SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL GARDJiXS 



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will not be so serious when country children are stimulated 

 to become interested in the country and its affairs, when 

 they take an interest in nature, in agriculture and the 

 country home. The latter must be made more attrac- 

 tive, too. It must be improved as well as the methods 

 of agriculture, outdoors as well as indors. To stimu- 

 late country children to do this they must be interested in gar- 

 dening. The garden is the place to begin the teaching of ele- 

 mentary agriculture, not the schoolroom and the textbook. ^Ye 

 have all too many textbooks on agriculture already. Children 

 will be interested in growing peanuts, popcorn, beets and carrots, 

 poppies and asters, long before they are interested in the dry 

 recital of facts and principles of farm methods. In growing 

 these things, they will get first-hand, practical knowledge of ag- 

 ricultural principles, while this knowledge will stay with them 

 and be used by them. This one cannot always say of textbook 

 teaching. The school garden with its flowers and attractive 

 plants is the p 1 ace to interest children in the improvement of the 

 grounds about the school and the home. Too many people read 

 about gardening and leave the home grounds as they are, deso- 

 late and cheerless. Too many teachers wait until Arbor Dav to 



C6urt< sy of Doubh day, Page & Co. 



The Italian Pool. 



