schools, and ordered the establishment of school gardens in villages for the purpose of aiding agriculture, a ministerial order of August 20, 1870, advised that instruction in natural history be connected with work in the school garden, arranged in accordance with the needs of the locality.

Mindful of the pedagogical and economical importance of school gardens, the school authorities in Austria aided the establishment and maintenance of these gardens, and paid much attention to proper plans, so that Austria has been able to overtake other civilized countries in that particular feature of education. The flourishing fruit culture of Bohemia can chiefly be attributed to the instruction which the inhabitants have received in the school gardens attached to local public elementary schools.

In the German Empire the States of Bavaria and Oldenburg have the greatest number of school gardens. Prussia has in this regard done comparatively little. School gardens, in the proper sense of the word, are not in existence in that State. In some public schools in the country, however, there are (especially in Hohenzollern) schools for arboriculture, although this is only one part of the work in a school garden, which teachers arranged of their own free will, being specially interested in the cultivation of fruit trees. In some schools there are institutions which pursue the objects of a school garden; that is to say, which give opportunity to the pupil to learn the most important families of plants and many of their species, and to observe their development. The city authorities of Berlin, for instance, have established in the "Humboldt-Hain" a kind of botanical garden from which all the city schools are provided with a sufficient number of plants and specimens serving to illustrate botanical and biological instruction. On specified days 50,000 to 100,000 specimens are delivered to the schools and classes studying botany. Both elementary and secondary schools are thus provided.

Efforts in other countries in promoting school gardens in furtherance of public welfare have found imitation in Germany. Lately, at a public meeting in a lower Rhenish industrial city in which home industry was languishing, the weavers were advised to devote themselves to other industries, especially to the raising of vegetables. Several years ago, in Breyell, in the district of Kempen, a school for the cultivation of vegetables was established for young people who are past school age, with the purpose of preparing expert horticulturists. This advice was certainly well meant, and the success of this school, according to reports, is worthy of praise. But the beginnings of agricultural knowledge must be made in the public elementary school, especially since the love and understanding of nature must begin in early youth.

Dr. Ruland says: Not only natural history and science, indispensable to the kitchen gardener and the basis of a practical profession, but the ability to enjoy beauty, to love nature, and to see in the gardener's occupation a task for life, are things that must be learned. The shortest and surest way to reach that end is through the school garden, because nobody is more sensitive to instruction, more accessible to persuasion and direction than children are. In establishing school gardens in rural schools, industrial communities especially should proceed without delay. They will thereby create a capital of which they will have almost immediate benefit, for it will result in higher rents and add to their wealth. In nearly all schools there may be found an appropriate place for a school garden. Often unused or waste patches are found in the neighborhood of the school which are not an ornament to the community, but may be made so.

That in the establishment of school gardens different opinions according to local needs will come to the surface, goes without saying. But the first principle should be that the school garden be considered by no means an appendage of the school, but that it ought to be considered rather an important member of its organism. Hence it is necessary that in the daily time-table for the upper grades of public schools some lessons be set aside for horticulture. The school garden, of course, must correspond to the needs of the locality in regard to the matter of instruction.

It should neither be made a botanical garden nor an orchard. The object of the school garden is to become a model of a well-tended rural home and kitchen garden, which may aid school work by offering information in connection with the studies pursued in class room, but especially aid the agricultural instruction of children past school age.

To describe such a school garden useful to a rural community is easy. It is necessary, first of all, that floriculture be taught, for it will be the means of enhancing the aesthetic side of education, a result devoutly to be wished. Special attention must be paid to the culture of fruit. While tall fruit trees, owing to the limited space in the school garden, should be reserved for play and gymnastic grounds, dwarf fruit trees would better answer the purposes of the school garden, because all the work of pruning and grafting trees could then be done by the pupils themselves. Fruit trees trained on trellises and dwarf trees reward any attention bestowed upon them with excellent yields, because their fruit ripens early in the season.

In regard to the high importance which the berry fruit has assumed in late years it should not be slighted in the school garden. How far the fruit-tree cultivation shall extend will depend upon the special talent of the teacher and his skill in nursing trees. There is scarcely a branch of horticulture in which old customs are preserved with greater tenacity than in the raising of vegetables; hence by introducing new and better kinds of vegetables through the school garden a thankful field of activity is opened. Also some commercially and agriculturally important plants may be admitted. Besides the cultivation of plants the animal kingdom ought not to be forgotten. In a school garden the beehive and provision for the protection of birds might find attention.

The size of the garden depends upon the locality and the wealth of the comminnity. In all cases prudence should dictate the measures taken, and especially in the beginning the establishment should not assume too large a scale.

