200 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tence of ours, in particular. To an institution where children are trained 

 to the activities of self-dependence and helpfulness to others who may 

 be dependent upon them, perhaps the most significant feature is the 

 practical training through which a boy may find in the gardener's occupa- 

 tion an honorable business for life. 



Report of the South Natick Garden Club. 



BY S. MYRTA ABBOTT, TEACHER. 



Third Prize, Class A, 1906. 



The South Natick Garden Club, which owes its origin and maintenance 

 to the kind generosity of Mrs. R. G. Shaw of Wellesley, was organized in 

 April, 1905, and is composed each year of sixteen girls and boys selected 

 from the South Natick Grammar School. The garden is situated in the 

 Hunnewell Playground close to the Charles River, a situation desirable, 

 both because the river mists keep the soil moist, and the children can fill 

 their water cans very easily. The portion of ground chosen was 40 X 120 

 feet and, after it was plowed, was enclosed by wire netting with rustic 

 posts at the entrance and two exits. Each individual plot was staked off 

 12 X 14 feet; the rest of the enclosure was staked off for a two foot border, 

 extending on all four sides just wdthin the wire netting and for paths. 



It was found best to divide the sixteen members of the class into two 

 sections; the first section meeting on Tuesday afternoons at half-past 

 three, and Saturday mornings at half-past nine; and the second section 

 meeting on Thursday afternoons at half-past three, and Saturday morn- 

 ings at eleven. By this arrangement each child worked in his garden, 

 under the supervision of the teacher, for at least four hours each week. 



In the beginning the garden was plowed, the paths were dug, and the 

 netting was put up. Since that time, the children have done all the 

 work, the staking off, the manuring, the digging each fall and spring, and 

 the fertilizing. 



Notebook work was kept up systematically along with the other work. 

 Products were counted and recorded; a table of dates of planting was 

 made; a diagram of each garden was drawn; and a diary was faithfully 

 kept each garden day. From this diary one may learn that the spring 

 months — April and May — were spent in raking off leaves from bullis, 

 spading manure into gardens, preparing beds and borders and planting 

 seeds; that June was given over to gathering of early crops and replant- 

 ing; that July was a busy month spent in weeding, always weeding, in 

 gathering crops, and replanting; that August was a month devoted to 

 watering and cultivating the soil; that September was a time of gathering 



