Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-05-23

SCHOOL CHILDREN TO BE INTER.
ESTED IN THE WORK.


the kansas City Schools and Prizes
offered For the BEST Adorned Yards
and Lawns.
Many towns and villages are so laid
out that the back yards show up almost
as prominently as the front yards. If
the former are not looked after, the
whole beaAy of the place is spoiled. a
good plan is to have inexpensive flower
gardens in the back yard and let the
children attend to them. This will not
only help TO beautify the town. but will
be fun for the little ones and teach
them things about flowers and plants
that will prove of value to them.
Do not make the mistake of select
ing plants difficult to manage. Choose
the harder sorts-those which have
the reputation of being able to take
care of themselves pretty well. Keep
the soil open about them. If this is
done, you may have a very good sub
stitute for the garden which possibly
you have seen growing under more ia
vorable conditions. Encourage the
children to work in it daily. Flowers
are safe companions.
The womens auxiliary of the Manu-
facturers' association of Kansas City
has undertaken new effort in the di-
rection of making that city q good
place to live in, says the Kansas City
Star. The members of the auxiliary
propose to interest school children in
a crusade to adorn the back yards,
windows and lawns with growing
flowers. They have secured the CO.
operation of the school board to the
extent that the schoolteachers may be
used as an instrument to carry out
the desired end. The teachers will Sc
cure the names of the pupils in the
primary grades who will pledge them
selves to plant the seed and care for
the plants.
Packages of seed will be distributed
among the school children at the nomi-
nal price of a cent a package. Special
prizes will be offered for the premises
showing the best improvement as the
result of the children's efforts in fori-
culture. In cases where the premises
are too small to afford ground space for
the cultivation of the flowers prizes
will be given for window boxes show.
ing the prettiest flowers.
1t may be that the plan will work out
to such an extent that an exhibition of
the flowers grown by the school chill.
dren can be made in some of the school
rooms soon after the opening of school
next fall. The members of the auxiliary
are actively at work perfecting the de-
tails of this scheme. They expect to
have the seeds ready for distribution
within a very short time, as soon as it
would he expedient to begin flower cul-
ture.
Special attention will be given to
downtown districts, with a view to
putting little touch of nature in the
gloomy corners where squalor and filth
now predominant; but, while the pri-
mary object is to make the bare and
forbidding parts of the city blossom,
yet the movement will be carried out
in all its details in all parts of the city
where school children can be interested
in the new project
The plan has been successfully work
ed on large scale in number of cit
les in the country of much less popula-
ton than Kansas City. The annual
flower show at Convention hall has
aroused a widespread interest in the
growth of fine flowers and plants, and
the movement now begun by the WON,
ems auxiliary will take the interest to
circles that would scarcely feel compe-
tent to enter the lists for competition
in the more elaborate mission of the
big flower show.
Some of the seeds that will be dis.
tributed by the auxiliary are those OF
flowers and plants that were SO famil-
lar in more or less rural districts ten
or dozen years ago. The list includes
balsam, bachelors buttons, calendula
calliopsis, California peoples, fouI
O'clocks, marigold, morning glores. pc.
tunias, verbenas and many other va.
rieties.