238 GARDENING FOE WOMEN 



The Macdonald School Gardens are a factor in an educational 

 movement, and for this reason Professor Eobertson sought 

 to have them brought under the Education Department, 

 and not under the Department of Agriculture, in each pro- 

 vince. The fact that the various provinces already referred 

 to have passed orders in council incorporating the Mac- 

 donald School Gardens into their educational systems at 

 once places these school gardens on a broader educational 

 basis than that occupied by the school gardens of any other 

 state or country. 



The Ontario Government has p^o^^ded special courses 

 at Guelph to train teachers in the practical educational 

 aspects of this new work. An initial grant of one hundred 

 dollars, as well as an annual grant, is oSered to any rural 

 school section estabhshing a school garden. At Truro, 

 and elsewhere in the Maritime Provinces, suitable courses 

 for teachers are also provided. In New Brunswick, annual 

 grants of thirty dollars to the Board of Trustees are given 

 where a garden is established at an elementary school. In 

 Quebec, extensive preparations for the training of teachers 

 in the new lines of education are under way. 



The Macdonald School Gardens not only have a recog- 

 nised place in the provincial systems of education, but they 

 are attached to the ordinary rural schools, owned by the 

 school corporation and conducted under the authority of 

 the school trustees and the express approval of the rate- 

 payers. 



The work of the garden is recognised as a legitimate part 

 of the school programme, and it is already interwoven with 

 a considerable part of the other studies. The garden is 



