Gardening; an elementary school text treating of the science and art of vegetable growing

Front matter

DIRECTOR'S OFFICE

botanical garden mis

An Elementary School Text

Preface

The author is one of those who firmly believe that the teaching of gardening in every school would yield very rich returns educationally. The author believes, further, that the best instruction in the subject must include both classroom work and practice in the actual growing of plants. An intellectual basis for the work that will lift it to a plane above a mere manual apprenticeship and an opportunity for the practical application of knowledge gained are alike necessary.

It is with the earnest wish to serve both teacher and pupil and with the hope of further extending good teaching of gardening that this text has been prepared. The aim has been to make it as easy as possible for the teacher to present theory and practice together, and by making the practical directions very full and concrete to make it possible for the teacher to devote his time more to the wider aspects of the work. It is hoped that such a text will not only save the time of teachers but will also serve as a guide to those of less experience in their work.

The first part of the book deals chiefly with the most important facts and principles of growth and reproduction in garden plants. The deliberate aim is to give the pupil an appreciation of the plant as a living thing and an understanding of howr it lives. The later chapters deal chiefly with the various garden crops and the practical work of growing them.

The writer has been a home gardener all his life, and in his experimental work in plant breeding he has had occasion to grow many thousands of plants. Furthermore, he has been a teacher in elementary school, high

V vi

Preface school, normal school, and university; and for nearly three years at the New York Botanical Garden he taught gardening to classes of convalescent soldiers and sailors, many of whom were receiving their first instruction in the subject. Naturally, the present volume has been colored by personal experience. Some of the chapters consist in large part of material presented to the classes of soldiers and sailors. Yet in adapting the work to younger beginners, countless changes in matter and method of presentation have been made in the author's own material, and the views of other teachers of gardening and the subject matter presented by them have been carefully considered. It is hoped that the book will prove useful to teachers and pupils, and that the needs of different sections of the country have been adequately met.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For help most generously given during the preparation of this volume the author is under obligation to many persons. In the list of those who have read most of the galley proofs and from whom many helpful criticisms and additional statements of fact were received are W. E. Larson, Principal of the County Training School of Algoma, Wisconsin, previously for several years Inspector of Rural Schools for the State of Wisconsin ; J. L. Randall, now in charge of gardening in the Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Normal School, formerly Director United States School Garden Army; W. R. Beattie, Extension Horticulturist, United States Department of Agriculture ; Hugh Findlay, of the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture, Columbia University, New York City ; and Kenneth Boynton, formerly Supervisor of the Garden School for Convalescent Soldiers and Sailors, now acting Head Gardener in the New York Botanical Garden. The chapter on " Insects in the Garden" was read by F. H. Chittenden, and the chapter on " Diseases of Garden Plants" by W. W. Gilbert, both of the United States Department of Agriculture and both of whom contributed suggestions and ideas of the greatest value. Many of the uncredited photographs which so splendidly illustrate the processes of gardening were secured from W. C. McCollom, Islip, New York.

To all the persons named above, to all those who have contributed illustrations as acknowledged, and to various other persons not mentioned who have answered letters of inquiry or whose writings have been consulted, the writer wishes to express deep appreciation.

It has indeed been a pleasure to write this little book.

A. B. Stout

New York Botanical Garden

vii

To plow, to plant, and to hoe may not be the chief end of man, but it was the first great work that was given him to do; and that he might keep it in mind for all time, he had a pledge that the seed-time should never fail.

There's something wonderfully soothing in having your fingers in Mother Earth. It seems to take the restlessness out of one. Frances Duncan

The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world.

Charles Dudley Warner

The ground must touch a man before he can amount to much. Abraham Lincoln

To own a bit of ground; to scratch it with a hoe; to plant seeds, and watch their renewal of life, — this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do. Charles Dudley Warner

A good garden saves the butcher's bill, and keeps down the doctor's bill, too. Old Farmer's Almanac

Boy or girl, you need to feel plowed ground under your feet; you need the contact with growing things in the ground; you need to handle a hoe, [and] gather the garden vegetables. . . . You need to take part in the digging and weeding and planting. . . . You need to smell [the soil], to feel it, to work in it. Dallas Lore Sharp

To smell a turf of fresh earth is wholesome for the body.

