168 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and tree planting. Each of 2,016 schools had, for cultivation, a 

 piece of land varj-ing from one to twelve acres. 



In regard to appropriations for agriculture, our country com- 

 pares very unfavorably with some European countries. 



The Secretary of Agriculture of the United States, hopes to get 

 an appropriation of $1,359,000 from our government, for the 

 expenses of his department for the current j-ear. Germany 

 appropriates annually for agricultural purposes S2, 850, 000 ; Aus- 

 tria more than $4,000,000 ; and France S8, 000,000. In propor- 

 tion to her population, France appropriates more than forty times 

 as much as the United States ; and in pi'oportion to her area, 

 more than one hundred times as much. If Secretary Rusk gets 

 the appropriation he desires, in no sense will it be commensurate 

 with our position as the greatest agricultural nation on the earth. 



The beneficent results of teaching European children agriculture 

 may be seen even in our own country. In 1880 the Kentucky 

 Bureau of Immigration induced colonies of Swiss, Germans, 

 Austrians, and Swedes to settle poor lands in Laurel and Lincoln 

 counties, Kentucky. Charles Dudley Warner writes that it is a 

 sight worth a long journey, to see the beautiful farms made out of 

 land that the average Kentuckian thought not worth cultivating. 

 It should be noted that the settlers named came from the very 

 countries where school gardens are so common and governmental 

 appropriations so liberal. 



During the year 1889, more than 200,000 immigrants, from 

 Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Norway, came to the United 

 States. Having learned to work farms scientifically, they are 

 rapidly displacing our farmers. 



A Swedish citizen of Springfield, Mass., has bought 22,000 

 acres of land in Vermont, which he will colonize by immigrants 

 brought directly from Sweden. Thrifty foreigners are rapidly 

 becoming the landholders, and our young countrymen are flocking 

 to the cities to work on cars, in stores, or to live by their wits. 

 The applications for positions on the cars of the West End Rail- 

 way Company, number from seventy-five to one liundred a day. 

 Most of these applicants have what is called " a good common 

 school education," and man}- have a college education. 



We have much to learn from the Swedish school S3-stem in 

 particular. The Sloyd system of manual training is highly com- 

 mended b}' educational experts. The Swedish system of physical 

 culture has been recommended for introduction into the Boston 



