THE EDUCATIVE INFLUENCE Of GARDENING FOR CHILDREN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 77

THE EDUCATIVE INFLUENCE Of GARDENING FOR CHILDREN.

By Alec Alan.

The advantages of this occupation for toys and girls are not now taught for the - first time. The truth of this was brought heme to me lately while re-reading a French School Collection by De Fivas, who was a popular teacher of French and a purveyor of French schoolbooks in the •Home Country half ' a century ago. Amongst. the articles quoted in the Collection is one from the pen of Madame Campan, who died in> 1822. So^ we may safely Bay that it is 100 years "since the writer was expressing her ideas on gardening for children.

After exhibiting" in forceful language the abuse, or wrongful use, to which children generally put their playthings, and pointing out what games may be made useful in developing the bodies of both boys and girls, Madame. Campan turns particularly to the subject of gardening. She says, "The possession and .use of small spades, rakes, and wheel-barrows, the pleasure of merely turning over uncultivated soil, and of raking walks, should for a long time „ precede the first attempts at cultivation. • Very young children are detestable gardeners. They tear up immediately what . they^ have -planted, and , never allow their little gardens to remain in the 6am© form for 24 hours together. ■ Why teach them 'to destroy? To make gardening both agreeable and useful to children, it must only form part of the second period of their education. Let them scratch away at the earth while that can amuse them ; but grant them not a rose-slip or a root of carnation until they know that they must wait for the development of, the flower. Do not allow them to cultivate potatoes until they have learned that, after having planted them in. the month of March, they must wait with patience till the month, oi September to gather their produce." What this authoress apparently desires - to inculcate is that the very pastimes of bovs-and girls may be made an easy means of education by developing the faculties of observation, care, and patience. What at one time appears to a child to be a burdensome and irksome labour, with the addition of a little intelligent interest becomes ' a source of amusement and a labour of love.

All the good of learning a little gardenIng does not appear at once. The mere man of money may say, "What is the good of cultivating vegetables? We can Sways get them to buy." No; they cannot always be bought when you desire them; and you cannot always get them from the market fresh, green, and crisp, and sweet and wholesome in their seasons a*- when you can get them of your own growing. Besides;' ,there is no market in which you can. purchase the sweet health to be derived from the honest labour of dogging. In merely learning to dig the learner lays up an acquirement that /■will frequently, in the future deliver blm from unpleasant illnesses. The exercise assists Nature in casting off useless and hurtful fluids; and the smell of the fresh earth is better than sal volatile in dispelling headaches and megrims. Vari- 1 ous aches in various parts of the body are dispelled by a moderate use of the spade, the hoe, or the rake in that little garden of yours. To those whose work is indoors and sedentary the pastime of gardening develops muscles that would other•wise lie dormant- and waste away in. weak- - ness and uselessness. As a pastime, it is es good as any athletic sport in vogue ; and, as it can be mad 1 © very profitable, it is, in this respect, much better than . any of them. It requires fewer and cheaper tools than golf, and no special - dress is needed. Any old toggery will do for pottering about in the garden. Golf, cricket, tennis, and football are followed alter for athletic healthfullness, and each ■requires its special outfit:- All of them necessitate considerable outlay, and none of them has any return like gardening — except one becomes a "professional." In that case the games are no longer pastimes. A man or a woman — a lady or gentleman, if you like the titles better — is not a professional gardener, when he ' or she only employs leisure hours in culti- ■ vating and tending the garden around the fcome. And this is all that is to be expected, of those who are to^. receive some tuition, in gardening at our schools. The amount of instruction, to be imparted to them is xu> more expected to make pro- ■ Sessional gardeners of them any more than the lessons in sewing given to girls are intended to make them full-blown dressmakers. Both sewing and gardening, like drawing and carpentryj are , intended to iraise up citizens who will be moT© useful and more intelligent in their day and generation than were"those who received an education limited to "the three R's." 'jUI of these> extra lessons, with, singing and a certainf" amount of knowledge of music, are intended to have a humanising effect on the after life of pupils. These "extra branches" now given In trar public schools have each and all of them many sides. In school little more than an initiation into the first principles can be imparted, and teachers will find certain pupils, in pursuing a "branch," [will lean more to one part of the- subject than to another; In after life they will do 'the same, and some of them may therein develop a very profitable hobby. Our (horticultural societies with their pleasant exhibits of vegetables, fruit, and 'flowers, and their prizes for gardens, 00lJ«ctione, y bbuquet6, etc., are all the result of the enthusiasm with which a few — a. Teally limited number of any community — > pursue such special hobbies.. Tennis, j&ackey, golf, and a few other pastimes, where the sexes mingle, are all very well fcefore marriage, and are perhaps some.iwhat useful in promoting it ; but married folk soon have home and household cares and duties that prohibit them from visitSxxg tie playgrounds except occasionally. It f» then that the directions given them *t fFChool in the use of the spade, hoe, (

