34 THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 



there should be at least one representative of our twenty- 

 five or thirty kinds of trees in the school garden, and 

 also a collection of our most important wild shrubs, if 

 the wood does not actually look into the school win- 

 dows. If it is not possible to plant trees near the 

 school, one of the village streets can be planted with a 

 row or an alley of trees ; but care should be taken that 

 no two trees of the same kind stand together, as the ef- 

 fect will not be picturesque. Many new trees will, be 

 introduced by means of the school gardens for exam- 

 ple, the invaluable larch, the quickly growing ailanthus 

 (God's tree), acacias and Scotch firs on the Hungarian 

 steppes, etc. If the landed proprietors will learn some- 

 thing of the care of forest trees, they will no longer strip 

 the woods of their fallen leaves for litter for their cattle, 

 nor tear away the roots from every fallen tree, for they 

 will know that they are withdrawing the nourishment 

 of the woodlands, which consists of the remains of the 

 rotten and mouldered vegetation. The public school 

 must implant in the children the love of trees, make 

 clear to them what part the woods fulfil in the house- 

 hold of nature, and of what importance they are to man. 

 It must awaken in them the conviction that bad wood- 

 husbandry is the ruin of agriculture, and that short-sight- 

 edness for one or two harvests often turns a woodland 

 into an unfruitful waste. 



One of the most important of the shrubs which are to 

 be domesticated by the school garden is the willow ; 

 particularly the fine willow that is used for basket mak- 

 ing, which will furnish material for the school work-shop 

 and create a lucrative branch of industry for adults. 

 The culture of the willow is very simple, very profitable, 

 and makes it possible to bring empty places, which oth- 



