Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-07-03
YOUNG FARMERS.

One thousand children got back to
the soil yesterday by planting seven
varieti of vegetables in a thousand
plots of ground in Thomas Jefferson
Park, at East Hath street. They we're
assisted In the planting by one hun
dr Cd teachers from the Teachers
Training School and others from the
summer garden school OF New York
University. The work was under the
supervision of Mrs. Henry Parsons,
who directs the school gardens of the
Park Department in Manhattan and
Richmond. Henry Griscom Parsons,
her son. who is director of the chill
dren's garden course in New York Tn
iversIty. personally supervised the
planting.
Besides the thousand youngsters who
did the planting there were two or
three thousand who lined the railing
outside the two-acre field which has
been set aside for the garden work in
Thomas Jefferson Park. They viewed
with envy the five hundred boys and
five hundred girls as they marched in
to the tield and took their places. which
were designated by small stakes bear
inc numbers.
juvenile farmers to enter the grounds
there was no disorderly rush. That
had all been obviated by the plans of
Mrs. Parsons to have it a most order
ly return to the soil. The children.
VINO were from public and parochial
schools in the 18th and goth districts,
were formed in line. and at the head
of each school delegation was ban
ner carrier. The order once given to
march to the plots. the children
marched to their respective sites and
awaited the word to plant.
The vegetab les furnished for the oc-
casion included such old standbys as
beans. beets, radishcs lettuce, carrots.
onions and corn. After planting some
of each kind of seed. the teachers in
charge of the separate delegations then
saw to 1t that the youthful advocates
of farm life did not plant onions and
carrots in the same holes. Never We're
mere jealous farmers seen than We're
busy for an hour in Thomas Jefferson
Park. AS fast as the carrot seeds were
planted the teacher in charge would
announce some other vegetable. pass
ing around the seeds as she did so.
I'VE will now plant BEANS said the
teachers in a chorus. And there was
an answering ono from the children,
Beans
Among the spectators were a num-
Der of the parents of the children. who
sfniled with satisfaction at the sight
of their youngsters assuming the re-
sponsbilites of truck farmers, for the
success of the garden will depend
largely on the attention of the plant
ers. Commissioner Slower was also
there to see part OF the planting
The new farm garden is much larg-
er than the one il De Witt Clinton
Park. which was established nine years
ago. The successor of the latter farm
garden caused Mrs. Parsons to call on
Commissioner Slower for space for an
other one. There the fifty thousand
school children in the two districts
from which the thousand young farm
ers hail. The purpose of the farm gar
dens, Mrs. Parsons said, was not to
teach children agriculture or farming,
but to teach the private care of public
property and to have the children be-
come acquainted with the vegetables
which they see every day in the mar
kets of the city.
1t was not until long after the seeds
were all planted that the youngsters
could bring themselves to leave the
neighborhood Many were the ex-
pressed hopes for rain to bring out the
vegetables in a rush. The children
must go over their garden plots once
a week to weed and care for them.
When the crops are matured they will
ge. the produce. No prizes however.
will be given for the best plot, for it
is rule of the farm garden that there
shall be good plots all around.-N. Y.
Tribune.