HOME GARDEN REPORTS. 243 



The name and address of each child was kept on file at the office of the 

 superintendent of schools and also at the school where the child attended. 

 Each teacher selected a list of gardens that she would Aasit and for which 

 she would become responsible. 



When the schools opened in September, it was found between seven and 

 eight hundred children had been rewarded vdth. some degree of success. 

 Blank cards to be used in entering their gardens for the special garden 

 prizes were distributed, and four hundred sixty-eight were filled out and 

 returned to the teachers. From this list, after visiting and inspecting 

 each garden, the teachers selected about one hundred to be \'isited by the 

 committee on home gardens. This committee consisted of prominent 

 members of the local grange who devoted a long and strenuous day to 

 dri^dng from home to home, examining gardens, taking data, and making 

 photographs. The size, general plan, care and beauty of the gardens sur- 

 passed the expectations of the most sanguine. 



A meeting of the committee was held and the size of each exhibit was 

 fixed on as follows : Flowers — one to five vases of one to twenty-five 

 blooms. Vegetables — beets, three to twelve; beans, one to four quarts; 

 carrots, one to four bunches — three to ten in a bunch; lettuce, one to 

 six heads; squashes, one to six; radishes, one to four bunches — three 

 to ten in a bunch; sweet corn, three to twelve ears; turniiJs, three to 

 twelve. 



Tables were arranged in the high school hall, vases and agate plates were 

 hired of a local dealer, and three judges for each group were selected from 

 different organizations of the city. The teachers apportioned the w^ork of 

 decorating the hall, recei\ing, marking and arranging the exhibits among 

 themselves. 



The exhibit included not only the products of the garden Ijut all the 

 industrial work that the children had been doing. Although the hall is 

 quite large, the exhibit had to be crowded in order to get all into the 

 space assigned. With this compact arrangement, we had seventy-five 

 feet of three-foot tables covered with flowers; eighty-five feet of similar 

 tables covered with vegetables; tliirty-five feet covered with wood work; 

 fifty-five feet devoted to cooking; twenty feet to miscellaneous articles, 

 and six hundred seventy-five feet of wall space covered with needle work. 



Invitations in form of tickets had been sent to parents and friends. 

 The hall was crowded with \asitors from one o'clock in the afternoon to ten 

 o'clock in the evening. Eveiyone seemed to enjoy the exhibit and to 

 have a good social time. 



The committees worked during the afternoon and evening in judging 

 and awarding prizes. The list of prize mnners was announced the next 

 day in the local paper. As we have the stamp saving system, stamps 

 to the value of each prize were placed on the prize cards that had been 

 filled out and signed by the members of each committee. These cards 

 were presented to the children at the schools by the teachers. All seemed 

 pleased and the prospects for the coming year are very encouraging. 



