CERTAIN USES OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 



BY MISS ANNE WITHINGTON, BOSTON. 



Delivered before the Society, February 16, 1907. 



In the conduct of my work of teaching city children something 

 of the art of gardening, I have found much entertainment and 

 often much profit in the casual remarks of the persons who hang 

 over the fence to view the living scene. Of the contribution the 

 city school garden makes to the panorama of city life I shall have 

 more to say. My reason for introducing the casual observer here 

 is that, like others who take a friendly interest in the school garden 

 movement, he usually has two reasons to justify the introduction 

 of this new branch of learning into the school curriculum : 



First — The moral effect produced by an acquaintance with 

 INIother Nature. 



Second — The economic benefit to be derived from teaching 

 city children to cultivate the soil. 



Now it seems to me more is taken for granted in these two justi- 

 fications than the premises warrant. It may be true — and who 

 should know better than the poet ? that — 



"To him who in the love of Nature holds 

 Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 

 A various language," 



but it cannot be affirmed that mere familiarity with the world of 

 out-of-doors begets understanding. We remember Wordsworth's 

 farmer — 



"A primrose by a river's brim 



A yellow primrose was to him 



And nothing more." 



We recall in our own experience many a farm worker who per- 



