SCHOOL GARDENING. 
303 
The indiscriminate and ignorant slaughter of insects and birds 
is to be deplored, and the wise teacher will see to it that the 
friends of the garden are known and protected. 
Handwork &c. — Sprouting-boxes, wooden pegs and labels, fences, 
or more ambitious work like shed-building or frame-making are useful 
adjuncts. Simple repairs, too, offer a field for enterprise. 
Modelling in plasticine and wax, or potter's clay which can be 
painted in water-colours, is a valuable means of recording the ever- 
changing interests of gardening, seed germination, perfect vegetable 
growth, the effects of insect and fungus attack, &c. 
Various sections of the R.H.S. pamphlets can be simply bound 
to act as class text-books ; and diagrams of vegetable food values 
as compared with meat add to the knowledge and interest of the actual 
garden work. 
It is sometimes possible to combine bee-keeping with the work of 
the school garden ; and, though strictly speaking outside the sphere 
of garden craft, poultry and rabbits can be profitably kept. Giant 
sunflowers would then be grown for seed. 
In Conclusion. — The question as to whether girls should receive 
equal instruction in gardening with that given to boys lies at the 
discretion of the school authorities, but the labour of women on the 
land and the success of women gardeners, together with the lasting 
need of food production, make it impossible to deny its desirability. 
The suggestion that whatever work is undertaken ought to bear 
largely upon the special conditions and requirements of local horti- 
culture, though not to the entire exclusion of outside considerations, 
is obviously a correct one. The pupil must have knowledge of home 
requirements, but, apart from food production, the aim of school 
gardening, while always educational, is to provide a broad survey 
and practical appreciation of the work likely to be met with in any 
allotment or cottage garden in any part of the Empire. 