Thomas Fuller

ix

X

Watching things grow, things that his own hands have planted, is one of the chief joys of the householder.

James G. Needham

Behold this compost ! behold it well ! . . . It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from

them at the last. Walt Whitman

A soil, to be fertile, must above all things be light and

pliable, and this condition we seek to bring about by the

operation of plowing. Virgil If you keep square with the work, you feel greater pride

and satisfaction in it, and everything goes smoother.

Head work in the garden is worth quite as much as hand work. Old Farmer's Almanac

In planning garden operations for the year remember that rotation, clean tillage, and selected varieties will do much to help you in your fight against both insects and plant diseases. Such measures wisely taken bring other advantages . Old Farmer's Almanac

Farmer Wideawake will have the plans for his crops all made before spring opens, so as to be ready to plow and plant each crop as soon as the proper season arrives.

Acquaint yourself with an intelligent sy stein of crop rotation — Use your brains — Then when you are certain and your program is ready, dig in hard.

Not only does succession planting utilize limited areas most intensively ; it is sound economics from every point of view. Old Farmer's Almanac xi

Fall plowing now demands our attention. With minor exceptions all the land which is to be put under cultivation next year should be plowed before freezing. It is not necessary nor desirable to turn the furrows smooth and flat as in spring plowing. If the land is left quite rough, the action of the frost during the winter will be more ejfective in breaking up the soil and reducing it to a fine powder.

77 should not be forgotten that all the heavier soils are improved by fall plowing, which should be pushed whenever Opportunity offers. Old Farmer's Almanac

Tw the farmer's care that makes the field bear.

Old Proverb

Perfect tilth, no less than suitable enrichment, is essential for bumper crops. Old Farmer's Almanac

Nature will always find some mischief to do in idle land. Give her the opportunity and you shall repent in another season when you find redoubled labor essential to keep the garden clear of noxious growths. Old Farmer's Almanac

In the garden more grows than the gardener sows.

Old Proverb

The rich garden soil from which you have taken an early crop will bear weeds if you do not put it to use for production of something better. Old Farmer's Almanac

A weed, as it grows from an inch to a foot high, increases a thousand-fold in bulk or weight, and exhausts the soil in proportion. Old Farmer's Almanac xii

Cultivate! A hard crust over the surface of the ground is almost as fatal to the growth of annual plants as would be a coat of paint to the growth of a pig.

If a g°°d croP is t° be obtained, it must be well fed and well cared for, and the work must be done at the right time.

Land for roots needs to be worked deep and fine.

Cauliflower for fall and winter use may be set after your earliest peas. Old Farmer's Almanac

Cucumbers and melons can be grown in the spent hotbed in summer, and the little plot made to do double duty.

The gardener no sooner gets the mastery of the destructive insects, than there comes another plague called fungi, which, if not hindered or destroyed, will greatly injure the crops of the garden. Old Farmer's Almanac

Now that bugs and blights abound, be up and at them; but be sure to identify your enemy before you begin your fight. Old Farmer's Almanac

The warfare of the insect tribes upon the vegetable kingdom is a continuous performance at which the gardener cannot a ford to be an idle spectator.

He who would have a good garden must visit it daily, that he may discover and destroy the insect enemies before they do any essential injury. Old Farmer's Almanac xiii

The race between man and the creeping things of the earth is said to be very equal. As soon as man is master of one, a new one appears, more persistent in its destructive work and more difficult to conquer than any that has preceded it; consequently man has to seek new and more effective poisonous compounds that will kill these enemies, and not injure the vegetation upon which they feed.

The gardener must watch diligently lest he get outgeneraled by the bugs, worms, and creeping things of the earth, which are ready to devour nearly every plant that grows.

Snug up and get things hi order for a long winter.

