children's garden report. 179 



example, in the matter of crops grown, some gardens are full of 

 bare ground late in summer, after the early crops have been removed, 

 showing failure to understand how to plant for succession. 



Reports of a number of school gardens are printed in connec- 

 tion with this report. 



School Grounds. 



Prizes for school gi'ounds were new to the work of our committee 

 this year and but three schools entered. We believe this to be 

 one of the most important fields for our efforts and hope for a 

 larger entry list next year. Unfortunately but two of the schools 

 sent in reports and but two of our three prizes were awarded. 

 We have provided six prizes for 1907. 



Every school yard in the state should have something done to 

 beautify it if there is a yard at all. Many of our country school 

 grounds are bare and neglected, while often in the city the yard 

 is either all brick or concrete. A large number of these yards can 

 be cleaned up and beautified at small expense and such work will 

 help to make our children neat, home-loving citizens. We want 

 to emphasize the fact that both this work and school gardening 

 need not in any way interfere with the children's playground. 

 It will increase the use of it, rather, as there are always some chil- 

 dren that cannot enter into the games of the majority and they 

 find pleasure and recreation among the plants. It might well be 

 said right here that school gardening is loved by the children and 

 that the so-called "toughest boys" in school often become the 

 most interested and are accordingly greatly benefited by it. 



The report of the Tracy school follows. 



Children's Home Gardens. 



The entries for children's home gardens numbered 259, a very 

 decided gain over any previous year. We adopted this year an 

 entry card and each child entering had to fill out a card and have 

 it indorsed by a parent or teacher. The difficulties of our method 

 of awarding home garden prizes were again clearly brought out 



