January 25, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



37 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by 



Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article :— Agriculture in Public Schools 37 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan.— II. (With figure.) C. S. S. 38 



Winter Birds in the Pines Mrs. Mary Treat. 39 



New or Little-known Plants :— Nymphsea gigantea. (With figure.) 40 



Foreign Correspondence: — The New Plants of 1892. — I W. Watson. 41 



Cultural Department :— Irises and their Cultivation. — VI J. N. Gerard. 43 



Autumn-flowering Lilies G. Reuthe. i,a, 



Hardy Perennials for Sub-tropical Effect J. Woodward Manning. 45 



The Shrubbery in Winter E. P. Powell. 45 



The Forest : — Tree-planting on Mount Hamilton Charles Howard Shinn. 45 



Correspondence : — Favorite Flov\rers H. Christ. 46 



The Iris Season Professor M. Foster. 47 



Tigridias F. H. H. 47 



Notes 48 



Illustrations: — Nvmphsea gigantea. Fig. 7 41 



Lake Yumoto, Japan, with Hemlock Forests, Fig. 8 43 



Atjriculture in Public Schools. 



A SPECIAL bulletin has lately been issued by the Hon- 

 orable C. C. James, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of 

 Ontario, on the "Teaching of Agriculture in the Public 

 Schools." It is argued in this paper that instruction in agri- 

 culture should be made obligatory in the common schools 

 because so large a proportion of the people depend upon 

 it ; because such a large amount of capital is invested in it, 

 and because of the large share it contributes to trade and 

 commerce. But if it is admitted that such instruction is 

 needed, a more practical question is : How is it possible 

 to teach this art in any way that will be effective.? In our 

 common schools, for example, there would seem little place 

 for the introduction of any new branches of study for chil- 

 dren between seven and fifteen years of age. If they are to 

 receive lessons in farming or gardening, it is very plain, in 

 the first place, that some other branches must be neglected 

 or excluded from the curriculum ; and, in the second place, 

 a corps of teachers must be trained to a rather intimate 

 knowledge not only of the practice of the art of cultivating 

 plants, but of the sciences on which this practice rests. We 

 cannot expect graduates of public schools to have any pro- 

 found knowledge of botany, economic entomology, agri- 

 cultural chemistry and the like, but the man who teaches 

 these pupils must have a reasonable familiarity with these 

 and other sciences, or he is not fit to be an instructor. 



When we consider how much time and labor and or- 

 ganization all this implies, we feel inclined to say that the 

 project is impracticable ; but we are faced by the fact that 

 in France the Government is doing just this thing, and do- 

 ing it with apparent success. We do not refer particularly 

 to the agricultural university in Paris, which is famous all 

 over the world, nor to the national schools of horticulture, 

 agriculture, forestry, veterinary science, dairying and sheep-, 

 raising which have been established in various parts of the 

 Republic. Agriculture has not only been introduced into 

 the superior schools, where there are pupils from thirteen 



to fifteen years of age, but in the elementary schools, where 

 the pupils range from seven to thirteen years old, and even 

 in the infant schools, attended by children under seven 

 years of age. At first, instruction in agriculture was made 

 optional in the public schools, and between 1850 and 1879 

 it was dependent upon aid from agricultural societies and 

 private benefactions. In 1879, however, a law was passed 

 which compelled all the one hundred and sixty normal 

 schools of the country to provide within six years agricul- 

 tural instruction for the teachei^ in training, and requiring, 

 further, that the primary schools should within three years 

 make instruction in agriculture and horticulture com- 

 pulsory. 



The introduction of agriculture in the schools then began, 

 where it should have done, with the training of the teachers. 

 Many of the schools have small gardens attached as well 

 as agricultural museums, and children under nine years 

 old have lessons in these gardens. From nine to eleven 

 years, together with their reading, object-lessons and ex- 

 cursions, they receive lessons on the principal kinds of fer- 

 tilizers and on the implements of husbandry and agricul- 

 tural work in general. From nine to eleven, in addition to 

 this, they are instructed in seed-sowing and harvesting, in 

 growing the vegetables of the district in which they 

 live, in cultivating and propagating trees, and in caring for 

 domestic animals, etc. In the superior schools the course 

 extends over two years, and it includes a very complete 

 course in agriculture, which is varied to suit the special 

 needs of the locality, and illustrated in school-gardens and 

 experimental fields, and by visits to the farms of the sur- 

 rounding districts. In some of these schools there is a 

 special agricultural section under the charge of an agricul- 

 tural professor. 



Of course, this work is only in its early stages, but the 

 success achieved is encouraging. At all events, good 

 observers say that the practice of agriculture and horticul- 

 ture in France is admirable, and that this is largely due to 

 the Government colleges and that it is being steadily im- 

 proved by the teachings in the public schools. Mr. James 

 feels that a similar movement ought to be begun in On- 

 tario, and one of his best reasons is that this primary in- 

 struction will very largely increase the number of those 

 who desire a more thorough course of training in the col- 

 leges. Knowing how our teachers are paid, and remem- 

 bering, too, that teaching has hardly reached the dignity 

 of an established profession in this country, but is usually 

 taken up by young persons for a few years as a tempo- 

 rary occupation until they can find something better to do, 

 the prospect of securing a corps of instructors who are 

 able to teach the arts of cultivation as thoroughly as they 

 should be taught, seems very remote. But, if we can 

 imagine such a thing as teachers adequately equipped for 

 this work in all the common schools of the country, we are 

 convinced that this would be a most valuable part of the 

 education of the rising generation. By this we do not 

 mean that all these students would be competent to 

 conduct a farm or garden in the most successful way, 

 but as a mere mental discipline and as a part of ordi- 

 nary mental furniture such training would have great 

 value. In the first place there is no greater mystery 

 to the ordinary man and woman than the processes of vege- 

 tation which go on all about them. Even intelligent men 

 do not know the names of the trees which they pass every 

 day, much less of the grasses and plants they tread upon. 

 No story is too wonderful for their belief. Reputable news- 

 papers will publish accounts of an extraordinary Elm-tree 

 somewhere which bears acorns, or of a plant which can 

 accurately foretell the weather ; and sharpers will go 

 through a village street and sell in almost every house, at 

 $1 each, the seeds of some novel plant which he assures 

 the buyers will bear a flower with all the colors of the rain- 

 bow and with a fragrance which can easily be enjoyed a 

 mile away. All this is simply because men do not observe 

 the ordinary ongoings of life about them, and elementary 

 instruction in these matters to the young will give them 



