JAN i2 1903 



CLASS f^.)0(c No, 



COPY 3, 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



Vol. XIII 



JAXUAEY, 1903 



Preparing School Gardens 



AN EXPERIENXE AND A LESSON 



LOUISE KLEIN MILLER 



[The introduction of school gardens into the educational sj^stem of our country is an 

 event of larger significance than is generally recognized. It is a growing fact. In some 

 cities this work is being encouraged by municipal and civic clubs, college settlements, 

 factories, and a very few schools. Interest in the movement is growing rapidly. The 

 agricultural and horticultural progress of Europe is largely due to the efficiency of the 

 school gardens. In Belgium, the study of horticulture is compulsory. Each school must 

 have a garden. In Austro-Hungary there are more than 18.000 school gardens. In Russia 

 the school gardens include 296 acres, vineyards. 1.200 fruit trees, and a thousand bee 

 hives. School gardens are not regulated by law and encouraged in Germany, but in 

 France, according to a decree of December 11, 1887. no plan of a school building in the 

 country to which the state contributes shall be accepted unless a plan for a garden be 

 attached. Miss Miller is the dean of the Lowthorpe School of Horticulture to which she 

 refers in this article.] 



THE nature study work. which swept 

 over the country some few vears ago 

 was something like the little girl 

 who had a little curl right in the middle 

 of her forehead. When it was good, it was 

 very, very good, and when it was bad.it was 

 horrid. It was forced upon some teachers. 

 Others undertook it because they had an 

 ambition to keep up with the educational 

 procession — others because they felt a sen- 

 timental appreciation of nature from a 

 literature standpoint. Still others took it 

 up because of an abiding faith that nature 

 is a child's birthright, and that an intelli- 

 gent contact with nature is a strong factor 

 in all rational education. Much of the 

 work was "up in the air," sentimental, 

 aimless, unrelated. It called duwn upon 

 its head the skepticism of parents and the 

 condemnation of thoughtful educators. It 

 was illogical because a bird was studied 

 one day, an insect another, then a flower, 

 then a tree, then again perhaps a pebble. 



A new movement is upon us — School 

 Gardens — or an old movement gaining the 

 recognition its importance merits, I visited 

 a garden in England recently and met the 

 director, an intelligent, enthusiastic wom- 

 an. I asked her where she received her 

 training. She replied, "'All I know is that 

 plants have to be weeded and watered.'^ 

 The children were interested, the gardens 

 were well weeded and well watered, but 

 the teacher was losing her opportunity. 

 If the children had been led to understand 

 the wonderful adaptations of structure to 

 the functions of plants, the relation of 

 the form, texture and arrangement of the 

 leaves so that the greatest amount of leaf 

 surface might be exposed to the sunlight 

 for the purpose of assimilating their food, 

 absorbing or shedding rainfall, preventing 

 the too rapid evaporation of moisture, or 

 radiation of heat, the wonderful structure 

 of the flower to prevent self-pollination 

 and secure cross-pollination, the relation 



COPYEIGHT. 1903. BY THE FLORAL PVBLISHIXG COMPAXY 



