Practical Aid to the School Garden Movement 



by the United States Department of 



Aiiriculture 



Susan B. Sipe 



Collaborator, United States Department of Agriculture. 



I bring greetings to this new organization from the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry and the Office of Experiment Stations of 

 the U. S. Dep't of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



Realizing that the successful farm operations of the future 

 depend upon the children of the present, the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture keeps himself informed of the progress of elementary 

 agriculture throughout the country, through the chief of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, Dr. B. T. Galloway, and the chief 

 of the Office of Exi)eriment Stations. Dr. A. C. True. 



The Office of Experiment Stations confines its operations 

 to the theoretical side of the school garden movement. It is 

 a clearing house for agricultural information. It has a cata- 

 logued collection of the courses of study of all agricultural insti- 

 tutions. It has photographs and slides of school gardens all over 

 the country at the disposal of any teacher. By applying to the 

 chief of the office and stating the line of development needed 

 the necessary slides will be forwarded to you. It shows its ap- 

 preciation of efforts on the part of teachers to promote children's 

 gardens by sending representatives to visit and report on the 

 work; by asking teachers to write for government bulletins such 

 lines that they have been especially skillful in. thus giving the 

 rest of the profession the benefit of their work at practically 

 no cost. 



The Bureau of Plant Industry looks after the practical side 

 of the movement. It has prepared and sent out to schools four 

 special school garden sets of seeds : one designed to meet the 

 requirements of the individual vegetable garden ; one to meet 

 the requirements of the individual flower garden ; a third pro- 

 viding plants suitable for decorating school grounds, and a fourth 

 collection consisting of economic plants of the several sections 

 of the United States, embracing cereals, forage crops, grasses, 

 food and fiber crops. In this collection eighteen (18) standard 

 varieties of plants have been used. This collection was designed 

 to meet the requirements of the students of geographical botany, 

 as well as to supply material to familiarize students with plants not 



51 



