10 
PARK AND CEMKTRRY 
FIG. 1. GARDEN PDOT RAID OUT BY SIXTH GRADE 
BOYS ON GROUNDS OF DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE. WASH- 
INGTON, D. C. 
prosecuted in the public schools by substituting others, 
but it tloes contemplate the teaching of the common 
school subjects in a different way from that com- 
monly pursued. As Mr. W. A. Baldwin, principal of 
the State Normal School, Hyannis, Mass., says : It 
suggests something "like the laboratory method in the 
primary and granimar grades. This is the method of 
life.” Reform in many ways is urgently needed in 
our grade and grammar schools, and it is very gratify- 
ing to realize that the practice of school gardening as 
part of the regular public school course promises to 
make that education more useful and effective ; and 
that it does so promise is now beyond doubt. 
A brief reference to the principal points at which 
the school gardening in conjunction with public school 
courses is now practiced will amplify what has been 
said above. A pamphlet recently issued by the De- 
partment of Agriculture, Bulletin No. i6o, on “School 
Gardens,” by B. F. Galloway, chief of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, gives an account of the effective co- 
operation which the department has established with 
the Normal Schools of Washington. The Depart- 
ment for years past has .given much attention to agri- 
cultural education generally, and in relation to school 
gardens it early realized that work in this direction 
would be slow, from the fact that few school teachers 
possess any particular knowledge of gardening. This 
difficulty has been overcome by securing the active 
sympathy of those in charge of the normal school 
work in the District, and the Department has supplied 
lecturers, 'greenhouses and plant material by which tlic 
scope of the work was broadened, and highly satis- 
factory results have been obtained. The first efforts 
made in 1902, with little to begin with on the part of 
the schools, but with the government practically be- 
hind the movement, have led to garden work being 
carried on in 32 of the Washington schools in 1904. 
The work of the school yard has been correlated with 
the class-room in every grade, and a keener interest 
in school work is a notable result. 
The school authorities of Philadelphia Jo not appear 
to take so keen an interest in school gardens as some 
other eastern cities, although there are seven gardens 
eonducted for school children, which, however, owe 
their existence to the Vacant Lot Association. Two 
of these are controlled by the Civic Club, and the two 
largest by the Board of Education, for which an ap- 
propriation is made. The children are divided into 
classes, each class attending three-quarter.s of an hour 
in the morning, while in the afternoon some time is 
given to clearing up the morning’s work. The main 
idea in respect to these gardens and gardeners is that 
a taste may be acquired as well as a knowledge of 
work which will tend to the cultivation of the vacant 
lots of the city. 
Two notable efforts in New York have attracted 
wide attention — DeWitt Clinton Park and Public 
School No. 4. The former contains the Children's 
School Farm, conducted by Mrs. Henry G. Parsons. 
This park is 7 acres in extent and is in the heart of 
a tenement district. During 1902 and 1903 Mrs. Par- 
sons carried on her pioneer school on the rough site, 
and continued it as well as she could while the con- 
tractors were proceeding with the work of improve- 
ment. The Park Board has arranged a suitable plat 
in the park for the continuation of the farm school 
and this feature will make this small park one of the 
most noted in the world. This experiment of Mrs. 
Parsons in such a locality is remarkable evidence of 
the value of gardening in both ethical and educational 
directions. 
The results of the efforts at school gardening in 
Public School No. 4, in the heart of the New York 
Ghetto, and among children, few of whom had little 
idea whatever of plant life, were astonishing. 
The first school garden in Boston was started in 1891 
at the George Putnam Grammar School, and was 
planted with ferns and wild flowers, designed to sup- 
ply the school with science material. The Massachu- 
FIG. 2 . GARDEN PLOT SHOWN IN FIG. 1, SIX WEEKS 
AFTER PLANTING. 
