CHILDREN'S GARDENS 



a will and soon brought order out of chaos. 

 Each boy was provided with a hoe, rake, spa- 

 ding-fork and trowel. The watering-cans and 

 wheelbarrow were for general use. 



The individual gardens were ten by ninety 

 feet — a space which taxed the energies of most 

 boys and was too much for some, who fell by 

 the wayside. But the interest was growing and 

 their places were easily filled. The plan was 

 carefully drawn to a scale and followed exactly. 

 Flowers, squashes, lettuce, radishes, red beets, 

 turnips, tomatoes, beans, peas, potatoes and 

 corn flourished. Some of the boys raised all of 

 the vegetables needed by their parents and sold 

 some besides. 



The boys came twice a week after school, 

 Monday and Thursday, and worked two hours, 

 and two days a week during the summer.. It 

 was often difficult to have them leave the garden 

 because they were interested. The raising of 

 vegetables was not the primary interest in the 

 minds of the instructors ; it was to give the boys 

 some idea of the great interrelations in Nature, 

 and have them appreciate the forces at work 

 overcoming the hard, resisting rock, changing 

 it into soil; the soil into root, stem, leaves, 

 flowers and fruit; the plant into blood, muscle, 

 bone, nerve and vital energy ; the disintegration 

 of the organic and its return into the inorganic, 



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