tilE TROPICAL 
AN AMERICAN SCHOOL GARDEN. 
AN OBJECT LESSON FOR CBYLO^^ . 
Whether School Gardens may be succeeding 
in Ceylon, or whether the new cult is to have 
here only aflare-up, and then die out, accounts 
from the United States show that in that 
great Republic, where most social experi- 
ments are tried, tested, and "sized up;" 
tlie School Garden, as an educational agency, 
hi Sijme to stay, and a literature has been 
bcrn of it. In all new countries the culti- 
vation of the beautiful is apt to be postponed 
indefinitely ; comfort and convenience being 
the chief things looked to, and the hideousness 
of many of tlie domestic surroundings of 
the well-to-do classes in their young rising 
towns and villages, have only to be seen, 
to be properly appraised and appreciated. 
As a rule when a country or town is just 
beginning its career, there is too much to 
do, which must be done, to allow in the affairs 
of common life any approach whatever to 
the sesthetic in taste. Even when circum- 
stances have changed— to more money and 
ease— and there is both the capacity and 
field for a display of natural ornament and 
beauty, these are apt to belong of appearing, 
unless forced on by some power from 
without. In the domestic environs, every- 
body has the same uncovered uglinesses, and 
is content with them ; but it only wants 
a start to be made, an example to be set, 
and an object lesson to be displayed, to 
awaken the slumbering sense of the beautiful 
and the fit, and change the whole appearance 
and features of a place. It is claimed for 
the School Garden in America that it has 
an influence which extends far beyond its 
own boundaries, an elevating and human- 
ising effect on the everyday life of the 
parents and guardians of the children who 
attend, which is reflected in the desire to 
grow plants for ornament as well as for 
use ; a discontent with the untidy and the 
slovenly, and a willingness to spend both 
time and money in efforts to efface all 
evidence of the squalid and unseemly. 
Fences are no longer allowed to remain in 
a tumble-down condition ; sheds and out- 
houses are mantled with the clinging 
creeper ; the pat hways ' are kept weeded 
and neat ; and the whole plot presents a 
marked contrast— in beauty— with the sordid 
and mean aspect of the place owned by a 
family that is untouched by the influence of 
the School Garden. The illustrated papers 
have, from time to time, special articles on 
the theme, and picture what it is possible 
to do in most unpromising circumstances. 
Some schools have as yet made but a 
small beginning— a ledge or corner devoted 
to flowers ; yet to have begun is the main 
thing. " The making of a definite garden," 
says a sympathetic American writer, "is an 
epoch in the life ot each school ; it makes 
the progress of the school in pedagogical 
ideals." The Hampton Institute of Virginia 
— founded for the higher education of the 
Negro and Indian youth — has the largest 
School Garden in the United States, covering 
two acres in extent. This is divided into 
some two liundred^ plots, and to each plot 
ttiere are assigned two scholars who snart 
AGRICULTURIST. [j-c^^E 1, 1903. 
in the work and the produce. The Institute 
has a Director of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment who supervises and instructs in the 
work of the garden. To prevent the work 
degenerating into either play or drudgery, 
and to give it dignity and interest, supple- 
mentary lessons are given in the class- 
room with experiments on the growth ; how 
best to disperse seed, the comparative value 
of soils, and the nature of the work which 
insects— beneficial and injurious — accomplish 
for the agriculturist, A study is made of 
the decorative value of flowers, leaves and 
berries, and the principles laid down are 
worked out in the pleasing form of bouquets 
for the table. An extensive and interesting 
curriculum— which shows that when our 
American cousins take up an idea, they 
make the most of it. It will be long before any 
school in Ceylon, approaches— even at a great 
distance— such thorough working of the 
School Garden as is seen at the Hampton 
Institute of Virginia ; and yet the advantages 
a tropical climate has in the matter of 
plant-growth over the temperate of semi- 
tropical are great, indeed. Ceylon is a 
paradise for the botanist, and ought to be 
an ideal spot for the School Garden. There 
is, of course, the question of manual 
labour which in Ceylon is too often regarded 
as undignified and unbecoming ; but to 
educate the people into a healthier view 
of this subject, would be one of the many 
good results of a successful carrying out 
of a general system of School Gardens, 
Enthusiasm is needed both on the part of 
the Educational Department and the school 
teachers to make; the scheme a success, 
and harvest for the colony the benefits it 
has conferred in other lands. The old days 
when the " three R's " were deemed a 
liberal education for the common people 
have passed for ever ; and amid the in- 
coming of new methods, and themes of 
study for the instruction and equipment of 
the rising race, the advent ot the School 
Garderi as an educational agency takes a 
prominent place, with its numberless poten- 
tialities for good, and its atmosphere of 
sweet graciousness. 
Since writing the above, we are glad to 
recall that the School Garden has in Ceylon 
begun to have its literature, thanks to the 
industry of Messrs. J. 0. Willis, E. E. Green 
and C. Drieberg, Superintendent of School 
Gardens. Already three pamphlets have 
been issued from the press, with Sinhalese 
translations, entitled ; " How to lay out a 
Market Garden," by Mr. Drieberg; "Silk- 
worms and Silk ," by Mr. Green ; and— ona 
which forms the Royal Botanic Gardens 
Circular No. 22—" School Bungalow and 
Resthouse Gardens," by the Director. 
America, however, has still a good deal to 
teach us both in theory and practice. 
PEOGRESS IN BEITISH CENTRAL 
AFRICA. 
Mlanji, Feb. 20. 
The British Central African Co., Ltd., 
has issued a circular to planters and 
others inviting them to cut sleepers, an^ 
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