COUNTRY SCHOOL GROUNDS 
Play Grounds: School children need abundant room for play. 
One might suppose this was sufficiently obvious to be generally 
known, but the niggardly provision of land, even in the country, 
indicates that the fact has been widely overlooked. Apparently 
it has been tacitly assumed in very many instances that the school 
pupil will play in a neighbor’s pasture or in the public road, where, 
between the bulls and the automobiles he might really get consider- 
able exercise. Yet neither private pasture nor public road is to 
be seriously accepted as a proper provision for valuable boys and girls. 
A baseball diamond is the first necessity for a playground. 
A full-size diamond, ninety feet between bases, requires about 
three-fourths of an acre in itself. A small boy’s diamond, sixty 
feet between bases, requires half an acre, or more than the entire 
allowance for some school grounds. Other sorts of play should 
also be provided for, such as swings, slides, etc., with adequate open 
grounds for the usual children’s games. 
The planning and equipment of playgrounds and the organ- 
ization of proper play is a whole subject in itself. In many com- 
munities this matter ought to be taken up urgently and quite aside 
from the question of school grounds. 
School Gardens: Every country school ought to be provided 
with some sort of school garden. Just what use will be made of it 
depends largely on the teacher. Even the poorest teacher can do 
something with it, while in the hands of a really good manager the 
school garden will become the most useful feature of the school 
equipment. 
The school garden should be small. A large parcel of land is 
apt to grow up to weeds. One quarter of an acre will be ample for 
most schools; and a quarter of that will be a great deal better than 
nothing. This garden, however, should be an integral part of the 
school plan. It should lie next to the playgrounds, and should 
form an attractive feature in the general effect. 
Trees and Shrubs: On Arbor Day it is customary for the girls 
to speak pieces and the boys to plant trees. Inasmuch as the av- 
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