422 EXTRACTS FROM A CATECHISM OF COTTAGE GARDENING. 
female children; but useful employment is not so conveniently found 
for school-boys. To all those who are intended for rural occupations, 
a knowledge of the first principles and practice of agriculture and gar¬ 
dening would be a valuable acquisition. The first, however, could 
only be taught theoretically, because the practice requires a field for 
operations by far more ample, and means more expensive, than could be 
attached to a village school. But the second could be easily communi¬ 
cated ; a comparatively small spot of land would suffice to show the 
practice and its results, while the rules of the art might be acquired 
in the daily school exercises, whether as reading, spelling, or cate¬ 
chetical lessons. 
“ Next to the inculcation of religious and moral principles, those of 
gardening are peculiarly necessary to every grade of rural society. 
Every individual, from the highest to the lowest, has, or wishes to 
have, a garden ; the management is as easy as it is rational—as pleasing 
as it is profitable. Even children delight in gardening ; and at school, 
if occasionally introduced as a task, it might be an incentive to the 
acquirement of more intellectual knowledge, making the latter less 
fatiguing to the giddy mind of childhood. 
“ Entertaining the above ideas, and seeing the example of many 
academies on the continent, the author has employed himself in draw¬ 
ing up the following little work. He has chosen the catechetical form, 
in order that it may bear some resemblance to other elementary school¬ 
books ; so that the teacher may give a portion of the questions to be 
answered by the pupils, as he does those of religion, history, &c. By 
such exercises, many, if not all the most useful and common practices 
may be impressed, and, when connected with a view of the operations, 
fixed on the mind. 
The book will be useful to the master as well as to his scholars, as 
enabling him to direct the operations and culture of what should 
redound to his own advantage, as tenant of the school-garden; and no 
task imposed by him in the business or care thereof would ever be 
deemed a hardship by the pupils. 
“ As a remembrancer and book of reference, it will be useful to 
every cottager who is not already sufficiently acquainted with cottage 
gardening; the directions are briefly plain, and can hardly be mis¬ 
understood. 
“ Vegetable Poisons .—It is very necessary that children should know 
the names and appearance of hurtful or dangerous plants (some of which 
grow wild in every lane and common), in order to avoid them. For 
this purpose, every school-garden should have a small bed marked 
poisons, and containing a plant of each, that the children may become 
