l86 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



work most demands a steady hand. Some children are sure 

 to be upset by the irregularity, and drop out. Better, so far 

 as continuous gardening is concerned, will be found the plan 

 adopted in the city of Cleveland, and also at the Children's 

 School Farm in New York, where a garden teacher and cura- 

 tor, with assistants, oversee the work the year round. The time 

 is sure to come when in a corps of teachers it will be under- 

 stood that certain ones are to take their long vacation in the 

 summer and others in the winter. Each section of the city 

 or countryside should have within access a demonstration 

 garden, with a consulting gardener at the head who would 

 understand the difficulties prevailing in the neighborhood, 

 where questions about home gardens might be answered and 

 puzzles solved, where seeds and plantlets might be sold 

 for a trifle, and where the surplus vegetables might be regu- 

 larly bought. Great things can be accomplished in a neigh- 

 borhood where such a model garden is identified with the 

 interests of home and school, each playing into the hands 

 of its partner. 



The records of school-garden events may be made in 

 various ways. Sometimes the important notes are kept by a 

 secretary elected by the class. 



The diary that follows happens to be written by a member 

 of a garden class in a somewhat closely settled suburb of 

 Boston. It is one child's account of the incidents that inter- 

 ested him in the school garden during its opening year. 

 Far more ambitious plans were worked out later, this school 

 being one where the children formed voluntary partnerships, 

 thus heightening the pleasure of labor and opening the way 

 for interesting and ingenious enterprises. The school gar- 

 den passed into competent hands during the summer, but, 

 as in so many cases, its connection with the school ceased in 

 June, causing the sort of break that we have already been 



