DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS 



his interests away from the farm, as is so often 

 the case in school life now, but will provide 

 breadth of culture, make rural life fuller and give 

 a mental alertness useful for all time, whether the 

 boy remains upon the farm or enters industrial 

 or professional life. 



We of the north Atlantic coast pride ourselves 

 upon the little red schoolhouse, and the church 

 steeples that crown our New England hills; 

 upon the virtue that came out of them and went 

 into the making of our country. But this is 

 now largely a matter of historic pride and poetic 

 sentiment only. Today the New England school- 

 house is too frequently a blot on our civilization; 

 a raw, ugly object, spoiling the beauty of the 

 landscape, indecent in its surroundings; of rude, 

 unlovely exterior, with only the flag as an inspira- 

 tion; and with a dismal, uncomfortable interior 

 for tasks that have but little vital connection 

 with the life which the children lead. Even in 

 the largest buildings and with the wider curriculum 

 of the schools of the small towns there is no place 

 for the development of the farmer's boy as there is 

 for the child of the merchant, mechanic, artizan or 

 artist. There is no outlook toward the agricultural 



the sunbeam, of the vital forces in the growing plant, and of the bac- 

 teria in the soil liberating its elements of fertility; if he sees all the 

 relation of all these natural forces to his own work; if he can follow 

 his crop to the market, to foreign lands, to the mill, to the oven and 

 the table — he realizes that he is no mere toiler." Felmley, David: 

 Agriculture and Horticulture in the Rural Schools. 



77 



