Evening star., 1902-08-02
URBAN GARDENING
GROWING INTEREST IN IT IN THE
UNITED STATES.
Increase in Cultivation of Ornamental
Plants-Decorative Botany-Infiu-
ence of Public Schools.

From the New York Tribune.
Interest in decorative house gardening IS
growing rapidly in this country. Various
societies have been formed to further this
interest; there is a strong tendency TO its
dissemination in the public schools; philan-
thropic women are creating love for gar
dening among the poor children of the
larger cities, and the municipal authorities
are in many ways aiding in its extension.
In the Rhode Island school reports for
1901 a long paper on the subject Of school
gardening was published. In that paper at
tention is directed to the fact that there
are in Europe no less than 100000 schools
in which at least rudimentary knowledge
of the cultivation of the soil is requisite.
The paper also refers to the interest of the
ancients in the same subject, stating that
our best knowledge of ancient gardening is
obtained from the wall decorate of the
early Egyptians. the Pompeiians and the
Romans. 1t is stated that even in the time
of Solomon, and IN Babylon, 1900 b. c..
there were public botanical gardens, and
that for more than six hundred years Euro
pean municipalities have WED with one
other in creating and maintaining such
beauty spots.
Botanical Gardens.
Botanical gardens, which in this country
have been long more generally known as
parks, have been maintained in the larger
cities of the United States a a large out
lay of public money almost from. the birth
Of the republic. Every city in even the poor
est of the West Indian Islands has a bo-
tanical garden, and Mexico abounds I'm
them The recent efforts of agricultural col
leges to establish experiment stations. and
the encouragement given such institutions
by the Department of Agriculture of the
federal government, show how farreaChng
the interest in gardening has become. In
the reports of schools and universities, such
titles as "A Bulb Garden "a Children's
Garden" "a Public School Garden" An
Experimental Farm for Young People and
Hints on Rural School Grounds receive
an amount Of space which shows the i'm
portance gardening has assumed In connec-
ton with popular education.
Effect of Foliage.
Every state capital every county court
house all the institutions for the insane,
and even almshouses and prisons are
rounded by grounds made beautiful by the
foliage, the grass and the flowers which in
telligent gardening alone can produce.
Nearly all our city hospitals have beautiful
grounds about them, and within the last
few years the beaut,fying of grounds about
railway stations and even factories has be-
come pleasingly frequent. There is not
watch factory in this country which is not
in garden, and even cotton mills in the
suburbs of some of the New England cities
are situated in beautiful parks.
COrnells bureau of nature study reported
last year that no less than 1000 little home
gardens were established during the sum-
mer in the state of New York. Some of
the state normal schools in the United
States have devoted especial attention to
practical teaching of arborculture and
Horticulture. In this regard the normal
schools of California and Utah excel. Illi-
nois leads with a normal school agrlcul-
tural experiment station at Champaign.
Kindergarten teachers all over the country
are more or less interested in some sort of
gardening, and their pupils are spreading
the infection to their homes.
Vacant Lot Farms.
In New York the number Of public play
grounds, vacation schools and vacant lot
farms lately established is only another
manifestation of the same tendency. AL
ready public-spirited women are interesting
the children of the poorer sections of the
city in gardening. The president OF the
Tribune Sunshine Society last fall gave
away to East Side little girls about five
hundred geranium slips in small pots and
told each recipient she would give book
for every plant returned to her in bloom.
She is now engaged in an energetic and
serious hunt for suitable books, over two
hundred Of the plants having already been
brought to her in flower, and she having
heard of so many others in the bud as to
make the keeping of her word a matter of
considerable expense.