WHAT MAKES A SCHOOL GARDEN WORTH WHILE 33 



discussing the relative importance of traits which they posi- 

 tively required in their employees. With not a shade of dis- 

 agreement they named what in their opinion were the three 

 highest qualities, in the following order : loyalty, power of 

 cooperation, efficiency. A schoolman who was within earshot 

 began, with a Knowledge-is- Power air, to protest against this 

 low rating of efficiency. But his academic argument was 

 quickly swept off its feet. The reply flashed back that in 

 real life efficiency, admirable though it is of course, has no 

 positive value uncombined with loyalty and cooperation. And 

 they would not yield an inch. 



There is a long list of incidental values to be gained from 

 a well-conducted garden. These may be reviewed quickly. 

 It is, for instance, a great thing for a child to have learned 

 to use intelligently the multitude of books, periodicals, news- 

 papers, maps, tables, and reports bearing upon the business 

 of up-to-date gardening. The vocabulary of a state statistician 

 would not ordinarily fit the comprehension of an impulsive 

 girl of fourteen. But if this girl has set her heart on getting 

 for her friends certain information which they must have, 

 rather than disappoint them she will make it her business 

 to conquer a mere matter of words. 



Under the pressure of such a purposeful atmosphere a dic- 

 tionary has been known to rise many degrees in importance 

 in less than twenty-four hours. From a mere article of school- 

 room furniture it can become a highly valued friend. Fur- 

 thermore, respect for the producer, for the scholar, for any 

 one who foregoes his own ease to add one little grain to the 

 sum of human welfare, results from even a tiny bit of real 

 investigation done by a child, of whatever age. 



The garden teacher, meanwhile, has been brought into 

 surprisingly direct and human relations with the lives of his 

 young people and with the problems of the community. The 



