240 GARDENING FOR WOMEN 



five schools at whicli these gardens have been established 

 are from seven to fifteen miles apart, the experiment is 

 being brought fairly mider the scrutiny of the entire county. 

 The garden at Kichmond is within a short distance of the 

 grounds of the County Agricultural Society, and will 

 annually be open to the inspection of many hundred 

 visitors to the fair. Already the gardens have attracted 

 much local attention, and last autumn the products of the 

 gardens won about a hundred dollars in prizes, given both 

 by the agricultural societies and by private citizens who 

 have taken a generous interest in this educational experi- 

 ment. 



After full discussion with trustees and ratepayers each 

 garden was established under the direct approval and control 

 of the school board concerned, and in harmony with the 

 already existing regulations of the Education Department, 

 which provide in a general way for instruction in agriculture 

 and nature-study, and also for enlarging school grounds. 

 It is worthy of note that while the ratepayers interested were 

 not indifferent to the question of expense involved, they 

 paid special attention to the fact that they were being 

 asked to take up an experiment of a very novel nature 

 which required a marked departure from the beaten path 

 of elementary school work. Thus the educational aspects 

 of school gardens were specially considered, the result 

 being that the people have taken up the enterprise with an 

 open-minded interest that has already carried the experi- 

 ment far on the way to success. 



The size of the gardens, including the usual school 

 grounds, is in each case two acres, excepting the garden at 



