SCHOOL GARDENS. 161 



Studying the methods and advantages of rotating crops. 



Artificial pollination. This can be done by the older 

 pupils. 



Budding, grafting and otherwise experimenting with the 

 problems of plant propagation. 



Correlations. — "The children were most interested," said 

 an art teacher, " in the modellings, drawings, and color work 

 upon objects brought from their own garden-plots." Another 

 teacher writes : — "The keeping of a diary by each child (of 

 his own home-garden) proved the best kind of composition. 

 They wrote and dated their accounts of seeding, appearances 

 of seedlings, thinning, weeding, cultivation, etc., on separate 

 sheets first, and corrected them before they put them in their 

 'garden-books.' " An example of correlation to arithmetic and 

 book-keeping is given on page 162. 



Your school need not be deprived of the advantages and 

 opportunities afforded by a garden, though it cannot get 

 government aid or even a small grant from the board of 

 trustees. It is possible to accomplish a good deal with only a 

 couple of square rods of ground and borrowed implements. 

 As in other things, where there's a will there's a way. But 

 have a definite purpose for its establishment. Do not under- 

 take a garden simply because another school has one. From 

 the beginning have your eye on the end. Do not overlook the 

 dangers to the garden attendant on the long summer holiday. 

 Better have no school-garden than an abandoned and unsightly 

 weed-plot from vacation to the end of the season. Enlist the 

 sympathy of trustees and parents if possible. 



School-gardening may be conducted along one or more of 

 three lines — the individual home-gardens (see pp. 17, 49, 83), 

 the co-operative garden, and individual plots on the common 



