HOME GARDEX REPORTS. 245 



cause of failure. In some cases good soil was obtained and brought to 

 the garden. The cold, rainy spring, and the drought in summer, dis- 

 couraged many. 



It is a significant fact, and a good sign of progress that nearly all the 

 boys and girls ^Yho did well last year have done still better work this year. 



Several new lawns were made this year planted with our grass seed. 

 Some of the children deprived of land have done good work in flower boxes, 

 which ought to be encouraged. 



All the gardens were visited twice and the excellent ones were visited 

 the third time by the judges. The best ones were given a fourth visit. 

 Seven young women volunteered to make part of the first visits, and the 

 association and director thank them for their serxaces. Every garden 

 was seen at least once, and those in the thickly settled parts of the city 

 twice by the director herself who made about 1700 visits out of 2400. 



In April about twenty-two talks were given in the schools by the direc- 

 tor. The various subjects discussed were Tools, Location, Plans, Prepara- 

 tion of Ground, Fertilizers, Planting, Transplanting, Flower Boxes, Water- 

 ing, Cultivation, Weeds, and Insects. The u-sefulness of toads and birds 

 was also discussed. 



At the North Grammar and Stearns Schools small x'egetable and flower 

 plots were started where the children had the opportunity of object lessons 

 in the subjects which had been talked about in the school rooms. In addi- 

 tion, miniature landscape plays afforded not only fun, but a good oppor- 

 tunity to suggest that small flower beds should not be allowed to encroach 

 upon the lawni space but should be arranged along the borders and fences 

 and made to beautify the back yards. Simple designs, neatly kept were 

 shown to be better than elaborate schemes which look absurd unless given 

 elaborate care. Less interest was shown at the North Grammar Yard 

 and the garden beds finally gave way to bad treatment and the difficulties 

 of a poor location. A fence is needed to keep off intruders for when plants 

 first come up they are not easily seen. At the Stearns school the interest 

 was lively throughout the season, even though many of the products were 

 taken, and replanting was necessary so many times it \\as hard to obtain 

 a good groxx-th. 



The value of garden work to the city is partly told by the pictures 

 which show what children can do to make rough places look bright 

 with flowers and foliage. Lessons in the care of public and private prop- 

 erty are gradually being learned; for when a boy becomes the owner of a 

 garden he does not like to have it molested, and there awakens in his 

 mind a sense of the value of property. The property o\\"ner wishes an 

 orderly city for the benefit of his property, if for no other reason. We 

 must make our boys and girls property oxxTiers, by encouraging them in 

 the ownership of a garden. 



The x'alue of the work to the indixidual can nex'er he told, but the words 

 of the mothers tell us in part, — " It is the best thing that ever was started. 

 It gix'es my boy something definite to do through the vacation. It is 



