244 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



One hundred seventy-five dollars was raised among the business men of 

 the place for the prizes and to defray other expenses. All the seeds were 

 paid for by the children. 



Report of the Waltham Home Garden Association. 



BY MYRTA MARGARET HIGGINS, GARDEN DIRECTOR. 



The Waltham Home Garden Association started in its second season 

 (1907) with 1295 entries of home gardens from boys and girls imder 16 

 years of age. This is an increase of 653 over the number entered last year. 

 Several gardens started at summer homes and elsewhere could not be 

 reported, though we are glad to know that our flowers bloomed at Cape 

 Cod, Nantasket, and other places. Of the 1295 who made entries this 

 year, 171 failed to start a garden. Of the 1115 started within the city 365 

 gardens did not result well. There were 170 of some merit; a larger num- 

 ber than made entries last year. 254 gardens were fair, 149 gardens were 

 good, and 345 gardens were excellent. The mark of excellence was given 

 to those gardens which had obtained good growth and were kept free from 

 weeds. As yet little has been attempted in the way of design, for many 

 of the children do not know even the difference between weeds and flowers, 

 and they often wait until the director comes before they weed their gardens, 

 fearing they may pull up the wrong plant, as many a child has done. 

 Lessons on weeding take up much of the director's time, for many children 

 do not know how to take a w^eed out of the ground. 



Of the number who did not plant their seed, very few failed to do so 

 from lack of interest. Sickness, moving, lack of encouragement from the 

 parents, or discouraging difficulties were the reasons usually given. In 

 some cases the children were deprived of the ownership of a garden because 

 the parent took the seed, telling the child that he did not know how to 

 plant a garden. Some of the parents made no better garden than the 

 children could have made themselves. The child leams by doing, and 

 should be given a small plot and a few seeds to call his own. It is possible 

 to teach a child without taking from him the pleasure and the value of 

 experience. It is well to tell him how large a plant may grow, for he does 

 not always realize the difference in size between the seed and the plant. 

 The result is that he plants the seed too thickly even for thinning out. 

 Teach him that a few plants well cared for will give greater reward than 

 more not well grown. 



Those gardens which did not result well sometimes failed from lack of 

 good care, but often were spoiled by babies, cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits, 

 cows, and horses. In fact, it seems as if all the lovable creatures of the 

 animal world were enemies of the garden. Poor soil was sometimes the 



