PARK AND CEMETERY. 
490 
PORTION OF VII>RA OF HADRIAN AT TIVOLI. 
ity in various cities flourished and with 
both the desire for liomes out of the 
city became stronger. Small cities such 
as Florence, Venice, Bologna, Milan and 
others gradually emerged from this 
darkness as brightly illuminated spots 
of thrift in their relative commercial in- 
dustries. It was' thus but natural to asv 
sume that with this opening of the Re- 
naissance period in the fifteen century, 
evidenced first in northern Italy, the art 
of gardening should again flourish with 
the other arts. 
Florence became the focal center of 
this outburst of art in general, and the 
villas seen today overlooking the city 
and the Arno were many of them con- 
ceived at this very period. The motives 
which inspired their construction were 
similar in character to those evidenced 
in our great American cities today, 
namely, the desire to be away from the 
turmoil and the atmosphere of city life. 
From this period on, new life spread 
rapidly and the result was' that for a pe- 
riod of more than two centuries Europe 
was the scene of an unprecedented ten- 
dency to build country homes for both 
winter and summer use. These beauti- 
ful villas were established among the 
hills of Northern Italy and Switzerland, 
around the lakes, and on the shores of 
the Mediterranean. 
Hand in hand cvith the development 
of art in sculpture and painting went 
this great gardening movement. The 
Medici family, which was the ruling 
power in Florence — at that time the art 
center of Italy — caused to be built the 
beautiful Villa of Poggio a Caino and 
other.s just outside of the city limits. 
These villas were but the modest fore- 
runners of a score of elaborate villas 
built at a later date and seen today 
throu.ghout Italy. 
(To be concluded.) 
PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 
The introduction of agriculture as 
a special department in normal 
schools marks a step in the history of 
horticultural education that has great 
significance. An interesting illus- 
trated bulletin on this subject has 
just been issued by the Colorado State 
Normal School at Greeley, Colo., that 
explains the point of view of this 
new educational work and describes 
in detail the courses and the work of 
this school in agriculture, school gar- 
dening and outdoor art. 
The Colorado State Normal School 
is especially well fitted for training 
teachers for teachin.g outdoor work 
in rural communities. At this school 
the effort has always been to inter- 
est all in nature and country life. 
The courses here fall into three 
groups: natural science, agriculture, 
and the rural home and community. 
The course given in School Gar- 
dening, Outdoor Art, and Plant Pro- 
duction aims to teach the meaning of 
the school gardening movement and 
the relation of gardening to nature 
study and elementary agriculture. 
The school garden is the laboratory 
of nature study and agriculture. Prac- 
tice in garden handicraft and in plan- 
ning and planting the school garden 
is given. Plants and soils are studied 
and the ir’anacement of soils in crop 
production. Some of the other work 
practically studied includes: Propa- 
gation of plants; seetlage, cuttage and 
graftage ; the principles of landscape 
improvement applied to school and home 
grounds: how to beautify school and 
home grounds : studies of the best na- 
tive and introduced decorative plants'. 
The school gardens, nursery, green- 
house, problem farm and the campus 
jiresent actual problems and experi- 
ences, and the children are made to 
work, actually to dig, plant, cultivate 
and care for their crops. In this way 
they get some fundamental princi- 
ples^ of gardening and agriculture, of 
ground preparation, fertilization, rota- 
tion,, seed sowing, seed selection, care 
and 'nanagement of crops. 
II. VV. llochliaum, head of the de- 
partment of agricultural education, is 
author of this bulletin, from which we 
show an illustrtition of the school's 
work in ornamental gardening. 
ITALIAN GARDEN ON CAMPUS OF COI,ORADO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 
GREELEY. COL. 
