A.m.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May.  1908. 
School  Gardens. 
233 
years  past.  It  is  also  of  interest  to  note  that  in  Porto  Rico  the 
United  States  Government  maintains  school  gardens  in  connection 
with  every  public  school,  the  teachers  being  regularly  trained  for 
the  work  in  a  course  of  theoretical  and  practical  lessons  on  agri- 
culture. Here  in  Philadelphia,  during  the  year  past,  there  were 
maintained  by  the  Board  of  Public  Education,  ten  gardens,  having 
a  total  area  of  8^  acres. 
A  Garden  in  a  School  Yard. 
Some  of  the  arguments  set  forth  by  the  Public  Education  Associa- 
tion of  Philadelphia  in  favor  of  school  gardens  are  as  follows : 
The  Objects  of  School  Gardens. — To  dispose  children  favorably 
toward  manual  labor,  by  giving  a  much  needed  industrial  supple- 
ment to  the  confining  book  training  and  almost  exclusively  academic 
ideals  of  the  schools. 
To  take  children  off  the  streets  in  the  vacation  period,  and  still 
give  only  pleasurable  occupation  out  of  doors. 
