THE COBBET SCHOOL GARDEN. 223 



The school garden plant is becoming a paying investment from a mone- 

 tary standpoint as well as educationally. During the three years preced- 

 ing this we have solicited gifts of money, tools, plants, and .seeds, and 

 have incurred a heavy debt for soil. This year we have paid for supplies 

 costing over thirty dollars with receipts from the sale of garden products 

 at ordinary market prices, and plan to apply a considerable balance to- 

 ward cancelling our debt for soil. Last year some three dollars was re- 

 ceived from the incidental sale of products; the sales of hardy plants, 

 bulbs, cutfiowers, and vegetables this season bid fair to amount to nearly 

 fifty dollars although the sales are still distinctly incidental to the main 

 educational purpose of the gardens. We believe it to be clearly desirable 

 that a school garden should become self-supporting in order that it may 

 give the broadest and most practical training to the pupils. 



Progress has been made in every department of the garden. A brief 

 account follows of the several phases of our work: typical beds of vege- 

 tables and herbs, large plots of native plants, beds for bulbs and annual 

 flowers, a space for commercial plants for geographical specimens, vines 

 for school decoration, an "old-fashioned" garden of hardy perennials, 

 and cold frames and beds for multiplying plants for prize distribution and 

 sale in our city. 



Ever>' one of the seventeen classes was given the care of one or more 

 plots this spring. Unabated enthusiasm in spading, manuring, and seed- 

 ing was shown. Indeed, the soil of many beds was sifted this year in the 

 desire of every group of boys and girls to do as thorough work as their 

 fellows could. When harvests commenced there was keen rivalrj' to 

 purchase portions of the products, and fancy prices might have been 

 secured had we thought it wise. A great variety of vegetables has been 

 raised that the children may come to know them and the culture they 

 need. We have sold several kinds of lettuce and radishes; string, shell, 

 and lima beans; tomatoes and strawberry tomatoes; Swiss chard and 

 peppergrass; sage and other herbs; sweet corn, potatoes, beets, kohlrabi, 

 onions and scullions; curled chervil, squashes, and rhubarb. Turnips, 

 parsnips, salsify, and carrots are now ready to be harvested and sold. 

 Spinach, kale, endive and corn salad are still growing thriftily in open 

 beds and cold frames. There have been a few failures: the crop of cab- 

 bages, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower is much inferior to that of last 

 year because the bed they are growing in is shaded by a tree and its mois- 

 ture and fertility are sapped by tree roots this season. Only one of the 

 dwarf sieva beans germinated; okra was planted too late for a good crop; 

 a second planting of sweet corn did not quite attain maturity before severe 

 frosts came. The strawberry bed and the row of bush fruits are now 

 thriving. Somewhat less space has been given to vegetables than last 

 year, but more varied and better products have been raised. 



The garden of native plants has been maintained and its development 

 along established lines continued. We find that the .sunken tubs for 



