CHILDREN'S GARDENS 



cess in life to the industrious habits contracted 

 when he was a boy on a farm. He agrees with 

 all thinking people who consider the present 

 educational system seriously, that there is too 

 much involution and not enough evolution; too 

 much poured in and not enough drawn out; too 

 much training of the head and too little of the 

 hand and the heart. In order to counteract this 

 and stimulate thought and activity he deter- 

 mined to establish a Boys' Garden. In 1897 a 

 piece of ground adjoining the factory was laid 

 out in plots, ten by one hundred and thirty feet. 

 Forty boys, ranging in age from eight to six- 

 teen years, were enrolled under the direction of 

 an experienced gardener, and began work. The 

 number of these gardens has grown until now 

 there are seventy-one, each ten by one hundred 

 and seventy feet. A convenient tool-house was 

 built and water-pipes run in at convenient 

 points about the garden. Each boy has a sepa- 

 rate hoe, rake and spade, the number of which 

 corresponds to the number of his garden, and 

 he is responsible for keeping his tools clean, in 

 order, and in their proper places. The head 

 gardener instructs the boys in the care of tools 

 and in the planting of vegetables, appointing a 

 different boy each day as his assistant, whose 

 duty it is to inspect the garden. The head gar- 

 dener also cultivates a plot of his own, in com- 



36 



