AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



States at town, county and state fairs call upon 

 their children to make these occasions successful 

 affairs and are loyally answered. In the Bowery 

 district of New York, in the crowded Bohemian 

 quarter of a western city, in rural schools, and 

 from city back gardens, children respond to the 

 call for a flower show or harvest home. One school 

 garden in the foreign section of a large city has 

 for several years taken first prize against all 

 competitors. In another school the noise of the 

 street was left behind, as issuing from a dark 

 hall-way the visitor sauntered through aisles made 

 by green branches of shrubs and trees brought from 

 the nature tramps near Greater New York. Here 

 could be seen creditable flowers and vegetables 

 raised by indefatigable children in a tiny school 

 garden plot; also a few butterflies and their 

 breeding cages; a wasps' nest brought from the 

 country; a bit of aquarian and swamp life; and 

 a collection of native and foreign nuts. These 

 were concisely, often drolly, ticketed by the chil- 

 dren themselves with explanatory label or para- 

 graph. Much of this work belonged in the nature 

 study course of the school, but the little garden 

 had given greater zest and understanding to it. 

 There is another city school which numbers 2400 

 pupils, almost all from within two city blocks, and 

 all from within five, where careful systematic 

 questioning brought out the fact that only a 

 thousand had ever seen a tree. To these children, 

 a school garden was given for the two seasons 



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