children's garden conference. 215 



of their gardens to school and prizes were awarded. Over 250 specimens 

 were brought in and prizes of from 25 to 50 cents given. The effect of 

 these gardens on the neighborhood was wonderful, as neighbors became 

 interested in the work of the children, and gradually turned to it them- 

 selves, thus changing the whole appearance of the neighborhood. 



Then the Dartmouth street school did something similar in giving out 

 seed to the children. Before the close of school I went up there and talked 

 in three different rooms, where the grades where doubled up. The teachers 

 had the children bring their crops to school and there was an exhibition in 

 the school corridor, where the flowers and vegetables had been arranged 

 on long tables. I questioned the children to see if they knew the names 

 of the different specimens and asked how they grew the things. The 

 classes came up one at a time and we had sort of an object lesson. Several 

 times after this various exhibits of the best were taken and sent to the 

 Worcester County Horticultural Society's exhibitions, where they were 

 given prizes of money, which was used in embellishing the school rooms. 



The Worcester County Horticultural Society had considered various 

 propositions for encouraging children but they never amounted to any- 

 thing until this year, when the society appropriated $50 for two children's 

 exhibitions. A schedule of premiums was made and sent to the various 

 school children and others interested in the work throughout Worcester 

 county, offering $1, 80 cents, 60 cents, 40 cents, and 20 cent premiums 

 for the best collection of vegetables and for the best collection of flowers 

 grown from seed, and prizes for various specimens of vegetables and dif- 

 ferent kinds of flowers of 50 cents, 40 cents, 30 cents, 20 cents, and 10 cents. 



Any child under 14 years of age was entitled to exhibit; the work from 

 the planting to the harvesting of the crop to have been done by the child 

 itself. We had two exhibitions, one in July and one in August, which 

 resulted in our having 35 exhibitors at one tim« and 37 at the other. While 

 nothing had been said regarding gratuities, the committee decided to give 

 a gratuity of 10 cents for every exhibit which did not take a prize. The 

 enthusiasm and interest shown by the children was simply marvelous. 

 One of our most earnest workers was Roger Newton Perry who took your 

 first prize for home gardens. He was one of our largest exhibitors and 

 did some splendid work. 



A feature of the exhibitions was that the children were paid their pre- 

 miums on the spot. I believe that when you tell a child you '11 do some- 

 thing, in doing it, and right away, too. Immediately after the show we 

 paid the children just what we owed them and every child was happy 

 because everyone got something. I received several letters from some 

 of our young exhibitors afterwards, thanking me for the good time the 

 society had given them. 



These exhibitions were so successful and were received so favorably 

 that the society has appropriated double the amount of money to have 

 similar exhibitions next year. , 



