2 8 THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 



power to cultivate the earth, and the activities and call- 

 ings connected with it they feel a deficiency where the 

 country child is early led to. think and to prepare for 

 his future life occupation. Let us here ponder upon 

 the saying, Non schola sed vita ! Not for the school, 

 but for life ! 



Ignorance, prejudice and imperfect action have for 

 centuries inflicted wounds upon agriculture. In all 

 lands the power of custom and of inherited privilege 

 falls heavily upon the rural population. Whence shall 

 come help and salvation ? In order to enlighten and 

 cultivate this rural population, the elements of agricul- 

 tural instruction must, within certain wise limits, be 

 brought into the public school. Well directed schools, 

 but before all things a correctly arranged, progressive 

 course of agricultural instruction, will make the small 

 landholder and the rural workman capable of profiting 

 by good popular agricultural books. This improvement 

 will cost little, and country towns and State will will- 

 ingly defray the expense. 



The country public school can bring in this elementary 

 knowledge without neglecting aims of its own, elsewhere 

 recognized in this essay, but it must do this if the State 

 comprehends rightly the interests of its tax-payers. 

 Even the smallest village school can solve this problem, 

 and at surprisingly little cost. 



WHAT AN EXPERIMENT GARDEN DOES. 



The country school already, by law, contains a portion 

 of the school garden, the little " experiment garden for 

 boys." This experiment garden has in general a three- 

 fold aim. It serves in the first place for the cultivation 

 of useful plants of all kinds cereals, and economic 



