children's garden conference. 185 



as a garden before it can be a successful educational enterprise. This 

 of course is requiring a good deal of the teacher, because horticulture is a 

 long long art; and if one must be an expert teacher, and before that an 

 expert horticulturist, that is certainly asking a good deal for $45 a month. 

 It is hardly to be expected that every school teacher will become an expert 

 horticulturist and yet we cannot for a moment relax our emphasis on this 

 point. Again and again it appears imperati\'ely that we must know more 

 horticulture. 



Having determined so much, the next question follows clo.sely after. 

 Where, how, and when are school garden teachers to get their knowledge 

 of horticulture? Someone said a long time ago that to train a good woman 

 you must begin with her grandmother. In a somewhat similar way, tO' 

 make a good horticulturist you should begin with the grandmother. Hor- 

 ticultural education ought to begin early. It certainly is a great advan- 

 tage to every teacher to be born on a farm. The early farm experience is 

 invaluable. It is especially so to a young man, but even the girls get a 

 good deal out of farm life. That experience of childhood on the farm is 

 worth everything to the one who takes it rightly. I know there are some 

 to whom this farm life has meant nothing, and my heart bleeds for those 

 men and women who look back on such a childhood with bitterness. To 

 me it seems the most delightful experience a child can have. It seems 

 to me the best possible foundation for all kinds of education. Out of this 

 experience there should come a true love of rural life in all its large aspects 

 — a love of growing plants, of animals and of the land. There should be 

 a real love for the soil. There are times when I go into the field as the 

 mellow furrows are being turned by the plow when the whole land looks 

 good enough to eat. If one's experience of country life has given him or 

 her this feeling with regard to the soil and to all those things connected 

 with it that is the best possible foundation for teaching school gardening. 



This sort of an experience and enthusiasm should create through the 

 teacher a school garden atmosphere which is invaluable in this line of 

 teaching. All of us know that each particular school has its special atmos- 

 phere. The high school has its bookish atmosphere. The technical school 

 has its scientific atmosphere; and so the school garden should have a gar- 

 den atmosphere. This fundamental condition for success should grow 

 out of the natiu'al love and enthusiasm of the soil which I have attempted 

 to sketch. 



When teachers undertake to learn school gardening they should ged 

 their instruction in a garden. Now there are all kinds of gardens, and all 

 are good; but for this purpose I should say that a well-kept garden is 

 essential. For the purpose of the present discussion it is convenient to 

 divide all gardens into two classes, the amateur gardens and the profes- 

 sional gardens. The point of view in these two different schemes is 

 radically diverse. The amateur garden is conducted for the fun of it, 

 \\hile the professional gardener grows plants for profit only. I should 

 say that a better atmosphere for the school garden teacher is to be 



