Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-03-15

E1UHf1EG9
Graded schools Have Practical In
struolfon In the Improvement of
school Grounds and In school, Car
acns.
Especial Correspondence
TIE necessity of educating children
in the cultivation of the soil has been
apparent to The secretary of agricul-
ture for long time He is untiring in
his efforts to further it. Trained teach
ers are necessary to accomplish it, so
with the hearty consent Of the secre-
tary DR.. B. 7. Galloway, chief of the
bureau of plant industry, has placed at
the command of both the white and
colored normal schools of the District
Of Columbia such facilities as are nee
essary to give an elementary training
in horticulture and agriculture. By
thus inspiring the young teachers its flu
tGre in the education Of the young Is
assured During the last three ycsr5
the work has grown from a greenhouse
8 by 16 feet and a strip of SD for
garden purposes 10 by 300 feet to a
greenhouse % by 100 feet and a garden
of an acre and a quarter. The depart
rnent of agriculture furnishes the op-
portunity for the work and the schools
the teachers. Two hundred aud ten
students are in the glasses this year.
Each one of these stnd elfs is thus pre-
pared to teach the saaject il the city
schools. During the ia serfhe students
propagate plants from ess--sstiags for the
winter schoolroom ana the spring gar
den, plant bulbs outdoors and for win
ter forcing, collect garden and tree
seeds.
During the winter by simple expert
ments that may be performed in any
schoolroom the students learn Of the
kinds of soil, the water holding power
of soils and means of altering such
power, conservation of water and plant
physiology.
AS spring approaches experiments in
termination seed testing and seed
planting follow, as well as planning
home gardens, gardens around school
buildings and vacation gardens At
this season Of the year, too, the work
broadens 1t leaves the confines of
the normal schools and takes in all of
the public schools in the city. Arrange
ments are made with one of the local
seetlsmen to sell penny packages of
seed to the children for home planting.
Many of the older teachers are not
trained, so to aid them the board of
education, through one of the normal
schools, issues sheets of simple in
structions to aid the children to cor
rectly plan, plant and care for the
home garden. They are encouraged to
care for the garden during the summer
ana to bring something they have rails
ed wholly by themselves to the flower
show in the fall. It may be growing
plant, bunch of flowers or bottle of
seed.
Flower day is an established feature
Of Washington schools. On the 10th
of last September every school in the
District of Columbia invited the public
to its exhibit All buildings We're open
until dark, and where the buildings
were lighted they were open through
out the evening. The throngs of peo
pie who visited the schools gave suf-
fcient proof of the appreciation Of the
public for the movement.
Civic improvement is thus encouraged
and also by school ground improve
naent. Three years ago there was but
one garden connected with schools in
the District. Last year 120 of the 124
graded schools made an effort to i'm
prove their surroundings. The teach
ers are urged to relate whatever Is
done outdoors to the subjects taught
in the schoolrooms. Skillful teachers
relate geography, arithmetic, spelling,
composition, literature. drawing and
design to the garden.
The latest encouragement given by
the department has been the offer to
the board of education of more than
an acre Of lawn to be used for chill
dren's gardens. The board has accept
ed the offer and will put the first six
grades of school in the vicinity to
work upon 1t. Each school will spend
an afternoon a week in the garden I'M
der the regular grade teacher, who will
be instructed from the normal school
She will be expected to relate the work
closely to the regular schoolroom work
The time spent in the garden will be
a part of school time and not after
hours, as has been SO frequently done
before. thus making an added burden
on. the teacher. Each child will have
q plot entirely his own, varying in size
according to his ability Beside these
individual plots there will be plots ten
feet square Of grains, forage crops and
important local products for observa-
ton purposes.
The garden will be under the imme-
date care of the normal school during
vacation and will be considered as
vacation school for the southwest sec
ton of the city, thus fortunately allow
ing tho hoard of adl1cafion to grant q