Children's Garden Luncheon 



C CALIFORNIA and Missouri vegetables, 

 raised by the children, and served 

 as a salad in Boston! 



Don't say that it's impossible, for it really 

 happened. Don't say either that the Cana- 

 dian children couldn't get fresh gooseberries 

 there in shape or that those Kansas young- 

 sters couldn't send beets. For they did. 

 Fresh eggs and honey came from North 

 Carolina. Oklahoma went so far as to send 

 a cake, an eatable one too, made of potato 

 flour, from the children's raisings of potatoes. 

 And the boys and girls of North Adams, 

 Massachusetts, raised corn and made the 

 corn muffins. 



Don't you wish you'd been there? Do 

 you ask when, where, and how ? It all hap- 

 pened at the National Educational Asso- 

 ciation, in Boston, this last summer. 



A call was sent out here and there for 

 products from the children's own gardens 

 to serve as a luncheon in honor of Assistant 

 Secretary Hays of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. It seemed a most fitting thing to 

 do, but to many quite impossible. The 

 Institute of Technology opened its doors. 

 It seemed for a while as if nothing from 

 the children was going to pass through 

 those doors. 



But the day of the luncheon, products 

 literally tumbled over one another to get 

 in. Montana's offering arrived in a big 

 packing case with an ice-jacket on it. Canada 



Jonquils, planted in sand, ready to come to light. 

 Stones steady bulbs 



WHAT A WONDERFUL THING OF 

 MYSTERY IS A BULB! WITHIN 

 ITS MANY LAYERS, DEEPLY EM- 

 BEDDED, ALREADY FORMED, IS THE 

 BLOSSOM TO BE. WHAT IT CAN 

 DO IN THE BLOSSOMING LINE IS 

 ALREADY SETTLED WITHIN ITSELF 



Conducted by 



ELLEN EDDY SHAW 



New York 



came in with the British colors flying. New 

 York's lettuce walked in on two feet, instead 

 of on its own head, as it should have done. 

 Of course, Massachusetts and Maine had 

 no trouble at all in sending products. 



Even the decorations of the banqueting 

 room itself came from the children of Rhode 

 Island, Pennsylvania, and Canada. A nice 

 little garden in Wellesley sent one hundred 

 nosegays of cornflower to bedeck the guests. 



Beside the materials for food and the 

 decorations, there was a large exhibit of 

 products and pictures of work. 



Mrs. Ellen Richards, president of the 

 National Home Economics Association, 

 and Dr. Balcomb, of the Providence (Rhode 

 Island) Normal School, were chiefly respon- 

 sible for the success of this occasion. 



What does it all mean, the luncheon, this 

 exhibit, the meeting together of professional 

 people all interested in the subject of school 

 gardens? It points to a larger future for 

 this work, a need for better preparation, a 

 desire for help from all avenues, a lessening 

 of the personal element in the work and a 

 widening of a sense of oneness in work large 

 enough for all. This will surely come true 

 if the hoped-for national aid is forthcoming. 



The work is growing in the best sort of 

 ways, slowly and surely. Next year more 

 states, more children, and better trained 

 people will be in the work. You had better 

 get in touch with all of us. 



A Bulb Club 



THE following is written from Cincin- 

 nati and tells of a practical piece of 

 work done by one woman there: 



Inspired by an article in last November's 

 Garden Magazine, I at once planned to 

 make it possible for some tenement children 

 to raise bulbs. 



The head worker in the University Settle- 

 ment agreed to supply the children, the 

 bulbs, lessons in planting and care, etc. 

 So my first Bulb Club, as we called it, was 

 started five weeks before Christmas, mak- 

 ing twenty little children the proud pos- 

 sessors of a bowl each of blooming narcissus 

 on Christmas day. 



Each child was given a shallow glass bowl, 

 three Paper White narcissus bulbs, and 

 enough shells to hold the bulbs firmly in 

 place. A little charcoal was put in with 

 the shells. After the lesson on planting, 



126 



I gave to each one a narcissus flower, ex- 

 plaining that if they took good care of their 

 bulbs they would have flowers quite as 

 pretty in every way. This seemed to inter- 

 est them greatly. 



Our club met twice before Christmas. I 

 read stories about flowers and had reports 

 on the progress of the bulbs. I went to 

 several of the homes at various times. One 

 of "my" little girls, her mother, father, and 

 six younger brothers and sisters lived in 

 two small rooms on the fourth floor of a 

 tenement-house. I found the bulbs most 

 tenderly cared for by the entire family. 



I chose Paper White narcissus because 

 they are of the easiest possible culture and 

 it is almost hard to make them fail to bloom. 

 One little girl succeeded, however: she 

 thought I surely was mistaken when I said 

 they must not be kept in a very warm place, 

 so put her bowl almost on the stove, with 

 never a breath of air. Of course the buds 

 blasted. She has joined the second club. 



The Settlement workers say that through 

 no other class have they been able to get 



Perfect root development. Keep in dark until 

 roots reach bottom of glass 