Now that the harvest is past, it is time to prepare for winter. Secure the vegetables in the cellar before freezing weather comes. Old Farmer's Almanac

Observe these hints and you will find it easy to keep winter vegetables in good condition: Keep onions cold, dry, and well ventilated. Hang cabbages by the stump in a cool cellar not too dry. Bury turnips, carrots, parsnips, and beets in moist, fine soil in a dry, cool cellar.

We have drawn from the land all that our industry compelled it to yield, and our crops in store and the book of receipts will tell us the story of the year's work.

CONTEXTS

CHAPTER PAGE

1. Objectives and Methods i

Appendix: Tables of Planting Dates .... 348 Index 351

XV

Fig. i. "To hear or read, and then to do, — That is the perfect school."

Chapter One

A school garden worth the name is not a teacher's garden, or a philanthropist's garden, but a garden worked out in thought and act by happy, purposeful children.

Dora Williams

Probably the first systematic elementary instruction in gardening in the United States was given at Roxbury, Massachusetts, in the year 1891 in the school conducted by Mr. H. L. Clapp. Eleven years later (1902) Mrs. Henry Parsons started the first children's " school farm " in New York City in connection with the Park Department. Since then, gardening in one form or another has become a part of the education and training of children in many cities. Recently, under the stimulus of the war-time necessity for increased food production, various national, state, city, and other agencies throughout the United States joined in efforts to provide instruction in gardening, especially in connection with the schools. According to records collected by the United States Bureau of Education from 2258 towns and cities, at the close of 1919 there were 2,500,000 pupils enrolled in the garden work.

In some states the instruction is more or less organized for the entire state, and in at least one state, New Hampshire, there has been adopted a definite plan for teaching gardening to all children in the elementary schools of

1 This opening chapter is intended for teachers and school officials and is not for study by pupils.

Fig. 2. School gardens were started in New York City in 1902, in connection with the Park Department. This photograph was made in 1906, on the site of the first "school farm."

the entire state. The teaching of gardening has become widely recognized as an important part of the educational work of the public schools ; the aims in teaching it and the best methods to be employed are now rather clearly defined.

There seems to be general agreement that the primary purpose of school instruction in gardening is educational. But the instruction in the school aims also to encourage the making of home vegetable gardens whose chief function is that of food production. Obviously, it is through the combination of school and home activities that the educational values of gardening and its uses to the home are to be realized.

Experience in the teaching of gardening seems to indicate clearly that the most successful teaching of the subject is that which combines classroom aftd textbook instruction with actual practice in the work of gardening. In general, the relation between the classroom and the outdoor work is quite clear. Classroom and textbook instruction deals primarily with principles ; it presents the lawrs of plant growth and the fundamental relations between plants and their environment in such a way that their essential needs are understood. In all lines of human effort, those individuals who understand the reasons for what they are doing excel in practical work ; thus, to obtain the best gardens we must give the pupils an understanding of plant life. Secondarily, the classroom and textbook instruction deals with the special needs of the various vegetables and the special methods of planting and caring for them in such detail that with but little additional direction in the garden itself the beginner can grow these successfully.

In the actual outdoor work the pupil learns the art of gardening. Mechanical skill in the use of tools is acquired through their use. Acquaintance with plants is gained from contact with them. The best methods of caring for crops are learned by experience. Yet (for the beginner especially) there is constantly the application of principles learned in the classroom and judgment of the methods employed according to the results attained. The art of gardening becomes an intelligent application of principles to methods, with eventually the discovery of the most suitable methods.

When both the principles and the practice of gardening are taught, the subject has great educational and utilitarian values, and it has taken its place in school curricula because experience has shown that the pupils absorb these values. It is closely related to the pupil's present life, so that he understands the significance of what he learns and does ; and it correlates as few studies do with the various subjects of school interest. Much of the ordinary work in nature study can be taught in gardening in a manner which gives additional interest and purpose to the work. The daily experiences afford excellent subject matter for language exercises, and there is opportunity for the application of problems in arithmetic and for practice in honest business methods. The history of garden vegetables involves knowledge regarding geography, climate, and the climatic needs of the various vegetables. Gardening also teaches much regarding the principles of breeding and improving plants and may afford practice in such breeding.

