AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



changing for different ones as their need requires. 

 There may also be some improvised substitutions. 

 Children enjoy making things for real use. If 

 some of the suggested substitutes seem inadequate, 

 try them. Recall how much more enjoyment and 

 benefit there is in the homemade toy or improvised 

 tool provided it does its work well. Moreover, 

 in several well known cases school gardens that 

 nearly failed the first year, when too much of 

 the preparatory work was done for the children, 

 flourished the second year when the same children 

 felt the gardens to be their very own because they 

 had done all the work upon them that they pos- 

 sibly could. Here is another opportunity to 

 lessen the expense of hired labor, particularly in 

 clearing up.* A half dozen children by the use of 

 ropes and crowbar, if wisely directed, can safely 

 accomplish much clearing that might seem to 

 require adult strength. Equipment can be di- 

 vided into fundamental and accessory, limiting 

 the latter according to the amount of nature 

 study, housewifery and elementary science that 

 is to be undertaken in connection with the garden. 

 By substitution, also, one can lessen somewhat 

 the cost of both the fundamental and accessory 

 material. 



Let us consider a garden for fifty children. In 

 the first place, if one person is to supervise them, 



* Sort the rubbish into piles of different materials. The stones and 

 bricks and rocks may be handy for paving purposes; old wood for 

 carpentry; old cans and bottles for plants and experiments. 



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