DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS 



home experiments, as, for instance, with two 

 apple trees or two patches of potatoes, spraying 

 the one and not the other and having different 

 children make occasional visits to compare notes.* 

 On the other hand, throughout New England 

 and New York, many schoolhouses have barely 

 ground enough for the children's recess. Yet 

 even so, if a few feet of ground could be planted, 

 for example, to cabbages or potatoes, an experi- 

 ment could be conducted that would touch the 

 taxpayer's pocket, dissolve the shell of preju- 

 dice, and win at least a grudging acknowledg- 

 ment that there is some merit in school gardening. 

 Such a plot could be divided into halves and one 

 part planted with selected eyes from large, well 

 formed potatoes while the other half should be 

 seeded with eyes from small or indifferent stock. 

 One-half of each division should be carefully 

 sprayed against the ravages of the potato bug. 

 The other half should be left to care for itself. 

 The result would show the relative value of 

 the crops in a most convincing way. Ten 

 cabbages would demonstrate the ravages of 

 the common cabbage butterfly and, incident- 

 ally, of the cabbage root maggot and the flea 

 beetle in localities where they abound. Four 



♦Sec Appendix A, Note 4, for Dr. Robertson's offer of prize 

 money for wheat and oats grown by the children of Canada, and 

 notice the bearing of this upon the school garden work. 



Where there is a branch of the Grange it is well to ask it, indi- 

 vidually or collectively, for suggestions and for aid in improving 

 the school premises. Sec Appendix A, Note 5. 

 6 71 



