1906] NATURE STuDY—No. 32. 241 
attention of both pupils and parents by the larger yields thus ob- 
tained. The crop resulting from good seed has been compared 
with the produce of poor seed of the same variety, but the most 
satisfactory experiments have been those made with potatoes, 
both in comparing the different varieties and in showing the ad- 
vantages of using the Bordeaux mixture to keep the plants free 
from disease. 
The effects of spraying with the Bordeaux mixture were 
eagerly watched by the surrounding farmers, and the results were 
considered remarkable. In 1904 the sprayed plots in two gardens 
yielded 30 per cent more than the others, while in one garden the 
sprayed potatoes produced more than twice the quantity of mark- 
etable tubers dug from plots which had received no Bordeaux 
mixture. In 1905 spraying added over ro per cent. to the crop in 
three gardens, 25 per cent. increase in one garden and 50 per cent. 
in another being the best results obtained. 
Seeing potatoes grown under scientific treatment, which when 
dug yield over 100 bushels per acre more than those grown as 
their father’s manage the crop, makes a more lasting impression 
on embryo farmers than any number of lectures or reports. This 
work in the school garden will bridge the chasm which has in the 
past existed between the experimentalist and the practical farmer, 
and, if these experiments with potatoes lead a fourth of the farmers 
in the district to adopt similar methods in their own fields, the 
community will be yearly enriched by cash returns many times 
greater than the cost of maintaining the school garden. 
The aim of this part of the school garden work is not to teach 
technical agriculture but to lead to such an appreciation of scien- 
tific methods that pupils will come to regard the work of the 
scientist with favor, and be ready to accept his improved methods 
to aid them in more successfully meeting the conditions of modern 
life, whether that life be spent in the office, the workshop or on 
the farm. 
The teachers in the schools where the gardens have been 
maintained for two years, have all declared that the results have 
surpassed their expectations, and they favor a continuation of the 
