74 



THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 



to be provided with the means of subsistence, should 

 spur the inhabitants of this plain to change their ter- 

 ritory into a plenitude of gardens. In some parts the 

 ground is good ; in other places the cherries have 

 scorned all endeavors to draw them out of the fruit 

 trees. 



The engineer, O. V. Altvatoer, has worked out a plan 

 of a comprehensive State irrigation, and Baron Pirquet 

 has already proved, by an astonishing example, what ' 

 can be accomplished in this unpropitious region by ra- 

 tional irrigation and superposition of manure dissolved 

 in water. Who could deny that all such efforts would 

 be guided and furthered by prudent activity in the 

 school gardens ? 



THE MORAL STIMULUS. 



The best laws remain inoperative, the best counsels 

 are preached to deaf ears, if, in tender youth, sense and 

 understanding are not enlisted for wholesome innova- 

 tions. Above all things, we can make youth happy if 

 we give him an opportunity to do garden work. The 

 author knows of a military school whose pupils made a 

 heat little garden, in the great yard, without any special 

 guidance. In all other lands to-day the soldier is still 

 feared by the possessors of large open territory. In 

 France, on the contrary, simple soldiers create charming 

 plantations in tents. There are plenty of barracks in 

 which, without interfering with military purposes, they 

 can be permitted to have little plantations along the 

 walls. The army is called the school of men, and not 

 without justice. Why shall not the soldier, who cir- 

 culates very much round the world, be the pioneer of so 

 important a thought, which he can put in practice in his 



