116 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



But it must be remembered that technical instruction in horticulture, 

 as in anything else, is not the purpose of an elementary school. Elemen- 

 tary education should prepare the way for technical instruction afterwards. 

 With this object some form of manual work is, I believe, absolutely 

 essential to good elementary education, for the habit of manual work 

 must be acquired at an early age, otherwise the children when they leave 

 school are found to possess a distaste for manual employment. The 

 curriculum should also be designed to bring the children into touch with 

 their surroundings, natural and industrial, by giving them an intelligent 

 knowledge of the geographical features of the neighbourhood, of the soil 

 and the plants that grow upon it, of the animal life, of the industries in 

 relation to the natural features — all that is comprised in the term " nature 

 study." If the manual work and nature study are of such a kind that 



Fig. 24.— A Garden in the Playground of an A:merican City School. 



the knowledge gained is of practical value in after-life so much the better ; 

 indeed it is almost essential to good teaching that the utility of subjects 

 studied should be apparent, because it is thus that lively interest is 

 aroused. Now gardening, when properly taught, is not only manual in- 

 struction in gardening operations, but is also the outdoor study of nature. 

 I have already pointed out that, as manual instruction, in this country it 

 is excellent. It is as a study of nature that it too often fails. Let me give 

 you an illustration. I visited two school gardens in neighbouring villages 

 in a southern county a few weeks ago. In both schools the teaching of 

 gardening operations was as good as it could very well be, and in each 

 case it pleased me particularly to note how the aesthetic side of gardening 

 was being developed, each garden, with its grass walks, pergolas, and 

 climbing plants, being a spot of beauty. But the attitude of the boys to 

 their work was quite different. 



