positions than they are in the middle of the lawn, and they also show off better. Hollyhocks are very effective. More than one-third of all public schools will probably always be in the country. They will have most intimate relations with rural life. We must make that life attractive to the pupils. In Europe there are school gardens, and similar plans are recommended for this country. It is certainly desirable that some area be set aside for the actual cultivation of plants by the children, and for the grow ing of specimens to be used in the schoolroom. HINTS FOR THE FIRST SCHOOL GARDEN BY EDITH GOODYEAR ALGER BEGIN early From School Gardens early enough to stir up enthusiasm before it is time to stir up the soil; early enough to transplant all rubbish from the school grounds before it is time to plant seeds. Have the children decide what the garden is to be, and here is a wide range; it may be a little ornamental "posy bed" cared for by all the children, a wild flower and fern garden of plants transplanted from woods and fields, a flower garden in which each child has a row, or a flower and vegetable garden divided into individual plots. The individual plot plan is undoubtedly to be preferred wherever practicable, and there are few village or rural schools where there is not room for the plot system. The individual garden arouses a personal responsibility and interest invaluable to the child. The plots should be small-good results can be obtained on a plot two feet square. Large plots which overtax the children to keep in perfect condition often prove so discouraging that they are neglected. Having agreed upon the type of garden, the location should be determined. Lead the children to study carefully the conditions of sunshine and shadow, dryness and moisture, etc., and let them decide upon the best place for the garden, and why. The garden must not encroach upon the playground too much. When these points are settled, decide how the space chosen for the garden is to be divided; the number, size, and position of the beds; number, size, and direction of the walks, etc. All actual measurements and calculations should be made by the children, and plans drawn to scale. Breaking up and fertilizing the soil, raking, staking out beds and walks, must all be done systematically, with a reason for each process. The older children should be supplied with notebooks in which to keep a written record of their work in the garden. It is best to select for cultivation in the first school garden a few varieties of very common vegetables, and hardy, easily grown flowers. Class-room study of the seeds and instruction regarding planting should be given before planting takes place. Some kinds of seeds may be given to the children to plant in boxes at home before it is time to plant out-ofdoors, and the seedlings thus secured transplanted at the proper time. Work in the school garden should be conducted in an orderly, intelligent manner the children should always understand, not only what they are doing, but also just why it has to be done. Avoid planting so much land or so many kinds of seeds that care and careful study cannot be given to the garden and all it contains. Remember that the best crop to be gathered from the school garden is the live interest in plant life, and the love of wholesome, useful out-of-door work gained by the children. FOREST CULTURE BY HORACE GREELEY MONEY can be more profitably and safely invested in lands covered by young timber than anything else. The parent who would invest a few thousand for the benefit of his children or grandchildren, while young, may buy woodlands which will be worth twenty times their present cost within the next twenty years. But better even than this would it be to buy up rocky, craggy, naked hillsides, and eminences which have been pastured to death, and shutting out the cattle inflexibly, scratch these over with plow, mattock, hoe, or pick, as circumstances shall dictate; plant them thickly with chestnut, walnut, hickory, white oak, and the seeds of locust and white pine. Plant thickly and of divers kinds, so as to cover the ground promptly and choke out weeds and shrubs, with full purpose to thin and prune as circumstances shall dictate. Many farmers are averse to planting timber because they think nothing can be realized therefrom for the next twenty or thirty years, which is as long as they expect to live. But this is a grave miscalculation. Let us suppose a rocky, hilly pasture lot of ten or twenty acres, rudely scratched over as I have suggested, and thickly seeded with hickory nuts and white oak acorns only. Within five years it will yield abundantly of hoop-poles, though the better, more promising half be left to mature, as they should be; two years later another and larger crop of hoop-poles may be cut, still sparing the best, and thenceforth a valuable crop of timber may be taken from the land; for if cut at the proper season (October to March), at least two thrifty sprouts will start from every stump; and so that wood will yield a clear income each year, while the best trees are steadily growing and maturing. I do not advise restriction to those two species of timber, but I insist that a young plantation of forest trees may and should yield a clear income in every year after its fourth. CRIMINAL TREATMENT OF TREES THE REV. MR. EGLESTON once called attention, in a forcible and sensible way, to the reckless and criminal treatment of our forests in general and of our good friends the trees in particular. His simple statement that nothing in nature except a man is more valuable than a tree, reminds one of the late Edward Jaffray's judgment that only killing a man was worse than cutting down a tree. The Laurel Hill Association seems likely to become foremost among societies for the prevention of cruelty to trees. The need of active measures to defend these preservers of our springs, these guardians of our rivers, these shelterers of our fields and gardens, from wanton outrage and careless, thriftless despoiling, is forcing itself on public attention, a cry of protest that gains force from the desolating fires among the Western pines, and the miserable pillage of our own Adironack preserves. Arbor Day in the public schools is doing something toward the replenishing of treeless regions, |