THE EDUCATION OF THE COTTAGE AND MARKET GARDENER. 115 



in most cases, already possessed of the machinery for promoting horti- 

 cultural teaching in the elementary schools. It is not, I think, too high 

 an estimate when I say that 20,000 children in country elementary schools 

 are now being taught gardening. Such a remarkable development in the 

 course of four short years cannot but have an enormous influence for 

 good or evil. Can there be any possible doubt about the good ? What- 

 ever may be the effect on the teaching of other subjects (and \n my 

 opinion the whole education of the children will improve with the intro- 

 duction of a subject which interests them so keenly), there can be no 

 doubt that by giving a liking for, and knowledge of, gardening (1) country 

 life will become more profitable and more attractive ; (2) the people in 

 possessing an absorbing, healthful hobby will develop physically, intel- 

 lectually, and morally ; (3) a greater demand for small holdings and 

 allotments will arise, and the number of persons who directly maintain 

 themselves as small cultivators will be increased, all being results that 

 must tend towards greater rural and national prosperity. 



GaedeninCt in Elementary Schools. 



I know something of elementary education in several Continental 

 countries as well as in Canada and the United States of America, and 



Fig. 23. — An Egg-shell Garden as Cultivated by the Younger Children 

 IN an American School. 



I can say that in none of these does the cultivation of school gardens 

 approach in excellence that in our own country. In Essex, Gloucester- 

 shire, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, East Suffolk, Surrey, Wilts, 

 the West Riding of Yorkshire, wherever, in fact, a responsible officer has 

 been appointed by the local education authority to superintend the work, 

 the cultivation of school gardens and instruction in gardening operations 

 could hardly be better. 



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