AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



to return seeds to the school for those taken away 

 from the school. He has to carry the plant through 

 from the seed to the seed."* 



In the south, also, attempts are being made to 

 interest the farmers' children in flower or vegetable 

 gardens of their own. Among the central states, 

 as in Ohio, the work in this line sometimes does 

 not take the form of technical instruction in 

 agriculture, but rather of teaching that shall 

 open the children's eyes to the growing life 

 about them. Sometimes this is done by reading 

 from the works of such authors as Riley, Carleton, 

 Burroughs, who write of the farm, woods and fields ; 

 sometimes by stories of what men like Burbank 

 have done, or of the achievements of men like 

 McCormick who have invented labor saving tools. 

 .In garden and nature study work the object is to 

 make the country boy realize the natural forces 

 with which he must deal, the wonderful changes 

 that go on about him; to lead him to scientific 

 understanding of his environment, appreciation 

 of his economic position, and to realization of the 

 aesthetic enjoyment possible in his surround- 

 ings.f Such intellectual training will not carry 



* The italics are the author's. Following the circuit of the 

 free traveling libraries in seven of the southern states, over a hundred 

 school gardens have been established in connection with the rural 

 schools. 



f " If the farmer as he trudges down the corn rows under the June 

 sun sees only clods and weeds and corn, he leads an empty and a 

 barren life. But if he knows of the work of the moisture in air and 

 soil, of the use of air to root and leaf, of the mysterious chemistry in 



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