It is reasonable to expect from teachers that they will fulfill their duties willingly if gardens are added to their schools, for then they will aid in promoting the pecuniary welfare of their communities. So long as there is no school garden in normal schools with a complete outfit, and (it may sound strangely) so long as there are no theoretically educated gardeners, teachers will gladly avail themselves of any opportunities to obtain the capacity for directing work in school gardens. This may be done in especially arranged teachers' courses for arboriculture and horticulture. Here a great field for fruitful activity is opened to the profession of teaching. If the school garden, which seems especially fitted to acquaint youth, by teaching and example, with practical life, were introduced in all country schools there would unquestionably be less poverty and want.

The foregoing transcript of Dr. Ruland's article on school gardens in Europe gives a survey of what is being done in the old countries to promote nature studies in elementary and secondary schools, but his report does not say much of the methods employed in school gardens. This want may be supplied by quoting from an article by Henry Lincoln Clapp in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly (February, 1898). The author says, in the course of his illustrated article:

In March, 1890, a paper entitled "Horticultural education for children" was read in Boston before the Massachusetts Historical Society by one of its members. The interest aroused by the reading of this paper resulted in the establishment of a school garden in connection with one of the Boston grammar schools in the spring of 1891. A committee of the society promised such pecuniary support as seemed to be needed from time to time. Mrs. Henrietta L. T. Wolcott, then at the head of the committee, in presenting the claims of school-garden work to the society, said: "We desire to emphasize the true idea of a school garden. Growing plants, from the first sign of germination to the full perfection of blossom and fruit, and edible roots in

all stages, give constant opportunity for study. We believe that by means of the school garden children can be so trained to appreciate plants growing naturally that the present custom of laying out public gardens with flowering and foliage plants arranged in the form of grotesque designs, portraits of distinguished men, symbols of trades, spiritual suggestions or emblems, and rolls of carpeting framed and left out in rain and sunshine, will in time disappear. Setting rows of plants in military precision and replacing them by others like magic can have but little educational value."

Since the committee intended to offer premiums for the best school gardens they thought that persons might be induced to buy the ordinary cultivated plants of a florist, and with them make what they might choose to call school gardens. This, however, would not imply any proper knowledge of such plants, or more useful ones, nor ability to make use of them as objects for study. It was thought that troubles might arise from allowing a florist's garden to be taken as the standard for the gardens which they wished to see established. The one who spent the most money, or had the most persuasiveness among florists, might establish fine gardens, lay claim to premiums in good faith, and win them; and yet such gardens might not serve the purpose which the committee considered best. Accordingly, they decided that in the beginning only those plants which were the most suitable for educational purposes should form the main stock of the school gardens. The decision was expressed thus: "Ornamental plants, or those commonly cultivated in flower gardens, will not stock the school gardens contemplated by the committee. Native wild plants, such as ferns, grasses, asters, golden-rods, violets, native shrubs, and economic plants, such as grains, vegetable roots, and leguminous and cucurbitaceous plants must be the stock of the gardens."

Later, when children's natural love for color and the influence of beautiful flowers in the schoolroom in cultivating æsthetic tastes came to be considered, cultivated plants were allowed introduction, but in a secondary place. It was claimed with truth that teachers who have beautiful flowers on their desks and fine bits of color on the walls of their rooms were likely to have other matters in harmony, order, neatness, quietness, and an atmosphere conducive to study. The flowers seem to set the key, and other matters are tuned up to that pitch. Pupils appreciate the conditions and the teacher. Unscholarly conduct is felt to be a discordant note, and the sentiment of the class is against it. However, the committee had other and perhaps higher aims to accomplish. They wished pupils to take a positive, conscious part in the development of plant life.

In accordance with the conditions mentioned, the committee decided to start a garden where the circumstances seemed most favorable, and appropriated $10 for the purpose. A piece of ground 48 by 72 feet in the back of the boys' yard of the George Putnam Grammar School was found the most available, and a few teachers in the school offered all the assistance in their power to carry out the purposes of the committee.

The soil was such as one might expect to find where no thought of plants or plant materials for a moment entered the minds of those who were instrumental in the establishment of the school and the preparation of the course of study. The pupils brought in many wild plants and the fleshy roots of biennials-turnips in variety, carrot, parsnip, radish, beet, onion (bulb), cabbage, etc. In planting, they took turns in digging the holes and placing the plants in position. Observations were made during the flowering season. The structure of the flowers of the cruciferous and umbelliferous plants was studied, and the nature of biennials was revealed. Other economic plants, such as the potato, the tomato, and the gourd, were raised to show the individuality of plants.

A square yard of ground was assigned to each of the ordinary cereals-wheat, rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat. The first four being most important members of the grass family, were especially interesting in their development. After that, grains meant more to the pupils. Nineteen species of wild asters were planted in one row.

Ten of the finest flowering kinds formed another row. Later, it was discovered that those plants blossomed the most profusely which sprang from seeds scattered at random around trees and beside rocks and fences. In the fall seed vessels were collected for study in winter, and bulbs, corms, and tubers were stored away for spring planting.

