ITS SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 63 



his childhood in a rational school garden will be thank- 

 ful all his life for this paradise of his first years ; and 

 will be earnest to contribute his own mite to the con- 

 stant perfecting of an institution that has become so 

 dear to him. How much will this further the elevation 

 and nursing of the schools ! Wherever a good idea has 

 been born or carried into practice in the school garden, 

 it will become immediately common property ; for the 

 knowledge of it will spread quickly. A good garden 

 will soon have a good reputation, and will be visited by 

 the neighboring parishes. The ambition of the outlying 

 ones will have a praiseworthy zeal and keep watch of it. 

 The teachers, on their side, will always, in numerous 

 circles and country conferences, spread the new thought, 

 and be eager to imitate that which appears no longer as 

 a mere theory, but as a beautiful idea whose practica- 

 bility one else might doubt, or esteem too costly ; whose 

 advantages the individual could otherwise scarcely 

 measure. In the school garden an opportunity is of- 

 fered to place in the hands of the children improved 

 English and American tools, and to domesticate these 

 among the whole people to their great advantage. 

 That the public school garden must essentially further, 

 directly or indirectly, the husbandry of the country, 

 needs no farther exemplification. Where field culture 

 is changed into garden culture, in the place of one har- 

 vest there will be three or four harvests ; the value of 

 the revenue and the value of real estate will stand in 

 corresponding relation. 



FURTHER ADVANTAGES. 



In the first place, a rural population, well instructed 

 in the school garden, will be capable of carrying on the 



