SUGGESTIONS 229 



HOME EXERCISES 



1. Select one of the many home projects for the raising of small 

 fruits or vegetables that are provided by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture or by your State College of Agriculture. With 

 the aid of the teacher or of the county agent, decide on the raising of 

 some garden fruit or vegetable, and then assist in the organizing of a 

 club, if there is not one already in existence, and compete for the prizes 

 offered. 



2. Make a hotbed and a cold frame according to the directions 

 given. As soon as the vegetables are ready for table use, bring a few 

 specimens to school, with a report on how the work was done. The 

 teacher will, no doubt, allow credit for such practical work. 



SUGGESTIONS 



1. If sufficient land cannot be secured for a school garden at or 

 near the school building without reducing the size of the playground, 

 it is best for pupils either to have a separate home plot or to work 

 jointly with their parents in the home garden. Vegetables, it is true, 

 may be grown with some success in window boxes, and many interest- 

 ing and instructive facts may be learned in this way. It is always 

 best, however, to carry on experiments as nearly as possible under 

 natural conditions. Neither the schoolroom nor the ordinary school 

 garden supplies these. For demonstrating seed testing, however, 

 there is no place better than the schoolroom. The process, too, is 

 simple, and it presents many opportunities for a little manual work 

 and for gathering material for problems in farm arithmetic. 



2. In many parts of our country, parents set aside about a quarter 

 of an acre or more for their children to use, as a little farm or garden. 

 Suggestions as to how and what to plant may be given in school. 

 Occasionally, the teacher may visit these little farms. Exhibitions 

 may be made in the fall. A careful record of every operation should 

 be kept : the cost of plowing, cultivating, and harvesting ; the price 

 paid for seeds ; the money received for produce ; and the profits or 

 losses. The Club idea gives greater purpose and meaning to the 

 work. Credit should be allowed for work of this nature done out of 

 school. 



3. Pupils, however, should be taught to cooperate as well as to 

 compete for prizes. 



