138 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



children think, " Fatlier has moue}^ enough," and therefore thej' 

 will do no work. Labor is the primal blessing, and although 

 the speaker believed in teaching arithmetic and the other useful 

 branches in the school course, he would have more time given to 

 out-door culture, as in the French, German, and Swiss schools. 

 Upon the introduction of School Gardens, it might be necessary 

 to call the first boy to take a lesson in it, but the next boy would 

 go right in. Boys should not be taught as if they were all to 

 be college professors. Now, when they go to Harvard, they are 

 not examined to see what they know about plants, but about Greek 

 exceptions. 



Dr. Rounds referred to the French system again. The school 

 authorities there, decide what the branches taught in each school 

 shall be, and assign a certain proportion of time for each. A 

 place in the programme must be found for each, and it is found. 

 It is no infliction upon the pupils of a French school to say ' ' Now 

 we will go into the garden." More time is given to school work 

 there than here, but the pressure is not so great and the children 

 are not over-taxed under this system. If horticulture and manual 

 training are introduced into our American schools, they could 

 be added to the course as rewards of merit. He could not 

 believe it would be any worse for our boj's to be busy in the 

 school grounds than to be standing around the streets. As matters 

 now stand he could see no way to effect this object except to 

 convert the school committee, and get them to say that a certain 

 portion of time shall be given to these studies, and see that it is 

 done, for they are quite as important as true discount or common 

 multiples. 



Mr. Clapp said that our educational institutions and business 

 enterprises gave foreigners the impression that if they came to 

 this countrj', the}' should be pretty sure to get rich, and, therefore, 

 they came here every year by hundreds of thousands. He added 

 that our national emblem is the American eagle, bearing in his 

 beak a ribbon upon which is written "E Pluribus Uuum," which 

 means little or nothing to foreigners ; but if the inscription should 

 be changed to "The Land of the Almighty Dollar," it would be" 

 full of significance to them. The ruling ambition, prevailing 

 everywhere in this country, that children shall be educated so as 

 to earn their living as soon as possible in the first place, and make 

 as much money as possible afterward, is so strong that most 



