CHAPTER V. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS BY MRS. HORACE MANN. 



Dr. Schwab's little work has been given entire, with 

 the exception of a few paragraphs. Perhaps more that 

 is chiefly of local interest might have been left out, if it 

 had not been for the danger of marring the unity and 

 the earnest flow of the style. As the work of making 

 school gardens is eminently a practical one, I proceed 

 to give suggestions as to what can be done with us at 

 once about them. 



It is a singular fact that, while many of our towns 

 have committees for improvement, and the practice of 

 setting out trees is very general in the streets of our 

 country towns, and even suburban cities, the school- 

 yards are bare of every attraction ! Nothing gives a 

 stronger impression of the " abomination of desolation " 

 than to enter one of them. But they are generally wide 

 enough to admit of a wide border that can be adorned 

 with the wild-flowers of the neighborhood, which Mr. 

 William Falconer, in the Rural New Yorker of March 

 3oth and April 6th, 1878, assures us grow well when 

 transplanted from the woods to good garden mold. As 



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