

698 



The Weekly Florfsts^ Review* 





AuGtST 17, 1903. 



The Trophies in the Washiogton Convention Bowling and Shooting Tournaments. 



school authorities. ' The children have 

 furnished the labor and the tools; 

 shrubbery has been given by parents 

 or bought by the teachers; seeds have 

 been given by the seedsman who sold 

 the penny packages to the children, and 

 by the Department of Agriculture. 

 These gardens have been valuable as 

 additions to the schools for regular 

 educational work. They have been 

 sources of material for composition les- 

 sons, language lessons, drawing, spell- 

 ing and arithmetic. They have taught 

 the children that labor is necessary to 

 produce and after such expenditure of 

 labor one's rights must be respected 

 and protected, so that there has been 

 no vandalism for two years, where pre- 

 viously plants were uprooted and 

 thrown upon the street with no other 

 purpose than destruction. Soon the 

 school grounds of Washington will be 

 neighborhood ideals — those from which 

 the surrounding homes will be able to 

 receive inspiration — and not the for- 

 lorn, neglected spots they have pre- 

 viously been, 



A teacher, to be a successful 

 garden teacher, must be able to 

 handle classes in the garden. A 

 garden for decoration is not well 

 adapted for class work, but the 

 garden of individual plots, where every 

 member of the class has a small plot, 

 for which he is responsible, is admir- 

 ably adapted for the teaching of the 

 subject to classes. Through the aid of 

 Dr. B. T. Galloway, chief of the Bu- 

 reau of .Plant Industry, the normal 

 school is allowed this privilege. About 

 7,000 square feet of land has been 

 placed at the school's disposal. Upon 

 this land, a sixth grade class of boys 

 has been set to work under the direc- 

 tion of the normal school. A few prac- 

 tical lessons are given the boys in the 

 greenhouse and they are then put upon 

 the land, which they measure and lay 

 off into garden plots 9x20, with paths 

 two feet wide separating the plots. 



Each boy raises eight kinds of vege- 

 tables and two kinds of flowers. What- 

 ever he raises is his own and it is no 

 insignificant amount. Care is taken 

 that the garden does not deteriorate 

 into simply growing vegetables for the 

 sake of the vegetables, but that the 

 child is the most important growing 

 factor in it and his development is far 

 more important than the quantity of 

 beans gathered or the size of the to- 

 matoes grown. 



The common products of the United 

 States, which the geography of the 

 grade requires him to recite about, and 

 of which he knows so little, are grown 

 on small plots bordering the garden 

 and as the products mature lessons are 

 given on them in their industrial and 

 commercial importance to man. As 

 these products have been harvested 

 they have been followed by leguminous 

 crops and it is planned to follow these 

 by such crops that will show the boys 

 the necessity of crop rotation. Bene- 

 ficial and destructive insects, birds, 

 toads and earthworms have been 

 studied in their relation to garden 

 work. 



There is no other form of manual 

 training that offers such a field for 

 correlation with school-room work as 

 gardening. Problems in practical arith- 

 metic are innumerable. These boys 

 have calculated the amount of fertilizer 

 needed and its cost; the cost of fencing 

 the garden; tlie cost of the entire gar- 

 den and of each individual plot; the 

 amount of lime needed on a plot at a 

 given amount to an acre; the amount 

 of seed and the quantity of rainfall to 

 a plot. The correlation with geography 

 has been mentioned. The freedom of 

 speech gives much opportunity for good 

 work in correct English. The physical 

 development of the boj-s by outdoor 

 work is a great point in its favor. In 

 all there is no line of manual training 

 so far in otir public school work that 

 develoj>H tlic child intellectually and 



physically as gardening does. Its in- 

 fluence upon the homes of the land 

 should make it appeal to those not di- 

 rectly interested in educational mat- 

 ters. It is sincerely hoped that the 

 coming congress will see fit to appro- 

 priate money for its establishment in 

 all of the schools of the city, as it is 

 impossible for the department to take 

 the burden of the city. 



The recognition of the movement by 

 a department of government to implant 

 a love for the soil in the mind of the 

 child while it is yet plastic has 

 strengthened efforts in other parts of 

 the country where j)reviously it had 

 been regarded as a fad. Representa- 

 tives of the governments of Canada, 

 Great Britain, New Zealand and France 

 have inspected the work and returned 

 to their own lands stimulated to further 

 the movement among their own chil- 

 dren. Throughout our own country the 

 movement is widespread. It has been 

 furthered by settlement workers, by 

 business firms, by schools, by private 

 individuals. "The idea is so simple 

 and so natural," says a report from 

 the Bureau of Education, "that the 

 coming century will wonder how pub- 

 lic educational institutions ever existed 

 without them and were true to their 

 purpose." 



Philadelphia, Pa.— Jos. G. Neidinger, 

 the wholesale dealer in florists' supplies, 

 is now located in his new store at 1438 

 North 10th street, and is better than ever 

 prepared to handle his rapidly growing 

 trade. 



Galesburg, III. — I. L. Pillsbury is 

 making some improvements at his green- 

 houses on East Main street. He has 

 torn down three of the old buildings and 

 has erected a new rose house, a new 

 violet house and a new carnation house. 



Manchester. X. IT. — James Kirby, 

 who has suffered for a long time with 

 kidney trouble, is reported seriously ill. 



