SCHOOL GARDEN REPORTS. 203 



All the children asked repeatedly if they might have gardens another 

 year and their enthusiasm and willingness to work ha^•e been great all 

 summer, except in very hot weather, and in the very weedy times. They 

 have all been asked whether they felt that the gardens had helped them 

 in anyway and all have agreed most heartily that they have. The small 

 boy came with his mother's recommendation that he had never done 

 anything for more than three weeks without losing all interest and pleasure 

 and it was this boy who was never late, who was absent twice only, and 

 who was the first to ask (about July 1) if he could have his own garden 

 next year. 



Many of the boys on entering the gardens were very doubtful whether 

 any crops would ever be taken away by the rightful owners as so many 

 boys would steal and destroy at night, so they said. No such act of vio- 

 lence was ever committed and the gardens have been entirely umnolested. 

 Even on the Fourth of July there was no harm done, one or two burnt 

 cannon crackers being the only evidence that there had been a Fourth. 



Of course it is difficult to tell in just one summer how much a factor the 

 gardens have proved in character building, but it seems impossible that 

 so much continued application and industry, and such interest in growing 

 things could fail to be of moral benefit. 



Report of the Cobbet School Garden, Lynn, Mass. 



BY PHILIP EMERSON, PRINCIPAL. 



First Prize, Class B, 1906. 



The Cobbet School Gardens are completing their fifth year of develop- 

 ment, and make report on this season's work and advance. All lines of 

 garden work pre^^ously tried have been continued: the wild garden, 

 the bed of geographical plants, spring bulbs and annuals, hardy flowers, 

 vegetables, the use of cold frames, the utilization of garden material in 

 the drawing and written work of the several classes, and -work in nature 

 study that shall make the garden work intelligent. The work along 

 several lines has expanded: in place of the patches of grains and fiber 

 plants raised for several years past, small plots of the typical hardy grasses 

 of farms and lawns have been established to familiarize the children with 

 their characteristics; a variety of named narcissi and other spring bulbs 

 are being established this autumn; a larger variety of annuals were raised 

 from seed this year than ever before; the beds of hardy flowers were 

 extended and both their variety and total quantity were multiplied. 

 While no more space was given vegetables the number of varieties suc- 

 cessfully grown was increased; to the twelve sashes of cold frames already 



