208 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



feet, which were given to children of the seventh grade. Seeds were 

 planted and watered by them, and soon the heretofore barren ground 

 began to be spotted Avith green. Support for this garden both active and 

 material was given by a committee of the South End House. Later in 

 the year the Twentieth Centurj' Club of Boston helped. The following 

 fall there was introduced into the Normal School an elective science 

 course with practical work in the Rice Garden. 



During the summer of 1901 the Civic League Garden was established 

 on the Columbus Avenue playground. Beds were allotted to the children 

 in the order of application. 



In the spring of 1903, with these two gardens as examples, seven new 

 ones were established by the Women's Auxiliary of the American Park 

 and Outdoor Art Association. Later these committees merged into one 

 School Garden Committee. 



This committee now has the supervision of nine school gardens. Five 

 of these gardens are confined to vers' limited spaces in the school yards, 

 and therefore the separate beds are much smaller than they should be 

 for the best work. But in these crowded districts we are thankful for 

 every inch of ground given us. The schools above referred to are the 

 LjTnan and James Otis of East Boston, the Hancock in the North End, 

 the Winthrop and the Martin in the South End. 



The Wells (girls) and Phillips (boys) Schools, of the West End, are 

 situated in one of the most congested quarters of the city. The school 

 yards are large enough only for the children to stand during their recess 

 periods, crowded together like penned up animals. To enable these 

 children to "farm" the Boston Park Commission has been most obliging 

 in giving two strips of land on the water front of the Charlesbank Park 

 which have been converted into 118 beds. The Park Commission placed 

 fences around the strips and plows up and fertilizes the ground each 

 spring before the children go out to make preparations for planting. 



The problems of space and fertilizing which must be faced and over- 

 come by the city gardeners practically disappear when we go to the 

 suburbs. The two suburban schools, the Washington Allston in Allston. 

 and the Blackington in East Boston are fortunate in having enough land 

 to enable each child to possess a larger plot and therefore to accomplish 

 more satisfactoiy work. The Washington Allston school has several 

 fruit trees on its premises. 



In the Boston public school curriculum two hours a week are set aside 

 for nature work. Through this channel, with the interest of the school 

 authorities and the cooperation of the masters and teachers, the garden 

 work has been introduced. It is one of the great objects of the committee 

 to have the garden work bound to the school and made as important 

 a part of a girl's or boy's school training as the manual work. To accom- 

 plish this object with profit to the children correlation of garden work 

 with school work is essential; for by this correlation not only will the 

 garden become more lasting and valuable but the other school lessons 



