242 iLVSSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



committee and the advisability of encouraging home industries emphasized. 

 The coimnittee was unanimously in favor of the entire plan as outlined and 

 \oted a small sum of money for the purpose of starting the work. 



A general meeting of all the grade teachers of the city was called. The 

 superintendent of schools outhned the plan of home gardening and other 

 home industries which had been very successfully worked out in another 

 place. The possibilities of such work and the opportunities that it fur- 

 nishes the teacher to know the children more intimately and to come in 

 touch with the parents and homes in a pleasant and profitable way were 

 discussed. 



The chairman of the school committee who has much practical kno\\'l- 

 edge on the subject and is an enthusiastic believer in such work was present 

 and spoke verj^ earnestly in behalf of the plan. The whole subject was 

 then discussed very carefully by the teachers who voted- unanimously to 

 introduce this line of manual training as a part of the regular work of the 

 tie part ment. 



The teachers appointed six of their own number to co-operate with 

 three members of the school conunittee and the superintendent of schools 

 in fomaing a permanent organization to carry out the plan. The appointed 

 members met and organized by electing officers. The whole plan was 

 definitely outlined, the organization named "The Marlborough School 

 and Home Industrial Association," and the aims and rules as submitted 

 were adopted. 



The best books were purchased and placed at the disposal of the teachers 

 who entered upon the work with a determination to make it a success. 

 Meetings were held, directions fonnulated and typewritten for the teachers, 

 and lirinted suggestions furnished the children. 



The nature study period in each school was used to instruct the children. 

 After the most important points in selecting suitable plots had been de- 

 veloped in the class and the children had talked them over with their 

 parents at home, they made their choice, planned and measured the plot. 

 The results were put on paper to a scale, and filed vnih the teachers. In 

 many instances, the teachers visited the proposed gardens and with the 

 parents aided the children in seeing needed changes that would make the 

 chances of success greater. 



A meeting of all the pupils in the vipper grades of the grammar schools 

 was held in the high school hall, and the chairman of the school committee, 

 who is a graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, addressed 

 them on the preparation of the soil and the method of planting the seeds 

 that had been selected. 



Seven thousand eighty-three penny packets of seeds were sqld to about 

 a thousand children. As this was the first year that any work of this kind 

 had been attempted, as the work was wholly voluntary, no child being 

 urged, and as there were only one thousand three hundred three children 

 in the grades where the work \\as to be taken up, the fact that so many 

 volunteered is verj^ significant. 



