47 



of his work. A practical gardener is in charge, assisted by a 

 voluntary committee of several gardeners. 



The City Council of Philadelphia voted £700 in 1904 and 

 1905 for two public school gardens. The children were selected 

 from a number of schools in the neighbourhood of the school 

 gardens which were divided into several individual and some 

 general plots. About 400 children received instruction in 

 each garden. During the days when there were school hours 

 the children worked in the gardens after school. During the 

 summer vacation they had regularly appointed hours at different 

 times of the day. When they had been taught to hoe, thin, 

 transplant, &c, classes were formed which received lessons in 

 plant life after their work for the day. Vegetables and flowers 

 were grown and materials were furnished for nature study and 

 drawing in the schools. These schools proved extraordinarily 

 popular. 



Several gardens were also maintained in the same city by 

 private associations. 



Lastly in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, an advanced step in 

 the school garden movement has been made by the appointment 

 of a Curator of School Gardens, who will have charge of the plant- 

 ing and improvement of these institutions throughout the city. 



Farmers' Institutes. 



No account of agricultural education in this country 

 would be in any sense complete without mention of the 

 farmers' institutes, which have existed for many years in the 

 majority of States. These are organisations for encouraging 

 meetings, lectures, &c. which are held, generally speaking, under 

 the auspices of the State authorities, to which farmers are 

 invited to discuss local agricultural problems, and at which 

 papers are read on various subjects relating to agriculture. 

 The Annual Report on these institutes for 1905, which appears 

 at the end of the Report of the Office of Experiment Stations, 

 states that such institutes existed in every State except Florida, 

 South Dakota and Tennessee. Institutes were held in Florida 

 and Tennessee in previous years, but appear to have been after- 

 wards abandoned. Appropriations varying in amount from 

 £4,000 per annum in New York to £20 per annum in Rhode 



