AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



support the two institutions for the suitable 

 preparation of leaders and teachers in the "new 

 education." 



Among pioneer school gardens in the United 

 States, one of the earliest, largest and most com- 

 plete was that established in 1897 by the National 

 Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio. The 

 president of the cornpany, after an investigation 

 of the successes and failures of the men who 

 had been boys with him, was impressed by 

 the fact that there had been scarcely a failure 

 among those boys who had been responsible for 

 some farm or garden ''chores." He decided that 

 in a very rough neighborhood he would make the 

 experiment of using the surplus energy of the boys 

 in practical garden work and let them have the 

 products of their steady work and business energy. 

 So gratifying was the result that the garden is to- 

 day a marked feature of the welfare work for the 

 employes of the National Cash Register Company.* 



About the same time, 1897- 1898, several normal 

 schools in the east began to offer instruction in 

 school gardening, notably Hyannis, Massachusetts, 

 where, by means of the gardening lessons, banking 

 and business operations were taught, as well as the 

 correlation of garden work with arithmetic and 



* The plots are lo x loo feet. They are for boys old and strong 

 enough to garden on a scale sufficient, for example, to permit one 

 boy to provide a family of five with fresh vegetables throughout 

 the season, and make $5.00 in addition. The boys work under a 

 competent gardener. 



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