86 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



everyday life. Then the three textile plants, cotton, flax, and hemp, 

 can be grown. He noted an increasing tendency of the times 

 towards the country life, and that the attendance at our agricultural 

 colleges was being recruited from city boys. 



William H. Spooner remarked that he was in hearty sympathy 

 with this movement looking to the revival of interest in agricultural 

 affairs among our school children. There was a marked and 

 increasing tendency towards the rural life and there are now practi- 

 cally no abandoned farms in Massachusetts. He said that the 

 attendance at the agricultural colleges was constantly increasing 

 and largely from the city population, showing that the interest in 

 agricultural pursuits was growing. 



Mr. Hastings of Fitchburg said that he was a firm believer in the 

 school and home garden and he believed it was going to do a great 

 work for New England. He advocated simple, easily cultivated 

 plants for the school garden and recommended especially the 

 English double daisy, the seeds of which could be planted in boxes 

 in the schoolroom. Then let every child take one to his home and 

 raise a double daisy, and in that way the child is introduced to that 

 plant, and from his acquaintance with it he is going to try others. 

 Thus we foster in the child a tendency to Individual work. He 

 believed that we were going to get out of the city more and more 

 and into the country', and this school garden instruction was en- 

 couraging this idea. 



Mr. Cameron said that the child should know that there were 

 fortunes in the soil and gold to be taken out of the ground. Teach 

 the child to get these fortunes out of the land and not to be content 

 to live in the slums of the city. The teacher should show the boys 

 how to raise fruits and get money from them. Teach the boy to 

 get these things out of the soil. Teach him to go out into the 

 country^ where he can earn a better living than he can in the city. 



Miss Withington said that the school gardens had actually pro- 

 duced agriculturists, for she knew of boys who had become so in- 

 terested in the work that they had asked for emplo^Tnent on farms 

 and were now occupying good positions. The only way of interest- 

 ing the city child was to bring some of the country to him. 



Mr. Cameron asked how the American child took to this garden 

 work as compared with the children of foreigners. 



