Land Problems and National Welfare 



The steady growth of school gardens and 

 of nature study is most satisfactory, in that gar- 

 dening, properly taught, provides an excellent 

 method of manual instruction, serviceable for every 

 scholar, whatever his future avocation. It is 

 particularly suitable for the rural school, because 

 it interests the children in handling the soil — 

 the soil which provides a livelihood for the bulk 

 of the surrounding population. 



The school garden is not meant to turn out 

 expert gardeners. In some cases it may in- 

 cidentally do so, but the school garden properly 

 used is the best blackboard ever invented, the 

 only fully satisfactory way of co-relating nature 

 study with the general work of the school, for it 

 affords the most intimate examples of plant life, 

 ready at all times to be used by the skilful 

 master ; it can play an important part in practi- 

 cal arithmetic, doing away with the old-fashioned 

 hypothetical problem.s and substituting problems 

 that occur in everyday life ; it offers interesting 

 subject matter for the school reader and for 

 lessons in composition. And what more excel- 

 lent exercise could there be than for a scholar 

 to keep, unaided, a record of the history of his 

 garden plot ? 



Finally, as much science as the elementary 

 scholar requires can be taught in the garden, 

 just a few practical principles to explain the 

 causes of certain effects. 



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