HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN. 173 



generall}', throw awa}- thousands of plants every year, in changing 

 ■crops and ornamental flower beds. To get rid of such plants 

 advertising is often resorted to. How much better it would be 

 to send them to school gardens, where they would be used to good 

 advantage. The raising of plants for school gardens, by authority 

 of a city or town, would give better returns than raising them 

 simply for public gardens and squares ; and the latter would be 

 be better appreciated than they are now in proportion to the 

 general increase of a knowledge of plants. Moreover, many 

 pupils, favorably situated, would be pleased to contribute plants 

 for the school garden, and in consequence would have a livelier 

 interest in it. 



How will the exercise required in the cultivation of plants in 

 the fresh air and sunshine affect the health of children, especially 

 those living in cities ? The advocates of hygiene and school gym- 

 nastics, might do well to consider that question in all its bearings. 

 Those who are so zealous concerning the ventilation of school- 

 rooms, might find it worth while to determine the benefits arising 

 from ventilation in school gardens in favorable seasons. Why 

 not convert gymnastic wands into garden hoes? Then the 

 attention would not be concentrated simply upon the movements 

 of those instruments, but upon the results of those movements. 

 Boys do not whittle in marked time for exercise : they whittle to 

 work out the embodiment of an absorbing idea. Walking for 

 exercise is of little importance compared with walking for speci- 

 mens of rare minerals, plants, or game. Hold a boy down to 

 your commands, and, for the time being, he is a slave ; give him 

 an idea to work out by himself, and he becomes a free man. Not 

 that the former is useless, but the latter is superior, and in it lies 

 one of the cardinal virtues of the manual training school. 



" The Maine Board of Agriculture is agitating the question, of 

 introducing agricultural books into the public schools, as text- 

 books." That would be beginning at the wrong end to aid 

 agriculture. There are now too many books used in teaching, as 

 compared with other means of instruction. " The American 

 Garden," of 1887, says: "We are thankful indeed for what our 

 instructors have taught us in text-books, even though we had to 

 unlearn part of it ; but, would it not be a wise move, to have a 

 trifle more of the real thing to work on, in the field and garden? 

 Let us labor with our sleeves rolled up, and under the blue 



