivorous 

 animals, toads, birds and bats, and in the various fungi that 

 attack their plants. 



We hear a great deal of complaint about overcrowding 

 of the school curriculum ; but is not this due to confusion 



