236 GAEDENING FOE WOMEN 



In the spring of 1904 a group of school gardens went 

 into operation in each of the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, 

 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. 

 These school gardens are associated with Sir WiUiam C. 

 Macdonald's plans for the improvement of Canadian schools, 

 and they constitute a notable feature of the general scheme 

 devised by Professor James W. Robertson, director of the 

 Macdonald educational movement. 



At a meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 in 1890, a paper on horticultural education for children was 

 read by Mr. Henry Lincoln Clapp, master of George Putnam 

 School, Roxbury, Mass. At this school a garden was estab- 

 hshed the following year as a result of the interest awakened. 

 This garden, which appears to have been the first of its kind 

 in the United States, was devoted exclusively to native 

 wild plants until 1901, when a vegetable plot was added. 

 Here and there within the past decade, and with various 

 objects in view, the idea has been employed by private 

 citizens, charitable associations, commercial firms, horti- 

 cultural societies, and a few educational institutions, but 

 as yet the school garden has not become an organic feature 

 of any state system of education. 



In Canada the school garden idea has also received 

 some recognition prior to the Macdonald movement. 

 For several years a very successful and quite extensive 

 garden for boys has been conducted at Broadview, Toronto, 

 by Captain Atkinson, of the Boys' Brigade Institute. 

 Here and there throughout the Dominion, floriculture has 

 been encouraged to some extent in the elementary schools. 

 Under the aggressive advocacy of Dr. A. H. MacKay, 



