children's garden conference. 193 



■who has been kept in bette» tone and in a better environment in a home- 

 like home and has developed a higher appreciation of what life may mean. 



The state furthermore can better afford to give some thought to this 

 phase of her development, since it is without question upon the soil and 

 upon the country that humanity must depend for supplying the commodi- 

 ties which go to make up the activities of the city, and for supplying man 

 with the necessities and comforts of life. The great problem of the slums 

 in our cities, and the great problem of the village and country slums may 

 be improved by instructing these people as to the possibilities of a plot 

 of ground properly cultivated, and when we think of our vast areas of 

 Massachusetts land now unused, and the many who are practically starv- 

 ing in the crowded centers, it would seem a legitimate in^■estment for the 

 state to expend public money upon any movement which would tend to 

 encourage the better appreciation and development of our agricultural 

 and horticultural resources. 



The points which I should like to make are these: that the educational 

 value of children's gardens is becoming questioned less and less ; that 

 public opinion as a force has to be recognized and won in favor of this 

 movement. To do this, the introduction of the movement must be well 

 planned; the soil must be well prepared; and the workers of the soil must 

 be carefully inoculated with correct ideas and right attitudes and aims. 

 Societies and associations with similar aims must be enlisted and drafted 

 in aid of the movement. The newspaper can be a powerful force in adver- 

 tising and spreading the news of the movement, but what is needed most 

 of all is courage on the part of the state to provide as well for this phase of 

 education in training teachers for this work as in training teachers of 

 arithmetic, of geography, or of language; that it is the business of the 

 state to help create a better attitude toward the betterment of rural and 

 village conditions and especially to train children to be men and women 

 who ^^■ill organize such homes that the homes themseh^es will be enjoyable 

 to old and young and be incentives to patriotic and loyal citizenship. We 

 can teach civics and talk about citizenship but we shall get very little 

 civic righteousness or undefiled patriotism unless we can establish a whole- 

 some and nourishing background of excellent homes and home life, and 

 I believe there is no other one movement which can be made to serve in 

 the development of good homes and finer sentiments than the movement 

 for better gardens, better home surroundings, and more attractive life 

 away from the deadening influences of the factory and competition of 

 the crowded city. 