Each member of the highest class had a particular plant to take care of and study. He dug around and watered it, took off all dead leaves and unseemly branches, and tied it up. Then he sketched its characteristic parts-flowers, leaf stem, habit of growth, etc.-and took such written notes as would enable him to write an account of his plant, and illustrate it with appropriate drawings. On one occasion each of the thirty-two members of the class studied his own clump of asters, there being just clumps enough to go around. The importance of seeing and studying plants growing in large masses is not likely to be overestimated if interest and thoroughness in learning about them are desired. Comparatively, a single cut specimen in hand means but little.

By the aid of the boys a fernery was made in an angle of the school building on the north side, in a shady, sheltered position. They took handcarts into the woods half a mile distant and collected leaf mold which they mixed up thoroughly with loam and sand, and then assisted in taking the ferns from scattered places in the garden and located them by genera in the fernery. The name of each species was written on a flat stick, which was stuck into the ground near the specimen to which the name belonged.

Seeing what one teacher had done, another, by means of a hand camera, made a series of lantern slides which proved to be of the greatest service for class instruction during the following winter. A solar camera and 12-foot screen completed the equipment for the most interesting and profitable kind of instruction on the subject of ferns.

The pupils of one class studied fifteen species somewhat minutely by means of the slides and pressed specimens. Spores, sporangia, indusia, sori, pinnules, pinnæ, rachis, stipe, general shapes, textures, and relative position of parts were carefully observed, drawn, described, and colored. Notebooks contained characteristic parts of all the different species, which were broken up and distributed for the purpose. This study prepared the pupils to appreciate the development of fern crosiers in the fernery in the following spring. Twenty-two pupils out of the class of thirty-eight introduced ferns into their own gardens at home. Other classes studied composite flowers, distribution of seeds, roots, corms, tubers, bulbs, and other material supplied by the school garden.

In the spring of 1895 the development of fern crosiers was studied with great interest. The collection of lantern slides soon included representations of the crosiers of the principal species in various stages of growth. In some respects the pictures served a more useful purpose than the crosiers themselves, because their representations on the screen were very large and could be seen easily by the whole class at once.

At present there are more than one hundred and fifty different species of native wild plants in the garden. No attempt has been made to arrange them in ornamental beds, since they can not be studied so well in that arrangement. When over fifty pupils are to study growing plants, such plants must be easily accessible, and therefore scattered as much as is consistent with other conditions, especially that of caring for the plants and mowing the grass about them. Three or four times as many children can examine twenty plants set in rows as can examine them arranged in a bed; and the work of weeding the plants and cutting the grass in the former arrangement is not half as much as in the latter. The useful arrangement always takes precedence of the ornamental.

*

How the garden is supported, and how the necessary work is done are interesting questions to those who think of starting a garden. Since 1891 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society has offered every year a premium of $15 for the best school

garden in connection with the best use of it. This garden has competed with others, and won the premium every year. Five dollars pay for the annual enrichment of the soil, and $10 for the labor of the janitor, who, during the long summer vacation, weeds, hoes, and waters the plants, and cuts the grass periodically. In spring he wheels in and spreads fertilizing material, prepares new beds or rows, and resets old ones with plants changed from other localities.

Reasons that are good for introducing the elements of science into elementary schools are equally good for supplying adequate and seasonable elementary science material to work upon.

SALARIES OF TEACHERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF SWITZERLAND.

The Annual Report of 1895-96 contains, in Volume 1, pages 147-158, a minute statement of the salaries, together with annual increases, paid to teachers in Prussia and other States of Germany, as well as in German Austria. In the following table a similar tabulated statement from Switzerland is offered. It gives the number of teachers in groups ranged according to Cantons (or States) and according to the salaries they receive. It reveals the fact that few Swiss elementary teachers (to wit, 11 per cent) receive a higher salary than $400. In most cases, however, they live in dwellings connected with the schoolhouses. Many have fuel free and land for gardening. Still, nearly all of the men teachers who have families are obliged to earn money after school hours. They serve as organists in church, act as sextons, conductors of singing societies, secretaries of literary and social clubs, and as teachers of evening schools. This supplementary income is of course not counted in the table, not because it is beyond calculation, but because it can not rightly be estimated as belonging to the teacher's salary. It is not necessary to call attention to the fact that 1,151 teachers out of a total of 12,735 (or 9 per cent) have less than $100 fixed salary, nor to the almost inexplicable fact that three men and twenty-nine women are engaged as teachers without any pay. The table simply states the facts in the case as presented by the "Official Statistics of the Swiss School System, No. 34," from which the "Schweizerische Lehrerzeitung" quotes them.

Table showing the salaries paid to elementary teachers in Switzerland.

Cantons.

Number of

men

and

$20 $20 $40 $60 $80 $100 $120 $140 $160 $180 $200 $220 $240 $260 $280 or to to to to to to to to to to to to 10 to WO- less. $40 $60 $80 $100 $120 $140 $160 $180 $200 $220 $240 $200 $280 $300

men

teach