AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



I like the sweet-peas the best because it makes a 

 pretty bouquet and is so fragrant. 



We learned they belong to the pulse family, a very 

 useful family to us and the soil. We have learned 

 that peas and beans contain a proteid and carbohy- 

 drates for our food and that they make nitrogen for the 

 soil to make it rich to grow wheat and apples. 



I like to get the enemies out of the garden. We 

 have pulled thousands of weeds from the [garden], 

 Eva Soderberg. B6. Age 1 2 y r. 



The children of the very poor find working in a 

 garden preferable to sorting at the public dump, 

 hunting greens or minding babies at home. 

 They prefer to bring the little ones to the garden 

 and interest them in big brother's crops even 

 to the point where little brother helps. One lad, 

 not to be outdone, appeared one day with a bor- 

 rowed child, sa.ying stoutly, "every other fellow 

 had a kid." ^ The girls like mothering the chil- 

 dren where there are bright flowers and fresh 

 air and a shelter from the summer heat, finding 

 the garden a great improvement over the close 

 tenement or crowded doorstep.. The gardeners 

 also like the commercial side of their work, 

 whether it comprises only the sale of 15 quarts of 

 beans to an Italian eating house or $25 worth of 

 produce, such as the 10 x 90 foot plots sometimes 

 yield. They like the money for necessities or for 

 pleasures, and best of all, for that most excellent 

 abiding sense of power and self support that it 

 brings. 



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