CHILDREN S GARDEN CONFERENCE. JoO 



dren prepared. Not a single school yard had a fence around it and not a 

 plant had been injured. Naturally, because all of the children of the city 

 were interested in their grounds and they had contributed their labor. 

 The plants that were left over the children from different parts of the city 

 were welcome to take, pro\'ided they would care for them in their yards 

 and contribute the slips for the winter. As I went through the city, par- 

 ticularly in the poorer districts, there were these same plants beautifying 

 ever\' home. 



On the useful side, they planted tomato seeds and other vegetables, and 

 at the end of the season there was a little agi'icultural exhibit in the school 

 buildings. The whole thing was a ci\ac contribution to their city. The 

 focusing of natm'e study work on some definite results is coming. A few 

 years ago some were a little skeptical of the outcome, but now it is part of 

 the industrial movement which is connecting school studies with the 

 problems of real life. 



School Gardens ix Institutions. 



by miss e. mabel fletcher, superintendent of the orphans' 

 home, new^ bedford, mass. 



The manual art of gardening as a part of modern education is no longer 

 considered as an ornamental appendage of school work, but as one of its 

 important factors in instruction and training, ^\■ith its advantages for gen- 

 eral and technical education. Not only in schools, clubs, and the home 

 are the newer uses of gardening recognized, but many philanthropic 

 agencies and institutions of detention for all classes of children, dependent, 

 delinquent, or defective, in many countries, find agricultural work and 

 exercise effective in the training for citizenship and the civic virtues of 

 application, discipline, and the regard for public and private property. 



A large percent of the boys placed out from all city institutions are sent 

 to homes on famis. 



Out of the hmidreds of children placed by the Children's Aid Society of 

 this state in comitrj^ homes, a vast majority of them have become farmers 

 or farmers' wives. The strong appeal for more school gardens throughout 

 the state that was made last month at the State Charities Conference in 

 L^Tin, can not fail to be effective. The working exhibit of school gardens 

 at the JamestowTi Exposition, imder the management of the International 

 School Farm League of New York, indicates the importance to which the 

 organized work has attained. 



The particular institutional work about which Mr. Adams has asked me 

 to tell you a little today, is that which has been done for a few years at the 

 Orphans' Home in New Bedford. 