In the larger schools, training in canning and drying garden produce and in the construction and use of the special storage rooms and cellars can be given with the cooperation of teachers in domestic science and in manual training. In most cases, however, teachers and parents must lead in these activities.

Naturally, the simpler aspects of gardening are best learned in the lower grades. As pupils advance in age, more is learned. The vista of knowledge is ever widening. There are constantly new discoveries to be made. There are constantly the exercise of judgment and the practical application of knowledge suited to stimulate and tax the child's growing mental powers.

Thus the pupil can follow the subject progressively through the grades without undertaking work too diffi-

Fig. 3. An individual plot garden with paths between the plots.

cult for him in the earlier years and without repetition in the higher grades of the simpler facts with which he is already familiar. In agricultural sections especially, the teaching of gardening naturally and progressively leads to the more advanced teaching of agriculture. This flexibility and exhaustlessness of the subject is another reason why the teaching of gardening has been so successful in the schools.

The organization of the practice work in gardening has received much attention. Several types of gardens have been successfully developed in meeting the various conditions existing in different communities.

The school garden or school farm of individual plots is one in which each pupil of the school or of certain grade

Van Evrie Kilpalrick

Fig. 4. An individual plot garden without paths. The rows of vegetables run uninterruptedly across the field and the corners of the plots are marked only by stakes.

or grades has a garden plot, usually of small area. The pupil cares for his own plot, but the work of planting, caring for, and harvesting the crops is all done under the direction of a teacher and supervisor.

Formerly, in school-garden work very generally, individual plots were assigned to the pupils, and especially in Los Angeles and New York City this plan is still followed with marked success. This * method stimulates individual effort, and it provides individual plots for children who have no opportunity for home gardens." But in most places it has been replaced by the community grade garden and the school-directed home garden.

The community school or grade garden is one in which all the children of the grade or the school jointly participate in the work of preparing the soil, planting, and caring for the entire garden plot. The purpose of the garden is chiefly educational, and a large part of the instruction and training is accomplished by the time school closes in June. Some four or five pupils of the grade who have shown special interest and diligence are selected to care for the garden through the summer, but always under proper supervision. These pupils share in the crops that mature within this period. The time required of a child for the care of a grade garden during vacation is usually not more than two half days a week.

The community garden serves excellently for group instruction at the school. It provides practical training for the children who can have no home garden ; moreover, the united efforts of the community insure a continuous care of the plot, which is not always possible when the individual-plot method is followed. A fur-

Fig. 5. A school-supervised home garden. These gardens are especially successful in suburban communities and in smaller cities and towns ; yet in the crowded city of New York space was found for more than 80,000 of them in 1917.

Xorlli Dakota Agrtc. Expt. Sta.

Fig. 6. The best place of all for a garden is on the farm. Here land is abundant, so the rows should be planted wide for horse-cultivation. The photograph shows a model farm garden of one third of an acre in North Dakota.

ther advantage of the community garden is that it gives the pupil training in cooperative effort — practice in that " team work " which is so essential in a democracy.

The school-supervised home garden is made at the home of the child under the supervision of a teacher ; and for successful participation in the care of the home garden a pupil is given a certain amount of school credit. The garden is visited at intervals during the growing season by a supervisor who gives advice and instruction and judges the activity and interest of the pupil. Certain records are kept by the pupil, and these are correlated with the work done in the school.

School supervision of home gardens is undoubtedly one of the best means of combining school and home activities. It aims to promote and improve the home

North Dakota Agric. Expt. Sta.

Fig. 7. The same garden shown in Figure 6, later in the season.

garden whenever there is opportunity for one at the home of a pupil in the fourth grade or above. That many home gardens are possible even in large cities is shown by the fact that a school garden survey of New York City in 191 7 disclosed a total of 83,898 children having their own home gardens.

