246, THE Ottawa NATURALIST. [March 
work. It is true that it has added to the teacher’s cares and 
responsibilities; but this has been more than repaid by the added 
interest and enjoyment it has brought into the school life. 
As the pupils have planned their plots, have measured and 
staked them out, planted the seed and cared for the plants, they 
have become more skilful of hand and more accurate of eye, while 
working from a definite plan has trained the judgment and taught 
them to foresee the future. All these results would warrant the 
existence of school gardens, but more noticeable has been the re- 
sponse to the appeal made to the higher nature of the child. 
As the school environment has been improved, there has been 
a marked change in the moral tone of the school. The pupils’ 
attention has been turned to a consideration of the beautitul to 
the exclusion of many baser thoughts, and the resulting moral cul- 
ture has found expression in more orderly behavicr. A smooth bit 
of lawn and a lawn mower have proved themselves aids to good 
discipline, for the play hours are more rationally enjoyed on well 
kept grounds than on the old rubbish-littered premises, where the 
chief joy was often found in working greater destruction. In 
some schools there has been a very noticeable change in the atti- 
tude of the pupils towards the school room and grounds, and they 
now take pride in beautiful surroundings and care for them where 
formerly they sought but to make desolation more hideous. Some 
of the pupils have been led to attempt flower and vegetable plots 
at their own homes, and it seems hard to over-estimate the better 
training for good citizenship which pupils receive in such schools 
where school gardens have broadened the educational horizon 
and improved the school environment so greatly. 
