274 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [10:7— Oct., 1914 



A New Interest in School Gardens 



Of course simple experiments, such as inoculating legumes, soil 

 mulches to show the effect on moisture, etc., should be made as well 

 as to make the school grounds attractive. But when pupils are 

 made to feel the responsibility of marketing their crops, to receive 

 money for what they have produced, a new and a deeper interest 

 is taken in the work. These are the things that men and women 

 do ; consequently this interest is based on a pedagogical principle. 



When the pupil is concerned about the profits and grows beans, 

 for example, which have been attacked by insects, he wants to 

 know the remedy and sets out to find it. In this particular 

 instance, the desire for gain, a very strong tendency, is made a 

 means of studying insect pests in a practical and direct way. 



An Experiment 



Working on this theory, that school gardens should be run in 

 such a manner as to show financial gains when possible, the writer 

 is making an experiment at the State Normal School to test this 

 manner of procedure. 



This plan has caused us to do away with the individual plots 

 and substitute much larger plots which are worked by four or five 

 students. Crops can be grown more economically on the larger 

 plots. Individual work is brought in by making each student 

 responsible for the marketing of one or more crops. A record is 

 kept by the students of the crops that they are to market, from the 

 time of planting to the time of maturity. Notes are even made on 

 the disease or insect pests affecting the plants as well as the remedy 

 used. 



Profits an Incentive to Learn 



As has been said, this plan is an experiment and has just been put 

 into practice. Just how much profit we will be able to show, is 

 difficult to estimate. The thing that has been demonstrated is 

 that school gardens can be made to better serve the purpose when 

 records are kept that involve the profits and losses. 



Pupils will be interested in learning the effects of the soil mulch 

 if they know that this mulch will be a means of getting larger yields. 

 Consequently, the greater the returns from the soil the more it will 

 mean to them. We have despised too long in education the things 

 that have to do with making a living. Let us make the desire for 



