THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN 



of Study well planned. Still, it is the industrial 

 idea that is everywhere prominent. 



in England, school garden work has been carried 

 on during the last seventeen years, but until 

 recently chiefly in connection with supplementary 

 schools or maintained by private philanthropy. In 

 1895, the Department of Education added cottage 

 gardening as an optional study for boys. The 

 gardens were managed by the master of the 

 school or by a gardener from the neighborhood. 

 This method has been improved upon by the 

 present system of supervision. "Each county 

 now has its agricultural inspector. They inspect 

 and often instruct in all the schools throughout 

 their respective counties, lecture evenings and 

 Saturdays to teachers preparing for examination, 

 and carry out a most detailed system of marking 

 day and evening school gardens, and judging flower 

 shows. They plan the gardens and seem to feel 

 that the results should be the best obtainable, even 

 though the workers are children, else the parents 

 will not be in sympathy with the work."* Many 

 of the latter have cottage gardens and are critical 

 judges of the worth of the children's work. 



A report in 1908 by Horace J. Wright, inspector 



* Sipe. Susan B.: School Gardening and Nature Study in English 

 Rural Schools and in London. U. S. Dept. of Agric, Office of 

 Experiment Stations, Bulletin 204. 



The examinations referred to are those of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society covering topics in elementary agriculture. Those who pass 

 successfully arc entitled, in some counties, to additional salaries. 



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