154 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



November, 1913 



is not the only line of plant culture to follow in 

 greenhouse work. The benches may be filled in 

 as solid beds. Then chrysanthemums make a good 

 fall plant to use; later, try sweet peas and stock in 

 these beds. Do not forget geraniums. 



Miss Susan B. Sipe, so well known because 

 of her practical solution of the school garden 

 problem in Washington, D. C, has for 

 years helped out in the indoor plant work for 

 the elementary schools. Miss Sipe writes as 

 follows: 



"For several years we have been growing Boston 

 ferns in our greenhouses for school rooms. We 

 buy some plants and then propagate some by run- 

 ners. I have found the Boston fern and aspidistra 

 the most satisfactory school room plants. I let the 

 city teachers know that I am willing to fill their 

 boxes as class work if they will provide the boxes. 

 All they do is to send the empty boxes which are 

 returned to them, filled, by the school transfer 

 wagons. Of course there is a limit to the 

 number filled, usually about fifty a year. For 

 outdoor distribution, we raise geraniums from 

 cuttings; moonvines in the same way; cannas by 

 root cuttings; scarlet sage from seed; privet cut- 

 tings for hedges and quite a number of perennials. 

 We also raise all the tomato plants for school 

 gardens. This work is done by the student 

 teachers of the Normal School in the greenhouses. 

 The Secretary of Agriculture, realizing the 

 necessity of training teachers in elementary hor- 

 ticulture and agriculture, allows us the privileges 

 we have at the Department greenhouses." 



What Iowa is Doing for School 

 Gardens 



WHY should the State of Iowa become inter- 

 ested in School Gardens? It is already a 

 rural state, with plenty of room, and its interests 



Scabiosa. not well known, but one of the best of 

 annuals. Excellent for cutting 



are centred chiefly in agriculture. For the 

 crowded tenement districts of New York and 

 Chicago — "the slums" — of course, and for the 

 bare sand-lot towns of mill hands on the south 

 shore of Lake Michigan, such a subject is very 

 appropriate, and one can grow eloquent over it. 

 But to organize school garden workers in Iowa — 

 would it not be like carrying coals to Newcastle? 



Let the answer to this be squarely given. There 

 is no state in the Union where school gardens 

 can work out better results than here. As for the 

 need of school gardens, that exists everywhere; 

 but it will not do for a State that has the unenviable 

 record of an actual decrease in population from 

 1900 to 1910 to be at all supercilious about move- 

 ments affecting the comfort, enjoyment, health and 

 welfare of the people. 



Why did Iowa fall off in population? With her 

 unsurpassed climate, her endless variety of scenery, 

 her proverbial healthfulness, her public order and 

 progress, why did not the census reveal, rather, 

 the surprising growth? 



The answer is found in the agricultural condi- 

 tions. Farm machinery has largely done away 

 with the farm hands in the production of the 

 great staple field crops. Great landed estates 

 have grown up and are not yet divided up into 

 small farms. Manufacturers do not seek loca- 

 tions among such estates. Monotony and cheer- 

 less lives are found amid great wealth where such 

 estates exist. 



What Iowa needs is not to become filled with 

 congested factory towns of smoke and noise on the 

 one hand, nor to be a vast expanse of machine 

 operated farms for the production of the few great 

 agricultural crops, on the other. What Iowa 

 needs is to become diversified — to have the mass 

 of her population near to the land and settled in 

 suburban communities surrounding centres of 

 manufacturing industry and trade. 



Great changes do not come in a day. They 

 come when the people are prepared for them. Can 

 you suggest a state in which the school garden 

 could do better work in this line than in Iowa? 



Iowa has done little in the way of organized, 

 systematic work for school gardens. This state- 

 ment will awaken surprise among those who, 

 more than a thousand miles away, have heard of 

 the work of her Mothers' Clubs, have read of 

 superintendents' fostering of home gardening by 

 the boys and girls and have seen pictures of the 

 "Park Life" boys at work in the field in vacation 

 season. Thoughtful men and women of Iowa have 

 done much to foster a love of nature and indus- 

 tries relating to the garden, field, and grove. Yet 

 the fact remains that this work has not been or- 

 ganized as it should be, and that the work of or- 

 ganization is now to be done. 