an^ rake come in handy. If a . married pair both take an interest in their garden, it is wonderful how much pleasant cooperation they can have in its cultivation. The succession of flowers and vegetables, as well as their orderly arrangement, requires thought as well as action. The planting, sowing, weeding, and hoeing occupy leisure healthfully and profitably ; the pruning of root and branch of bushes and trees needs careful attention. Perhaps from cultivating a few pot plants in lobby and window sills there, may arise a desire to have a conservatory. Whentfte skill to manage the heat of a. hothouse of this sort has been mastered- there may come the wish to grow a few grapes. When a knowledge of grape-growing has been acquired it will soon be found that money can be made at it. When the Colonial Bank merged into the Bank of New Zealand and several of its officers were thrown out of employment, in one of the large cities there was one who tried 'in vain to get payable work in some other bank or business. On his suburban section he had, besides a good flower and kitchen garden, a considerable j vinery in which he took great pride and pleasure. Up to" that time his chief pleasure had been in presenting' beautiful bunches of grapes to his many friends. It was wonderful how many people knew him when his grapes were ripe. Well, at this time that year he let them all know that ne intended to make money by selling his grapes, as % he could find no better way of making ai living. Many of his friends knew him no more ; but of those who still remembered Tiim there remained so many that, with the addition of others; who believed that God helps those who help themselves, he .was enabled to keep a ! house above his head very respectably. When his arithmetic and <. business, train- j ing were called into -requisition in the matter he saw clearly that*, if he could cover in more of his section^ to grow vines his income ( would be still more increased. This he set about doing. Be also got some tradesmen's books, to keep. He was sitting , rent free, with light suburban taxes. When his new vines bore fruit and that fruit had been sold he found that his income was greater than if he had remained in the bank for the next rise. But he was not satisfied. The section next to his was vacant. He purchased it, and covered it also with glass and planted vines. When last I heard of him he was making so much from, his grapes that from the profit on them alone his income was as big as a bank manager's. His occupation of keeping tradesmen's books, increased by several appointments, as auditor of public and club accounts, was about to develop into an accountant's business. He had a i labourer for spade and wheelbarrow work, but he and^his growing family workeoLthe vinery in their leisure time. That true story is only one of many that could be .quoted 1 to show what use some knowledge of gardening can be put to ; while the mind can be improved by "going further into the matter," and having a tilt- at various sciences that range themselves with the vegetable kingdom or with botany. _^ In conclusion, and to show tihat when school children are being asked to do some gardening at their schools it is not a thing that they should think beneath them — if they are lazy they are beneath it,— let me requote a paragraph, taken from the Bystander, that appeared in the Witness not long ago: — "Tbe-cult of the garden is ' very much, especially for women, the cult ; of the hour. It is a fashionable hobby, j though, I venture to think, a lasting one, and in several cases the cult has developed j into serious business. Lady-rLimerfck, for instance, cultivates shamrock for her league^ ; Lady Aileen Wyndham-Quin, runs a thriving violet farm ; Lady Desart is ] endeavouring to establish the tobacco plant in Co. Kilkenny, and the Hon. Frances Wolseley has a school for gardening and a market garden at Olynde, in Sussex. It has been left, however, to the Hon. Mrs Richard Grosvenor, of Woking, to evolve the profession of landscape gardening for women. Mrs Grosvenor is taking up professionallv^fehe business of a landsoape gardener. She has all the practical qualifications for the work, and, in addition, is very artistic." ,