204 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



until frost. It is very difficult to manage in a public school a garden 

 which will last through the summer, but in some cases, as at Fair- 

 haven, this is most successfully accomplished. In other places the 

 children who stay at home during the summer work in their gar- 

 dens while those who go away are obliged to give them up. In 

 large cities the summer school garden is very important and never 

 lacks children; in many places a long waiting list is kept and any 

 vacancies are readily filled. Where the children go away they often 

 have a home garden at their summer home. 



The reports of the gardens sent in were very satisfactory and it 

 was difficult to award the prizes. After careful deliberation it was 

 decided to give besides the prizes two honorable mentions. There 

 are six prizes offered next year, three for the established or large 

 gardens and three for new or small gardens. The classification 

 here is rather indefinite but it is our desire to give small and new 

 gardens all the encouragement possible. Whatever we do we are 

 very anxious to put school gardens on a permanent basis and it is 

 with these ideas in mind that we are working. The reports of the 

 directors of the prize gardens will be found further on. 



Children's Home Gardens. 



During 1904 w^e offered for the first time three prizes for home 

 gardens and there were five entries. In making up the list for 1905 

 great hesitancy was felt by the members of the committee as to the 

 advisability of offering more than three prizes. It was decided, 

 however, to try the experiment and the number was increased to 

 ten. When the entries were in it was discovered that we had over 

 two hundred and we found we had made no mistake. 



We visited the home gardens as far as possible and found it was 

 very encouraging to the children to do so. We still feel that the 

 children's home garden movement is a very important one and that 

 local organizations and parents should encourage the children to 

 have them. We have increased the prizes for 1906 both in number 

 and in amount and call special attention to the fact that girls receive 

 the same prizes as the boys. 



The two principal centers for home gardens this year were at 



