84 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to the East Boston Ferry. "Every day I look over the fence to see 

 how much your things have grown " said one man to us last summer. 

 Down in one of our Charlesbank gardens at the West End a little 

 girl told me that she was trying hard to have a nice garden, "Be- 

 cause," said she, "my father works on the new West Boston Bridge 

 and he walks through the park to and from his work to see how 

 my plants are doing." 



It seems to me that in our eagerness to show model gardens we 

 sometimes forget that the crop we are after is a human not a veg- 

 etable one and that such fine feeling as this Irish laborer showed 

 is much more precious than any rose or radish the most expensive 

 gardens may yield. 



Discussion. 



In answer to a question as to the number of school gardens in 

 Boston, Miss Withington stated that there were twelve under the 

 care of the School Garden Committee which she represented. 

 INIost of them were in the crowded parts of the city. There were 

 two at the North End, three at the West End, three in East Boston, 

 three in South Boston, and one or two in the suburban districts. 

 They varied in size according to the amount of land available for 

 the purpose. The Rice School garden on Dartmouth Street ac- 

 commodated forty boys ; the Hancock School garden at the North 

 End was on a house lot adjoining the school which had been bought 

 by the city; and at the West End the Park Commissioners had 

 given the use of two strips of ground for the gardens. 



In reply to an inquiry concerning the number of children receiv- 

 ing garden instruction in proportion to the whole number in the 

 school, !Miss Withington said that in the city we are very much 

 restricted. Our gardens are small and our schools are large. We 

 usually take one class from a grade and generally from the sixth 

 and seventh grades, because the children then are at an age when 

 they are more or less responsible and not too old to be averse to 

 garden work. 



Each set of children has one year of work in the garden and the 

 knowledge that they acquire does sink into their minds. Two 

 hours a week are devoted to this work, but sometimes thev get a 



