the authority of the school trustees and with the express approval of the ratepayers. The work of the garden is recognised as a legitimate part of the school programme, and it is already interwoven with a considerable part of the other studies. The garden is becoming the outer classroom of the school, and the plots are its blackboards. The garden is not an innovation, or an excrescence, or an addendum, or a diversion: it is a happy field of expression, an organic part of the school, in which the boys and girls work among growing things, and grow themselves in body and mind and spiritual outlook.
'The good influence of the school garden on the discipline and moral tone of the school is remarked by all the teachers. Pupils hitherto troublesome have become orderly and docile. The percentage of regularity in attendance has increased, and a deeper interest is taken in all the work of the school.
'In its national aspects, the school garden develops a wide interest in the fundamental industry of the country. It cultivates the sense of ownership and a social spirit of cooperation and mutual respect for one another's rights. In the care of their own plots the pupils fight common enemies, and learn that a bad weed in a neglected plot may make trouble for many others. The garden is a pleasant avenue of communication between the school and the home, relating them in a new and living way, and thereby strengthening public interest in the school as a national institution.
'The tendency of young people to rush to the cities has become an evil in some countries, and, if not checked, is likely to deteriorate the national life of Canada. In towns and cities the school garden will develop a desire in the rising generation to possess at least sufficient land for a garden. The city boy will spend more of his leisure on the home lot and less on the street. The city girl, who is now too much confined to the house, will develop a bodily vigour that can only be acquired in the sunshine and open air. The school garden will train the urban population to look toward
