CHILDREN'S GARDENS 



The formation of the Commissions on Country Life, 

 and Conservation of the Nation's Resources, the great 

 campaigns against Tuberculosis, and the Congestion 

 of Population in Cities, and the Inquiry into the rea- 

 son for the High Cost of living, has aroused a wide- 

 spread agitation for popular education to meet these 

 questions. As a result legislators are passing laws 

 requiring the teaching of elementary agriculture, to 

 the confusion and consternation of the teachers, who 

 are appalled by the vastness of the subject, their lack 

 of preparation, and the apparent difficulty of fitting 

 the new course into the curriculum for children. The 

 endeavor here has been to suggest working plans 

 which will open the way for them. 



In preparing this volume, it seemed wise to adhere 

 to the type of garden in which the ideas and methods 

 to be shown were developed, so as to explain more 

 clearly each step of the work, without confusing the 

 reader with many exceptions and variations of pro- 

 cedure. When the aims and methods are understood, 

 the intelligent worker can then adapt and develop de- 

 tails of procedure to fit local conditions. 



A prominent feature of the book is its illustrations, 

 and their chief value lies in the fact that many of 

 them are photographs taken by the author from the 

 actual work or from his drawings and designs. 



The book is divided into theory and practice, and 

 in the theory it takes up the values of Children's Gar- 

 dens, and attempts to show how far reaching such 

 instruction may be in forming the Nation's people, 



