TEACHERS’ NUMBER 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
LEAFLETS 
THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
Series VI Brooklyn, N. Y., October 9, 1918 No. 7 
CHILDREN’S GARDEN WORK PLUS THE DOLLAR 
SIGN— HOW THE WAR EFFECTS CHIL- 
DREN’S GARDENING 
Because of the war, plans have changed very much for the 
development of the children’s garden work at the Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that 
these original plans have been almost entirely set aside, and our 
energy and time have been expended in what might be called 
war-garden work. 
Sometimes it is well to put in writing the ideals for a piece of 
work, although these ideals may not be realized for a number of 
years. Some five years ago, the Department of Elementary In- 
struction outlined a program which seemed permanent and worth 
while. One side of the work was to be an outdoor garden for 
boys and girls. This garden was not to be of the type of the 
ordinary garden — one found on vacant lots and in city parks, 
where the main object must be, by necessity, that of using space 
for as many children as possible. This was not our idea at all. 
Such gardens have been started and carried on successfully un- 
der various methods and different associations for years; but no 
botanic garden in this country, up to the time the Brooklyn 
Garden was started, had inaugurated a popular educational side 
of its work on so extensive a scale as that contemplated by the 
Brooklyn Garden, including children’s gardens, greenhouse 
classes for children, and certain other new features. 
Then what was our aim and purpose for this boys’ and girls’ 
garden ? There was to be an area set aside for young people to 
come to and learn how, not only to raise beets and cabbages, but 
to raise flowers as well— to know the common shrub, to acquaint 
themselves with different plants growing under different condi- 
tions, to realize by actual experimentation and work that plants 
belong in families, and that family traits are persistent. So the 
idea spread itself out over the field of botany in such a way that 
children should acquire some idea of the everyday side of botany 
in its application to gardens and different conditions of planting. 
After five years of work, one would expect to see here a neat 
and trim vegetable garden and flower gardens of annuals and 
perennials, a bit of lawn, a rose garden, a garden of wild flowers, 
a spot set aside for plant families, and common shrubs and 
vines— and yet all this is not to be seen here. Instead, one sees 
all the boys’ and girls’ area put to vegetable gardens, of different 
sizes, and laid out with different aims in view. This is our 
special war work, to use every foot of space, not only for a 
broader education and a wider outlook, but to raise as much crop 
as possible as long as the war lasts. But even in this common 
