THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN 



throws a chain of gardens as it were, from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, from Florida to Maine; 

 while in our island possessions the people are fol- 

 lowing our lead, as in Porto Rico, or have ante- 

 dated our experiment, as in Hawaii.* 



In the United States, the initial step in establish- 

 ing school gardens was taken by the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society which, in 1890, sent Mr. 

 Henry Lincoln Clapp to make a study of school 

 gardens in Europe. As a result of his report and 

 the work of the society in encouraging children 

 to grow flowers and vegetables at their homes, 

 interest in school gardening was aroused and 

 slowly but steadily increased. Mr. Clapp him- 

 self, Master of the George Putnam school of 

 Roxbury, Massachusetts, instituted, in 1891, the 

 first school garden in America, — a wild-flower 

 garden, for which his pupils brought the earth and 

 collected the ferns. The garden is still in existence 

 with some 150 native wild plants. Since 1900 a 

 vegetable plot with individual beds has been added. 



♦ In Hawaii "The course in the Normal School includes garden 

 and field work, budding, grafting, potting, transplanting, study of 

 domestic and wild animals, beneficial and injurious insects, etc. 

 Plats of ground are assigned to groups of students who supervise the 

 work of the pupils in the training school in caring for these plats. 

 These training school pupils work together by grades, raising vege- 

 tables which are disposed of in the city markets. The proceeds are 

 used to purchase school equipment. The other grade schools of the 

 city are also given instruction similar to that in the training school by 

 a traveling instructor, and a portion of each school's grounds is set 

 apart for the growing of vegetables." Alger, K. G.: Circulars of 

 Educational Information No. 13. Dept. of Education. Vermont. 1904. 



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