GARDENING FOR WOMEN 241 



Richmond, which contains three acres. Where additional 

 land had to be acquired, the Macdonald fund bore half the 

 cost, as also the whole cost of fencing and preparing the 

 garden, erecting garden shed and providing the necessary- 

 tools, etc. The cost of maintenance of the garden is like- 

 wise met by the Macdonald fund for a period of three years. 

 For the same period Sir WiUiam Macdonald pays the salary 

 of the travelling instructor, Mr. J. W. Gibson, who visits 

 each garden one day per week to assist the teachers in 

 directing the garden work of the pupils, to give lessons in 

 certain practical aspects of nature-study, and generally 

 to encourage the association of the garden work with the 

 ordinary exercises of the classrooms. 



One of the most useful accessories to the school garden 

 is the garden shed, which is used for storing tools and pro- 

 duce, and for carrying on work not suited to the classroom, 

 such as preparing tickets and labels, analysing soils, assort- 

 ing seeds, arranging plants, etc. The average cost of the 

 garden sheds is about seventy-five dollars. They are of 

 various shapes and sizes, according to the number of pupils 

 to be accommodated. A popular plan is that of a shed, ten 

 feet by twenty feet, with an extension on one side about 

 five feet wide, and finished as a greenhouse. This obviates 

 the necessity of having special hotbeds. The garden tools 

 are disposed along the walls of the shed in places numbered 

 to accord with the numbering of the pupils' plots. Along 

 one side of each shed is a bench or table of plain boards, 

 about eighteen inches wide, running close to the wall, 

 along which are several small windows giving abundant 

 light to pupils engaged in practical work. 

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