190 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



When you stop to think how much of hfe depends upon the products 

 of the soil, how much of Hfe is affected by environment, we can easily see 

 that the time is not far oflf when there is to be a reaction, we trust, which 

 will mean that more people, when properly informed and guided, will 

 prefer the safe and wholesome and comfortable conditions of the New 

 England village and homestead, rather than the unhealthy and soulless 

 employment found in mill or factory; and it is for the sake of creating 

 this better attitude and more intelligent understanding of the opportunities 

 and enjoyments of rural or village life, that the study of gardening and 

 horticulture in our schools should be introduced. I think we may fairly 

 presume that this is an assumption which will not be questioned. This 

 topic, however, calls for discussion of the school garden and the public. 

 The public of course may mean almost anything. We might as well 

 admit and recognize at the verj^ start that the public or public opinion is 

 a factor which has to be seriou.sly considered. The schools are public 

 schools. In a way, they have to be what the public demands, and what 

 the public is willing to support. Hence it seems to me that the immediate 

 problem for children's garden workers and for those that have horticul- 

 tural and rural improvement schemes to advance, is to create an intelli- 

 gent and proper attitude on the part of the public toward these movements. 



During the year we have been frequently asked how to make school 

 garden work successful, and the answer to such a question would have to 

 be so varied for different communities and for different individuals that 

 of course we have been unable to give any satisfactory answer, and as I 

 understood this to be a veiy informal meeting, I will take the privilege of 

 offering a bit of testimony as to the introduction and progress of this 

 movement in the town which I represent. 



Some four years ago, the superintendent caught a bit of inspiration 

 from one of the original American school garden enthusiasts, the former 

 chairman of this committee, and after mulling the matter over, broached 

 the matter to members of the school board. They at least could see no 

 barm in the proposition and in a way were led to become somewhat inter- 

 ested in it, possibly with a little feeling of skepticism and doubt, but yet 

 with some confidence that it might be worth \\hile, and specially because 

 we were not to ask for any money out of the public treasuiy. We proceeded 

 on faith, getting some of the boys and girls interested, getting a friend to 

 plow, getting the President of the Improvement Association and other 

 officers sufficiently interested to lend a hand with spade and fork in con- 

 verting a rough corner lot near the school building into a well-graded plot 

 and by quiet agitation developing enough momentum of opinion, to at 

 least make some defenders of the movement when the first bit of ridicule 

 and public doubt aro.se. For a time there was discussion on this side and 

 on that, some were ready to cry fad, fad, and foolishness; others were 

 ready to admit the excellence of the idea, while expressing feelings that 

 it was impractical; others expressing interest and enthusiasm. I think 

 probably this would be the normal condition when such movement was 



