jar vis] POLICY CONCERNING GARDENING 177 



strates other phases of the work in the same way. Later in the 

 season, and especially after the school has closed for the summer, 

 she would make visits to the individual gardens and encourage the 

 children to take good care of their gardens and to see that they 

 keep up a continuous supply of vegetables for the home and mar- 

 ket. A large gardening business may be conducted on a very small 

 area, and children should be shown how to obtain maximum results. 



The teacher should also instruct the children in the best methods 

 of marketing their produce, and in the work of storing and canning 

 vegetables for winter use. Anything that will broaden out the 

 range of experience will be worth while. 



Accurate accounts of costs, receipts and profits should be kept 

 and the whole project should be put on a business basis. It is not 

 advisable to donate seeds and other supplies to children. They 

 should be expected to pay for everything that they use, and thus 

 encourage an independent and self-reliant spirit. Lack of suffi- 

 cient funds, however, should not prevent any children from secur- 

 ing supplies sufficient to make a profitable home project. Some 

 fund, from which children may borrow money with which to buy 

 supplies, should be provided. This affords an opportunity for a 

 good lesson in the use of borrowed money, and in business integrity. 



The gardens should be made as profitable as possible, for all the 

 benefits that come from the work are in exact proportion to the 

 profits. The work of the past few years has shown that children, 

 with proper instruction and supervision, can carry on much larger 

 projects than we have believed possible. This is especially true 

 in the home-garden work where children may have some assistance 

 from the parents. 



The strongest inducement that we can hold out to children to 

 conduct a project is to promise and insure a profit in dollars and 

 cents. If the work is not profitable, the children, sooner or later, 

 will lose interest. Some well-meaning people have tried to main- 

 tain the interest by holding up before the children the chance of 

 winning a prize for good garden work. In most cases, such effort 

 has resulted only in temporary benefit, and in many, it has actually 

 defeated the aims for which it was undertaken. Where prizes are 

 offered, children focus their attention on the prizes and, too often, 

 lose sight of the real advantages of the work. Whether we should 

 give prizes to children for the purpose of encouraging them to do 

 things that they ought to do for their own benefit, is doubtful, and 



