AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



neighborhood where they are located. The de- 

 tails of this work as well as that of Cleveland will 

 be taken up later. These two cities are foremost 

 in demonstrating the value of the school garden 

 and in honoring it by placing their respective cura- 

 tor and supervisor in high official positions, with 

 suitable appropriations for their work. 



In the United States school gardens are spread- 

 ing rapidly, and the work is becoming more and 

 more recognized as worthy of a place in local 

 educational systems. At the national capital, 

 the District of Columbia, limited by the terms 

 of the Congressional appropriation of |i200 for 

 school gardens, which forbid the use of the 

 money for salaries, does the next best thing 

 and appoints Miss Susan B. Sipe, one of the 

 teachers in the Normal School, at a nominal 

 salary, as supervisor of nature study and school 

 gardens in the District of Columbia. A course in 

 nature study has been prepared defining the work 

 from grade to grade and so systematized that 

 each child has a "required amount of work in the 

 school garden just as he has in arithmetic, reading, 

 etc." Washington has four large school gardens 

 on vacant lots, and for school-ground decoration 

 Miss Sipe counts loo white and 50 colored schools 

 in all but 3 of which the children have some part 

 in the planting and care. Moreover, as empha- 

 sizing the value of her work, the United States 

 Department of Agriculture has made her a colla- 

 borator in the Bureau of Plant Industry and fur- 



30 



