school garden reports. 209 



Improvement of School Grounds. 

 Report of the Tracy School, Lynn, Mass. 



BY FRANK L. WHIPPLE, PRIXCIPAL. 



First Prize, 1906. 



Permit me herewith to submit a report of the Tracy School garden, 

 Lynn, Massachusetts, and of the school yard improvements. 



At the beginning of the school year 1905-1906, the Tracy School yard 

 consisted of about 25,000 square feet of land, in the form of a trapezoid, 

 the parallel sides being 225 and 275 feet respectively. The width 100 feet. 

 There was no school garden in the yard and the condition of the grounds 

 was that of the ordinary city school yard. 



Improvements. 



During the year the city authorities gave to us an addition to the 

 grounds of about 15000 square feet of land. Two old buildings were torn 

 down and removed; three old cellars in the new lot were filled; and a 

 public dump was removed from the land. Both the original and the 

 additional lands were graded by the addition of about 200 cubic feet of 

 gravel; 100 feet of curbing has been set along the street borders of the 

 grounds; a two-rail gas-pipe fence has been set along the northern border 

 of the yard or on the Linwood street side of the yard; a new board fence 

 has been set along the eastern boundary; an old apple-tree has been re- 

 moved and two horse chestnut trees have been trimmed into shape; a 

 water pipe has been encased near the center of the yard for watering or 

 fountain purposes; and the yard or grounds have been beautified by the 

 plotting of several flower-beds. 



Gardens. 



The Tracy School gardens consist of five flower beds, well laid out. 



1. A border garden. This consists of a border garden along the 

 eastern side of the yard 10 feet wide and 340 feet long, the ends broaden- 

 ing to a width of twenty or twenty-five feet. This space was in early 

 spring filled with soil and bordered with sod one foot in width. The 

 broadened ends were set out with shrubs to the distance of fifty feet from 

 the extremities and interspersed with such plants as the Japanese sun- 

 flower and golden-glow. Between the.se broadened ends and for a dis- 

 tance of two hundred forty feet were planted in sections seeds of the more 

 common annuals. Annual, biennial, and perennial plants, were contrib- 

 uted by the children and carefully planted and appropriately arranged in 

 this space. In the background and along the fence were set dahlias and 



