REPORT OF THE COM^SIITTEE OX CHILDREN'S 

 GARDENS FOR THE YEAR 1906. 



BY HENRY SAXTOX ADAMS, CHAIRMAN. 



The work of your committee during the year 1906, as pointed 

 out in our last report, has been devoted entirely to the encourage- 

 ment of gardening among children. The result has proved, we 

 believe, the wisdom of the change in the work of our committee. 

 We have before us a definite policy in which all members of the 

 committee are interested, a condition which is necessary for the 

 best results. 



It is with a feeHng of regret that we have to report the resignation 

 of Mr. Charles W. Jenks from the committee. He has long been 

 an active member and has rendered most valuable servdce. Dur- 

 ing the past year he visited a large number of the gardens entered 

 for prizes and we had hoped the new field would prove as interest- 

 ing to him as the more botanical work of the committee in the past. 

 We owe to Mr. Jenks a vote of thanks and take this opportunity 

 to express to him our appreciation of the work he has done for the 

 committee. 



A study of the problems before us has resulted in a much more 

 definite idea of what we are trying to do. School gardening is 

 undoubtedly today on a much firmer basis than ever before. It is, 

 in fact, recognized by modern educators to be one of the best 

 forms of industrial education in our schools which cannot be 

 replaced by any other subject. Secretary Martin of the State 

 Board of Education so ably defined the value of school gardens at 

 our conference in December that we need spend no further time 

 on their educational advantages. Let us inquire, rather, into the 

 relation of children's gardens to our society. Our interest is 

 . centered in horticulture and whatever we can do to promote it is of 

 vital interest to us. We believe there is no better way to encourage 

 gardening than to teach the children to love and to grow plants. 



