SCHOOL CHILDREN AND GARDENING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11647, 26 August 1905, Page 4

SCHOOL CHILDREN AND GARDENING.

A few weeks ago we referred to the laudable efforts of the Wanganui Horticultural Society to encourage the school children to study and practise the culture of flowers by offering prizes for the best kept garden plot in a school ground, the best collection of flowers'grown in a school ground, and for bouquets, etc., made up under the Bupervision of teachers. Members of the Society and others who are endeavouring to thus encourage a love of flowers and gardening among our school children will find a particular interest in the report of a teacher who supervised some experiments in this line in an American school. It was decided that at this school gardening should form a permanent part of the course of nature study, and owing to the lack of ground near the school, it was agreed that the gardens should be at the children's homes. Each child selected three kinds of seeds, either flowers or vegetables, and the enthusiasm was so great that for some days planting formed almost the sole subject of conversation, at school. The question was, hpifreyer,, whether the enthusiasm would last through the summer, and to help to keep i'-^t up, the children were told that Miss "Thayer, the supervising teacher, would visit the gardens, and would be very disappointed if there was nothing for her to see, and they were asked to exhibit at the annual Agricultural Shpw of the district. Miss Thayer had 400 gardens to inspect, but by working hard she kept an eye on all of them, and had the satisfac-" tion of seeing a great many good results. The good gardens were in the majority, and in most cases of poor gardens the children were not to blame, for the failures plainly resulted from bad soil or lack of sunshine. During the hot, sultry days of the summer it was wonderful to bee how many gardens continued to do well. Mothers told Miss Thayer that the children did not want to go away even for a few days, because the garden would need attention during their absence. Children compared their gardens in a most interesting and helpful way, and the boy or girl whose garden was a little in advance of the others was looked upon with envy. Then the show came, and each child who exhibited was given a free ticket for each day, which privilege alone more than repaid for the hours spent in garden work. The school carried off the seven-dollar prize for the best collection from any one j school, and thirteen prizes were won by individual children. None of these children, it should be noted, were over fourteen, the youngest was five, and the average ten. Miss Thayer, in brief, finds the experiment an unqualified success. vfThey ..had .definite, pleasing, out of door ocjcupa.tjqn;, and not once have I heard a complaint, heard so often summers before, that, vjthe .mothers would be glad when school began, so that boys and girls would be away from the street and its dangers." The' local Horticultural Society has for some years past been offering prizes for the best-kept cottage garden, and in furtherance of their good work in connection with the schools they might, by arrangement with the teachers, extend the operations of the children beyond the school grounds on the lines adopted in the American school above referred to. The Technical School authorities have started classes for the teaching of horticulture, and the combined efforts of the Horticultural Society, Technical School, and the school teachers should result in arousing considerable interest and enthusiasm amongst the young people in gardening.