Guss] GARDENING AND NATURE-STUDY IN SCHOOLS 87 



supervision, the net expense to the Board of Education was about 

 $600. Most of these children traveled more than five miles to 

 reach their gardens. 



One school garden of two acres cultivated by 30 children of a 

 suburban school yielded produce worth $1056. Children kept 

 record books. The reports, from various schools, of at least 

 fifteen children having gardens which averaged more than 1/20 

 acre in size, show production values in excess ef $550 per acre. 

 An eighth grade boy raised on two house lots (4 / 20 A.) $166 worth 

 of vegetables and a seventh grade girl on 1/20 acre in a school 

 garden raised $58 worth. The production of several children was 

 at the rate of more than $800 to the acre. 



The total value of the produce raised by our school children 

 under supervision amotmts to nearly three times the entire budget, 

 of the Gardening Department. By placing emphasis here upon 

 financial returns, we do not mean to underestimate the educational 

 values of such work which are no less, but rather more, because the 

 nature-knowledge acquired and the supervision received made such 

 resixlts possible. The educational values of the work need not 

 here be defended. They are not less because the instruction given 

 leads to practical results which can be estimated in dollars and 

 cents. The fact that such results are in direct proportion to the 

 amount of instruction and supervision makes it easier to interest 

 children and parents in the nature knowledge which contributes to 

 the results. Fundamental moral values are secured through 

 inculcating habits of thrift. Aesthetic vaWies can as well be 

 derived from the study of plants and animals, forces and processes 

 met v\ath in a garden as in a weed-patch or a forest or an\-where 

 else. 



Transportation of City Children to the Suburbs For 



Gardening 



Roland W. Guss 



Cincinnati, Ohio 



In order to make it possible for down-towTi children to cultivate 

 larger gardens in the suburbs and in order that none may be pre- 

 vented from doing so by their inability to pay car fare, the Board 

 of Education of Cincinnati has made S500 available for the purchase 

 of car tickets which are to be in the hands of the garden teachers 



