Education. 



60 



[July, 1911. 



requirements of any one crop. It is also 

 important to the study of the difference 

 in variety of any one kind of economic 

 plant. Without a proper classification, 

 it would be impossible to conduct a 

 garden of any value for all the benefits 

 that are expected to result upon the 

 mind of the child are dependent on this 

 point. 



A school garden should contain all the 

 economic crops of its particular district. 

 We have not yet reached the stage when 

 it is fair to suppose that further know- 

 ledge, and advantages to be derived 

 therefrom, is not to be discovered upon 

 any one of our staple crops. The method 

 of treating these crops, or rather the 

 soils upon which they grow, or the tree 

 which produce them are still open to 

 considerable improvement. I might say 

 that our people, as compared with other 

 countries, have only just begun to realise 

 that there is such a thing as an intelli- 

 gent agricultural practice, and that the 

 plant is a living, breathing organism, 

 and will respond in a most sensitive 

 manner to either good or bad treatment. 



The treatment of our soil is still open 

 to much improvement. We do not realise 

 that it teems with life, that it has physi- 

 cal, chemical and biological properties, 

 and that all of these are to a large extent 

 within our control. I may say there is a 

 field here and an opportunity for the 

 teacher who iealizes this, to interest his 

 children to such an extent that they will 

 see that there is more on the earth upon 

 which they live than mere dirt. 



Practical use of School Gardens. — The 

 school garden should also be a means of 

 introducing into a district any possible 

 crop that might be of value to the dis- 

 trict. I know of one particular garden 

 which has been of the greatest value to 

 thousands of people, by teaching them 

 as object lessons how to cultivate vege- 

 tables. I speak of the Mount Fletcher 

 school or Mavis Bank school garden, 

 situated in the Port Royal Mountains. 

 This garden has been the means of intro- 

 ducing and fostering the vegetable in- 

 dustry of these hills which send into the 

 city of Kingston weekly produce to the 

 value, 1 snould think, of a couple of 

 hundred pounds. 



The people of these mountains were 

 for many years dependent on the large 

 coffee plantations for their livelihood. 

 The majority of these plantations have 

 gradually died out, thus reducing the 

 quantity of work and the price of labour 

 —poverty and hard times were the result 

 —and were it not for the development of 

 this valuable industry both to the people 

 themselves and to the city of Kingston, 



these mountains would have been largely 

 abandoned by the working population. 

 This same industry has been largely 

 extended throughout Manchester by 

 maans of the school gardens, and I see 

 no reason why the same work should 

 not be done on a larger scale than at 

 present exists in other parishes. We 

 certainly have the soil and climate. All 

 that remains is a knowledge of the indus- 

 try, and the men to push it. 



Experimental Work in School Gardens. 

 —A school garden should also afford, or 

 be the means of* testing different varie- 

 ties of the same plant, so that it may be 

 known which variety is best suited to 

 each particular district. We have not 

 yet learnt even in our staple crops that 

 it is possible tc improve to a consider- 

 able degree the plants which we culti- 

 \ ate. Even the sugar-cane to which I 

 can testify, is open to much improve- 

 ment. It has been found that in many 

 cases an increase of yield of from 30 % to 

 15% has resulted by introducing a new 

 variety of cane produced by the crossing 

 of our local variaty on imported stock. 



It is also a known fact that in every 

 district we find several varieties of the 

 same plant in our grounds. Take for 

 instance the cassavas. There must be, 

 I should think, at least ten varieties com- 

 monly grown. The school garden should 

 test these in small lots to find which 

 is the quickest-maturing, which in a 

 given time, say 12 months, will give the 

 heaviest yield, and which will best with- 

 stand the drought. These are points 

 with which few have as yet experi- 

 mented outside of the Hope Gardens. 



These facts would supply a much- 

 needed knowledge and be the means of 

 bringing better results with the mini- 

 mum of labour and care. 



The same thing might be done with 

 canes and potatoes. In the banana 

 business, everything depends upon 

 knowing when to prune your trees so as 

 to meet top prices. This can only be 

 done by a careful study of the habits of 

 the plant and by continuously experi- 

 menting with it. Each banana root 

 should be carefully labelled, showing the 

 date of planting, the date when the 

 pupes and tubers were allowed to run 

 on shooting, and the date of cutting. 

 From these facts it will be readily seen 

 how to handle the plant so as to meet 

 the best market. Labels should not 

 only be attached to this one section but 

 to every section of the garden, showing 

 up plainly and distinctly. 



Interesting work should also be con- 

 ducted in the coffee section which should 

 be of course nicely established through* 



