178 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of Boston for proof of this. The sewing schools, cooking schools, 

 kindergartens, and manual training schools, now corporate parts 

 of our school system, were started and carried beyond the experi- 

 mental stage by private individuals. Mrs. Shaw and Mrs. 

 Hemenway looked farther into the future than the Boston School 

 Committee. These philanthropic women are now paying for the 

 instruction of public school teachers in physical training and 

 industrial training. For years the Teachers' School of Science in 

 Boston has been supported by private munificence. "The 

 Chicago Manual Training School, owes its existence to the Com- 

 mercial Club, a social organization consisting of sixty Chicago 

 business men," who in 1882 guaranteed the sura of $100,000 for 

 the support of the enterprise. It should be noticed that these 

 movements, and many other similar ones that might be named, 

 have had in view what must enter into the life of the nation. We 

 should also call attention to the fact that educational authorities 

 in this country seldom or never start such beneficent enterprises, 

 but in Europe the case is the reverse. 



An appropriation of $30,000 has been asked of the city govern- 

 ment of Boston for the purpose of establishing one manual train- 

 ing school, and running it one year. Why, half of that sum would 

 suffice to establish a good school garden in connection with every 

 one of the fifty-five grammar schools in Boston, and keep it run- 

 ning a year, allowing $275 to each school. The benefits of these 

 gardens would not be confined to a comparatively few pupils, but 

 full forty thousand pupils would have a share in them. The erec- 

 tion of costly buildings, and the collection of costly plants, have 

 no bearing upon the question. We already have the grounds nec- 

 essary ; we have the time specified for such work, in the " Course 

 of Study," from two to three hours a week, for each of the five 

 lowest grades ; and every plant necessary will cost nothing, or 

 next to nothing, comparatively speaking. 



Permission of the School Committee should be obtained to con- 

 vert the most available part of some school yard into a garden, 

 for observation and experimentation, to begin with. Then the 

 money to pay the expenses of getting it ready in spring, and 

 keeping it in order during the long vacation in summer, should be 

 guaranteed. With half of two hundred and seventy-five dollars, I 

 am sure I could establish a good school garden in connection 

 with my school, and keep it in good order during the first season, 



