Technological, agricultural, forestry, mining, etc.—Continued.

4. VETERINARY SCHOOLS IN EUROPE.

NOTE. Several noted technological schools in European countries are connected with universities. hence can not be separately enumerated. Military and naval engineering schools are excluded from

this list.

SCHOOL GARDENS IN EUROPE.

The Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Education have from time to time called attention to the school gardens in Europe. (See Report of 1889-90, Part I, page 308.) The literature concerning this subject is limited, and even European official reports say little about these gardens. They continue to increase, however, and a survey made by Dr. Karl Ruland resulted in an article in the Cologne Gazette which sets forth in what countries such gardens can be found and to what extent they are introduced as an aid to rural school work. The question of improving rural schools is a live one at present, and hence it is thought that a statement based on Dr. Ruland's article may be welcome.

As early as the beginning of the fourteenth century in some cities of Italy, for instance, in Salerno and Venice, institutions were found in which plants from all the parts of the world and every climate were cultivated for the purpose of instruetion and the promotion of science. These institutions, called botanical gardens, became, however, more universal with the revival of science. The rich cities of Italy, above all Ferrara, rivaled one another at that time in establishing such gardens. The universities of France and Spain followed their example. The establishment of a botanical garden in Paris toward the end of the sixteenth century proceeded, it is true, from a rather trivial cause-"because the embroiderers of the court dresses needed new floral designs." Not until 1626 was this garden, which

later obtained the name "Jardin des Plantes," devoted to the great scientific purpose of cultivating all the plants of the world. In Germany also a great zeal for botanical gardens has been noticeable since the close of the sixteenth century. Their establishment was usually simultaneous with the foundation of universities. At present no German higher seat of learning is without such a garden, which furnishes the material for instruction in botany and serves in many ways for experiments with agricultural plants.

In the face of these facts it seems strange that during all this time nobody thought of establishing gardens also for lower schools. Comenius, it is true, expressed the desire that every school have a garden in which the pupils could delight their eyes in seeing trees, flowers, and herbs. He saw in the school garden a means of awakening and nourishing the desire to learn. Also Pestalozzi, so enthusiastic for youth and popular education, demanded that children should be engaged in work in garden and field; but this demand was dictated by purely pedagogical considerations. Fröbel likewise laid great stress upon agreeable occupation of little children in the garden. But to establish in the school garden a means of instruction for the public elementary school, and to employ it for the purpose of instruction in horticulture and science of nature, has been thought of only recently, and only sporadically at

that.

Above all countries it is in Sweden where the school garden has found the widest extension and greatest development. The authorities there have recognized that the people's schools can contribute toward the increase of the national wealth, in so far as it depends upon agriculture and practical direction in certain of its branches. In Sweden, which had, in 1876, 1,602 and in 1881 as many as 2,000 school gardens, scarcely any public school building is found without such a garden.

In Belgium, too, where a large part of the population depends upon truck gardening, the greatest interest is manifested in the establishment of school gardens, not only by agricultural and industrial communities, but also on the part of the central Government. This has been done for many years, and considerable sums are contributed annually to the efforts in that direction. The prosperity of the rural population in Belgium, which is derived chiefly from the extended cultivation of truck gardens, must be attributed primarily to the school gardens and the extensive knowledge of horticulture among the people.

The school gardens gained ground also in France after the introduction of agrienlture into the public schools by a law passed in 1885. (See Annual Report of Commissioner of Education, 1895-96, Part II, p. 1139.) In Switzerland the Swiss Agricultural Union has taken in hand the establishment of school gardens with great zeal and considerable success. This union obtained from the Federal Government a subsidy of 3,500 francs for the year 1885, which sum was suitably employed as a first aid in establishing gardens for schools in rural communities. Since then annual appropriations have been devoted to the conservation of these gardens and to a gradual extension of the system. Owing to this governmental encouragement, there were in 1888 sixteen communities in Switzerland which had well-arranged school gardens. Since then their number has increased.

While the Swedes with their school gardens aim especially at the promotion of agriculture, the Belgians and French seek to promote the culture of fruit, vegetables, and flowers. In Switzerland, aside from practical considerations, chiefly pedagogical views were authoritative for the establishment of such gardens. The school gardens in rural schools of Switzerland, as it is officially stated, are to serve youth to acquire in a pleasant manner theoretical instruction of the growth of the most important and most useful plants, partly as a field of practice for rational nursing and treatment. These gardens are intended to promote love for horticulture, order,

and rural embellishment.

Austria treats the school-garden question from a broader and higher standpoint. After the imperial law of 1869 prescribed instruction in agriculture in all normal

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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 esthetic side of education, a result devoutly to be wished. Special attention mast 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 vursing 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 introdacing 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 community. 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 pecunlary 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 11. 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 sgn 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.