SCHOOL GARDEN REPORTS. 205- 



During past years the school room experiments, discussions and text 

 conclusions have been prepared by the Principal. This year we have 

 used the textbook entitled First Principles of Agriculture which is pub- 

 lished by the American Book Company. We find its experiments and 

 simple, practical treatment of topics admirably adapted to elementary 

 school use. Certain topics have been assigned for emphasis in eveiy grade. 

 Use of the book has improved this phase of garden work, and we recom- 

 mend the book to others. 



From our experience in propagating hardy plants, we would heartily 

 recommend the work to other schools as finely suited to school work. 

 It affords opportunity to study the life history of these hardy plants 

 throughout the cycle of a year's seasons, it awakens a vital interest in a 

 plant as an individual that cannot be true of annuals in marked degree, 

 and by the dissemination of plants propagated by the children to the 

 homes of the district a valuable measure of civic improvement is secured. 

 Some hundreds of hardy plants were given away in May to children who 

 had kept good home gardens in 1905, and dozens of chrysanthemums 

 were presented to our fellow schools in Lynn. About eight hundred 

 plants of many varieties were sold to citizens and schools at an average 

 price of about five cents a plant. While this provides an income to the 

 school garden it also enables citizens to purchase plants most conveniently 

 and at half the price a dealer would be obliged to charge even when a 

 quantity should be ordered. Our own stock of hardy plants has been 

 notably increased: last year we had seven or eight varieties of unnamed 

 iris, we now have eighty named varie):ies of German, Spanish, English 

 and Japanese iris; in 1905 we had two sorts of hardy chrysanthemums, 

 we now have some seventy named varieties; last year we had a half-dozen 

 named varieties of hardy phlox and other clumps of unnamed sorts given 

 by home gardens of our district, since then we have purchased over two 

 dozen of the best varieties to be obtained as a basis for future work in 

 propagation of these plants. 



The Cobbet yard has many large elms and maples, and it was necessary 

 to place the gardens at the borders of the school yard although this brought 

 them beneath the trees. Since most of the beds are shaded by trees 

 above, and since the soil is impoverished by the greedy roots of the trees, 

 it is a continual struggle to get satisfactory results. Moreover the sunny 

 southwestern side of our tall school buildings is occupied by the boys' 

 playground, which is too small to take any space for growing plants in 

 preference to growing boys. We are still experimenting to find what 

 plants will thrive best on the northeast side of the building, which faces 

 the street. We have overcome our lack of space in our own yard, at the 

 center of our city, by prevailing upon our neighbors to share with us 

 unu.sed portions of theirs; we have overcome our lack of funds with which 

 to purchase soil, seeds, tools, and special varieties of plants by raising 

 money by sale of the products of the garden; we have overcome our owr> 

 ignorance of how to grow vegetables and flowers by combining study- 