Iowa is now ready to move forward under a 

 state organization. Heretofore there has been 

 much accomplished by individual or local efforts. 

 Perhaps in no other state has there been such a 

 variety of plans of work thus far, and probably 

 no other state could show more done by inde- 

 pendent workers for gardening by boys and girls. 



In many counties teachers have brought to 

 the school room the enthusiasm awakened at the 

 Farmers' Institute, and have stimulated the pupils 

 to do gardening at home. In cities the Mothers' 

 Clubs have lent their influence for garden work 

 by distribution of seeds among children of a 

 great many families and by warm encouragement 

 of movements for beautifying home grounds. The 

 Boy Scouts have had an influence in drawing the 

 minds of youths to the scenes of nature and have 

 inculcated a love of life in the woodlands and on 

 the plain. At Dubuque, for four successive years, 

 the "Park Life" boys have labored in the garden, 

 actually raising produce for sale, and availing 

 themselves of the income therefrom to defray in 

 considerable part the expenses of camp and travel 

 in the summer outings which have become famous 

 throughout the nation. 



Much has been accomplished far and near in 

 reference to the garden work of Iowa boys and 

 girls; and it will come as a matter of surprise to 

 people in various states to learn that until now we 

 have had actually no state organization in Iowa 

 for the promotion of school gardens. 



Now, let us not get the idea that school gardens 



The tuberous rooted begonias are easy to raise and 

 well suited to withstand class conditions 



are for the purpose mainly to raise things for profit, 

 to train for trucks ters or farmers; but chiefly for 

 the purpose of teaching how to live, how to enjoy, 

 and how to be inspired with natural things. 



It is to be noted that there are three distinct 

 purposes kept in mind in this connection in Iowa 

 which are not touched upon at all in the circular 

 of the national organization. 



First of these is the promotion of the health of 

 the pupil by the occupation in the open air. An 

 anaemic child will often remain in his seat at recess 

 for want of incentive to go out of the school room. 

 The spur of duty to a plant, or of curiosity to its 

 unfolding will induce many an effort to seek the 

 open air. 



In the second place, some of the Iowa plans have 

 had in their view the supplying of employment and 

 recreation for the vacation period. Destructive 

 work is easy. Constructive work is necessary. 

 Towns and cities may pass curfew laws to keep 

 boys and girls off the streets; may shut against them 

 the doors of unwholesome amusement; may re- 

 quire all to be at home at certain hours, etc.; but in 

 this there is nothing of construction — nothing 

 whatever. The time is coming when school gar- 

 dens will solve the vacation problem. 



Finally, in Iowa as in Cleveland, something of 

 direct material returns. For instance, in many 

 counties of Iowa, boys and girls have planted corn 

 on their own home grounds with the understanding 

 that the corn raised should be their own to supply 

 spending money. These were not strictly school 

 gardens, it is true, but an extension of school 

 gardens ideas on practical lines; the seeds and the 

 instructions were both dispensed by the schools. 



In Dubuque children of the poor have raised 

 large amounts of fresh vegetables in their rear 

 yards, and have thus contributed nobly to the sup- 

 port of the family, easing the heavy burden resting 

 upon the bread winner and providing simple lux- 

 uries of the table which otherwise the family could 

 not have enjoyed. And all this helps to adver- 

 tise the Dubuque market all over the country on 

 account of the low prices of the various produce 

 which can be raised in the little home gardens by 

 having the surplus disposed of at any price so as 

 not to have it on the hands wasting. 



With school gardens for the summer, we may 

 yet have school all the year round. 



B. J. HOECHEM 



Chairman for Iowa, School Garden Association 

 of America 



