94 



THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



recent years in fruit consumption in this country, the profitable- 

 ness of fruit growing, and the large importations of fruit from 

 the Colonies and the United States, all point to the advisability 

 of establishing a fruit plot. In rural schools it is an excellent 

 plan to set aside one portion of the garden for specimens of 

 agricultural plants, manurial demonstration plots, and for a set 

 of plots illustrating a rotation of agricultural crops. All persons 

 who have had experience of rural education will recognise the 

 importance of giving boys adequate practice in the identification 

 of species and varieties of agricultural plants and seeds. So far 



FIG. 43. Arrangement of a school garden suitable for boys of eleven to 

 fourteen years of age. Individual plots. 



as the specimen plots are concerned, it will be sufficient if just 

 a clump of each be sewn, the area covered by each specimen 

 being about one square foot, with a space of six inches between 

 each clump. 1 



It may be here mentioned that in German school gardens a 

 small collection of injurious arid poisonous plants is regarded as 

 an important feature, while in a few school gardens in this country 

 the teachers have succeeded in establishing a complete collection 

 of British trees. Last but not least, flowers should be grown, 

 and a special border set apart for that purpose. A collection 



1 A better way, perhaps, especially for clovers and grasses is to sow in drills, each drill 

 being about three feet in length. 



