90 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



valuable help has been given by the Styrian Horticultural Society, 

 which has annually distributed to the schools, free of charge, 

 large quantities of seeds and cuttings. Though not to the same 

 extent as in Austria, the School Garden has firmly established 

 its position as a valuable educational instrument in Germany, 

 France, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, and Russia. In England, 

 State aid is given to instruction in School Gardens whether attached 

 to elementary schools or continuation schools, and the number 

 of such gardens has increased greatly during the past ten years. 



This general increase is mainly due to the recognition in 

 present-day educational methods of the fact that the most valuable 

 and lasting results are obtained from teaching gained by the 

 pupil through his own observation and activity. For such 

 teaching the School Garden offers the widest scope, because it 

 brings the pupil into direct contact with a large variety of natural 

 phenomena from the observation of which inferences may be 

 drawn. Moreover, the School Garden affords an occupation for 

 children which fosters in them a sense of the beauty of nature, 

 makes them self-reliant, promotes neatness, and tends to make 

 them healthier. These physical and moral results are equally as 

 important as the educational ones (using the word " educational " 

 in its narrower sense). The economic aspect, again, must not be 

 overlooked. Dexterity in the use of garden tools and appliances, 

 exact knowledge of the " how " and " when " in planting garden 

 crops, and of the quantities of the various crops obtainable from 

 a garden, are a valuable possession to any one, but more especially 

 to those who live in a country district. 



In this country, School Gardens fall roughly into three classes, 

 namely, day-school gardens for boys, day-school gardens for 

 girls, and evening-school gardens for adults or for boys who have 

 left school. Instruction in day-school gardens, whether for boys 

 or girls, will aim at the general intellectual development of the 

 scholars. In the evening-school gardens the first place will be 

 given to the acquirement of such methods of practical working as 

 will result in the production of abundant crops of good quality. 

 The arrangement of the instruction in the case of girls will 

 naturally take account of the facts that they are physically not 

 so strong as boys, and that when they are grown up it will be 



