CHILDREN'S GARDENS 



the country, thus relieving the congested con- 

 ditions of the city. Interest in growing things 

 must first be created, or the country will have 

 no attraction. Without school gardens, chil- 

 dren of the city are deprived of that which 

 every one needs, contact with the soil. 



A clergyman in one of the slum districts of 

 New York City said his congregation was con- 

 stantly changing, that as soon as the people 

 learned a better way of living they moved to the 

 suburbs, where they could have a little plot of 

 ground. The late Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer 

 was instrumental in securing a place in the 

 country for a poor woman and her large fam- 

 ily of children. She was well settled, but in a 

 short time she moved back, bag and baggage, 

 giving as her reason, " I likes peoples better'n 

 stumps ! " 



The prosperity of our country is largely de- 

 pendent upon the success or the failure of our 

 agricultural and horticultural products. In or- 

 der to succeed, a farmer must work along inten- 

 sive and scientific lines. If the children of our 

 village and rural schools are to become the 

 farmers and fruit-growers of the future, is it 

 not important that they should have some 

 knowledge of the things with which they come 

 in daily contact, and upon which their future 

 success depends? Such education will have a 



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