OCR Text |
Show 11 " " ' " II II I M ill THE HOME, GA(RDENCRAFT AND HOMECRAFT. HOME-CRAFT. "Every Child in a Garden." Louise Klein Miller. J "Thd citizenr standing, in the ioor way of his home contented on his threshold his family gathered about his hctirthstonc while the evening of a well-spent day closes in scenes and sounds "that axe dearest he shall save the Republic when the drum tap is futile and the barracks arc exhausted.'' ex-hausted.'' rtlcnry W. Grady. A company of teachers out on a . Nature Study -expedition, by chance, came upon a man "who was cutting stone from tai quarry, in which were the most interesting fossil remains of plants and animals. To the exclamation: exclama-tion: "How interesting you must find these rocks 1" the weary man replied: "I sec nothing in the rocks but hara work." If he could have read, interpreted inter-preted and appreciated the wonderful story written in the rocks the labor would not have been so uninteresting and difficult. The slogan of the Homccroftcrs, "Every child in a Garden, every mother in a Hbmc-croft, Hbmc-croft, and Individual Industrial Independence Inde-pendence for Every Worker in a Home of His Own on the Land," describes de-scribes a social and industrial condition condi-tion of efTairs devoutly to be wished. I Under existing conditions were such a thing possible we would probably hear two persons describing their experiences ex-periences as "Ten acres enough," or j "Five acres too much," l'cpcndent upon up-on their ability to do intensive farming, farm-ing, or their utter lack of scientific knowledge of fundamental principles of agriculture. A child in a garden, or a man on a farm who sees nothing in the sun ' but hot days in summer; who fiak no , realizing sense of the value of Train-fall; Train-fall; who recognizes in the soil a dif- ficult place in which to dig; who has no conception of the chemistry of soils; these persons will see nothing in the garden or farm but hard work. The magnet which will keep the boy on the farm, and attract the boys to tlftT farjrn is an education based upon up-on intelligent interest, and scientific information. Two great forces are at work, at the present time, toward that desired end, agricultural education educa-tion in the rural -schools, promoted by j the United States Department of Ag- ; ricdlture, State Experiment Stations And University Extension; and the School Garden Movement in cities and towns. The former has a more direct bearing upon the subject, and the application of the principle s. more direct. The value of School Gardens from the educative, rather than economic standpoint is fast gaining recognition, and undoubtedly the children who arc getting: the training and experience in the city schools will not be satisfied until they are able to put the theory into more satisfying practice. Many instances come to the directors of School Gar- ' dens, of boys going to the country j for their summer vacations to work on the farm, and of some whole families, fam-ilies, who, have -cither gone to the, suburbs su-burbs or country for permanent residence. resi-dence. " ' The School Gardens of Cleveland, Ohio, were organized less than four years ago, under the joint auspices of the Home Gardening Association and Board of Education. Last year the Board of Education established a Dc- l partment of School Gardens under t the direction of a Curator of School ' Gardens. The work has grown stead-! stead-! ily from a few small beds in the school yards and vacant lots until the j work is being regarded as very close- f ly related to all studies in the school cu,rriculuml Drawing garden plans f to scale, measuring and laying out I the ground, affords good work in me- 3 chanical drawing and arithmetic; find- ' ing areas of beds of various forms, J quantity of fertilizers require amount '1 of seed necessary for planting, value ll of products; arc problems of vital interest; in-terest; making garden stakes, tree , SIXTEEN Farmer ripOin labels, line winders, plant markers for the gardens, gives this work greater significance; studying the power of different kinds of soils to absorb and retain moisture, cap'Uarity of soils, relation of nitrifying bacteria to soi products, various forms of fertilizers, produces a chapter in life processes of bewildering interest and fascination. fascina-tion. The relation of leaves to sun"" light and shedding rainfall; modifica- Ition of stems and roots to perform the life functions with the least expenditure ex-penditure of energy, are all adaptations adapta-tions which Inspire our wonder and admiration. j "All the manifest beauty of earth is only nature's nuptial decorations." The beautiful forms, colors, markings, mark-ings, arrangements, time of blooming of flowers, and the form, color, adjustment ad-justment of seeds are for the purpoB of attracting insects and birds thsH the pollen may be transferred froml one flower to another to secure cross-pollination cross-pollination and- in consequence a higher high-er type of fruit, and that the fruit might be distributed to give a greater great-er range to each species, and reduce the struggle for existence. With such a conception of garden possibilities a small garden plot widens wid-ens out into a world of wonders. In Cleveland part of the school yard has been put into condition for the I garden where the space was sufficient and many vacant lots have been . loaned for the purpose. As changing ownership, renders tenure of the garden gar-den uncertain, it is the policy of the , , Board of Education as far as possible . to have the gardens in the school yards because it is more accessible, . and although all the children cannot engage in the work, Ihcy follow the operations and -arc irspircd to take up the work at their own homes. The Home Gardening Association M I '' sells to the children of the Cleveland 1 schools and outside organizations penny packages of seeds for home gardening. Instructions for planting i and care arc printed on cach.cnve- lope. In. the spring the Curator of School Gardens gives illustrated Icc-1 Icc-1 turcs in the schools, "iving specific directions about planning, planting and care of the garden, showing what, can. be and what has been accomplished accom-plished in the city. The most educative garden is at the Rosedalc School. There is -space for a large lawn, playground, rock garden, formal flower garden, vegetable veget-able garden and herbaceous botanical garden. Last year a garden was made for the mentally and physically, physical-ly, defective children. The experiment experi-ment was so successful there will be twelve more this year. We are hoping hop-ing to .have a center where the child-ren child-ren will have Manual Training, Domestic Do-mestic Science and Gardening. Whe e the children can learn to be heme makers :nd keepers. There the chil- " drcn will be taught the elements" of agriculture, horticulture, arboriculture I and forestry. Maxwell's Talisman. I |