16 THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



ber in each class. This stimulates the children to attain a 

 certain standard rather than to distance a competitor. If 

 this should call for many prizes, it need not entail great 

 expense, for the best prizes for young gardeners are supplies 

 for their gardens. Plants, bulbs, books, and the like for this 

 purpose may be purchased very cheaply at wholesale, and 

 will often be donated by interested dealers. Ribbon badges, 

 a color for each rank, have value as prizes, also. 



A horticultural exhibition by a school or town is well worth 

 all the effort it may cost. Since it may be made profitably 

 even on a very small scale, one may be successfully planned 

 and conducted after school opens in September. Or a group 

 of children may conduct one in their neighborhood. Get the 

 children and home gardeners living near you interested. The 

 editor of your paper will announce your Flower Show. Some 

 parents will provide money for bulbs as prizes, or a small 

 fee for admission may be charged for the same purpose. It 

 can be held in some open barn or clean carriage-house, if no 

 better hall or room seems available. Get a teacher, the 

 nearest florist, and the parent most interested in flowers to 

 act as judges. Try it. 



School Garden Management 



The method of conducting school garden work depends 

 upon the standing and stage of development of this phase of 

 education in a community. At first the work may have to 

 be done at recess and after school by the pupils, at the initia- 

 tive and under the direction of their teachers. This plan 

 possesses the merit of being wholly voluntary, hence it enlists 

 the interest and loyalty of the pupils to the full. It can no 

 more succeed to the full as a permanent plan in gardening 



