THE HORTICULTURAL EMBELLISHMENT OF 
SCHOOL-HOUSE GROUNDS. 
iTom an Essay piepared for, and published by, the Wisconsin State Teachers’ Association. 
BY MRS. HOYT, MADISON, WIS. 
^ ^ ^ ^ % >!< ^ 
The subject presents itself as having educational bearings of 
the largest importance. 
First, such embellishment promotes health, by purifying the 
atmosphere through the agency of vegetable growth. That 
changes may be effected in climate and condition of soil, by 
the introduction of vegetation into regions otherwise inhospi¬ 
table, is no longer doubted. 
* * * * Of 'scarcely less impor¬ 
tance, is the office of trees and shrubs in rendering the temper¬ 
ature of any locality more uniform, and the air purer, by 
warding off cold w T inds, moderating the fierce rays of the sun, 
and protecting from dust. 
Second, it promotes health by leading to more general and 
cheerful exercise. The fact that children, especially school 
children, will play under almost any circumstances, is of no 
value as an opposing argument. Children are restless, and 
inclined to more general activity than adults, by reason of 
their comparatively larger nervous development. They are, 
moreover, wanting in the power and habit of reflection by 
which admonitory lessons are gathered from experience. So 
they will often continue the most exhausting plays until nature 
is overpowered by fatigue, not so much because they choose to, 
as that they must. 
Now the quiet of the school-room, the restraints it imposes 
upon the body, its demand upon the mind, are all opposed to 
this, and have a tendency to intensify the energy and hearti- 
