Appendix 37 1 
correlated with gardening work. The seed and cutting boxes may be 
made by the boys; a garden frame with sash complete may also be made; 
the tools may be repaired; the tool shed may be repaired if required, 
new glass fitted in the windows, and the painting done. All this work is 
more or less rough in character, but it should teach the boys the proper 
method of using the various tools, and, if well done, will prepare them for 
the more advanced work which they will be called upon to do in the wood- 
work class. 
Where bee and poultry keeping are carried on with gardening, the boys 
of the woodwork class may make the fowl houses, beehives, &c. Thus in 
many ways the boys in rural schools may be trained at school to take their 
part in rural work as well as the boys are trained now to take their places 
in offices, &c. 
Geography can be most interestingly taught to children when we con- 
sider the plants which grow in the various countries, and the adaptability 
of such plants to their natural habitat. It becomes more interesting to the 
children when, in speaking of the very hot and arid countries, we tell them 
of some of the plants which grow there and how they are protected from 
the burning sun and the long-protracted drought. How that many of them 
have not leaves like our native plants, but have thick, fleshy stems which 
store up great quantities of food substances and moisture, on which they 
live when the dry season comes. Good examples of this are the cacti. Or, 
again, how many are covered with a thick coat of rough hairs to prevent 
the loss of the moisture stored up in the stems by the dry atmosphere 
drawing it out of the air pores. The palms of tropical countries have 
leaves, but those exposed to the sun are more or less hard, this being to 
protect the chlorophyll (or assimilating tissue) inside, otherwise the sun 
would destroy it. The small-growing plants of Alpine countries, which, 
when covered over with snow are safe until spring, with their large quanti- 
ties of bright flowers produced in early summer, will tell us something of 
their hard life; they are covered with the frozen snow in winter, and as soon 
as spring returns they immediately produce their lovely little flowers while 
there is yet moisture in the soil, after which they are more or less dried up. 
Growing in the crevices of the rocks, &c., the moisture in the small quanti- 
ties of soil in such places is soon taken up by the plant or given off in 
evaporation, therefore these plants produce their flowers and seed in the 
spring or early summer, while they have sufficient moisture. Again, we 
come to our own climate with our beautiful gardens, vegetables, fruits, and 
flowers, our beautiful green lawns, which are the envy of the world, allowing 
