The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1916-03-10

that I could not attend the pub
lie schools, but, as have writ
ten before, my theatrical education
began when l was FIVE. So many
young boys and girls tell me OF their
eagerness to leave school and become
movies" as they express it.
visited a public school not long
ago with two of my little schoolgirl
friends, and was keenly interested in
the recent Developments of school
work and the combined advantages OF
the classical with practical modern
knowledge, such as domestic science
and manual training.
The advent of gardening is the lat
est move, now that cooking and sew
ing have been established in all the
schools. And what a beautiful, as
we'll as valuable, study it is, for chill
dren and gardens seem to belong to-
gether just as do birds and song,
roses and fragrance. Children seem
to realize this affinity, for when in
the past they have been denied their
little gardens they would often ten
Derby care for a scrubby geranium
planted in an old tin can or cracked
fowerpot.
While extensive plot gardening
must necessarily be withheld from
children in great cities like New
York and Chicago, and they must be
contented with their poisoning
window boxes, there are few other
cities which cannot place at the dis
posal of the schools the necessary
acres of land within easy access.
In the small towns, children arc
fortunate enough to be able to make
their plot gardens in their own back
yards, and while some of these are
devoted to flowers, most Of them
raise vegetables for the home, the
neighbors or the market. Even flow
ers have proved profitable, for l
know of one little boy who made sew
eral dollars a week from his sweet
peas and pansies. selling them at a
little stand he built at the automobile
crossroads.
Plot gardening began in New Eng
land and the South almost simultan-
eously, because of so many neglected
farms or plantations which were be-
ing either not cultivated or very
poorly developed. A great many
farms had yielded crops year after
year, without proper fertilization and
they were practically barren until
transformed by scientific gardening
l. Nh1,,-hf
should be taught the children, who. in
turn, would own these lands.
Encouraging rewards were offered
to the girls raising and canning to-
matoes, beans and other vegetables,
and to the boys raising the most and
best corn on single acre. The chill
dren who failed to receive these re-
wards profted from the sale of their
products, and the results have justi-
fed the project.
1t brings to the city children a
knowledge Of the country and of that
farm life which they may never 9th
erwise enjoy; it brings to the country
children lessons which will be useful
in their maturity when they control
their fathers aCreages.
Then it has been a source of rev.
cnuc, and by alternative cropping
and intensive cultivation from these
4ox4o-foot gardens, boys even as
young as twelve and thirteen years
have earned from fifteen to forty dol
lars season.
1t keeps the boy happily and profit
ably occupied during vacations when,
were it not for such interests, he
might drift unconsciously into vicious
surroundings. 1t is healthful, and
when it results in no other tangible
benefit it teaches the child a wealth
of information on elemental botany,
biology and chemistry. 1t also teaches
children the basic principles of COM
merce.
1t is profitable to the community,
as the land, were it not for the chill
dren's efforts, would be allowed to 60
to waste and remain unproductive.
Little Johnny Baker, small boy
who played in one of our pictures,
told me that he had several ways Of
marketing the products of his gar
den. The greater part of it he sold
to his mother and other mothers of
the neighborhood, who were glad to
get fresh vegetables at the same price
the groceries and markets retailed.
During the holidays, al the boys of
his town who were interested in plot