But home gardens are especially successful in smaller cities and towns and in suburban districts of large cities, because here the conditions are often ideal for gardens of this kind. The size of the plot is frequently ample for the family needs, a well-drained site with rich soil can often be selected, and manure for enriching the soil is usually obtainable.

In the more sparsely settled rural districts especially, the opportunity for educational, vocational, and moral training through gardening is far from being utilized at present. Here, however, special supervisors and teachers lO must consume so much time in travel that the instruction becomes costly. Perhaps in the country the work in gardening should become a part of the more general boys' and girls' club work, with the same teacher for both the gardening and the other work. Certainly, under the stimulus of competent supervision and guidance and with proper credit in the school course, home gardening in the country can be made to yield at least as rich results as it now yields in towns and cities.

The demonstration or obseroation garden is chiefly for educational purposes. It supplements the school, grade, and home gardens, and serves to instruct the entire community, young and old alike. At the present time the most common observation garden is one that demonstrates a model home garden.

But an observation garden may serve other purposes. Plants not usually seen in the region may be grown, and new crops or new varieties of standard crops may be tested to determine if they are suited to local culture. A school can maintain hotbeds and cold frames, thus demonstrating their construction and uses and at the same time supplying seedlings of such crops as cabbage and tomato for transplanting to the home gardens.

The observation garden can be used also for seed production, for demonstrations in plant breeding, and for practical instruction in agriculture and in the growing of plants of value in floriculture, horticulture, and forestry. As instruction in gardening becomes more general, demonstration gardens will undoubtedly beii

Van Enie Kilpatrich

Fig. 8. A school demonstration garden. The pupil is shown the various operations of planting and cultivating his crops in this garden. Then he is able to use this knowledge in caring for his garden at home.

come an important factor in the work. They cannot, however, take the place of the school and home gardens, which must necessarily be the basis of the instruction and training.

The principal crops grown in school gardens are quite the same throughout the entire United States. The detailed plans for both classroom and practice work, therefore, will vary chiefly according to climate. In the more northern states, where the growing season is shorter and the outdoor work begins late, the garden work must be followed through the summer to be most effective. In the more southern states the long growing season allows many crops to reach full maturity before the

T2

Fig. q. The garden of the fifth and sixth grades in the Emerson School, Newton, Massachusetts. The children of one or more grades work together in the care of a common garden.

summer vacation begins ; also many autumn crops can be planted after school again opens.

One of the best plans for organizing the grade gardens of a city in the northern states that has come to the attention of the writer is that employed at Newton, Massachusetts. Here grade gardens are maintained for the fourth, fifth, and seventh grades. In the garden for a fourth grade, radishes, lettuce, beets, Swiss chard, carrots, beans, and late squash are raised. These are all readily grown from seed sown in the garden. Radishes and lettuce yield crops before the close of school in June. Beans, beets, and Swiss chard give returns during the summer to the pupils who care for the garden through vacation time. Work in the same garden is continued by the class in the following autumn, when the squash

1 3 crop is maturing and the beets, carrots, and Swiss chard are still producing. In the following spring squash is not planted, but corn, tomatoes, and kohl-rabi are added to the other vegetables grown. In the seventh grade potatoes also are planted.

The classroom work at Newton begins about March i . The supervisor visits each grade about once in three weeks to give special instruction to the pupils and to outline the work of the grade teacher. In addition, all children of the fourth grade and above are encouraged to have home gardens.

Many other cities and towns have carefully worked out and put into operation progressive courses in gardening, but space does not allow even a brief discussion of them here.

The success which is attained in the teaching of gardening in any school depends on the efficiency of the organization and the coordination of classroom instruction with the actual practice in gardening. For complete success, especially in the northern states, a supervision that follows the garden through the entire summer vacation is absolutely essential. The quality of the instruction and supervision is dependent on the training, interest, and enthusiasm of the supervisors and teachers in charge. When it is well taught, the subject is one that naturally appeals to the child's needs for mental and physical training and to his normal desire to obtain immediate returns for expended effort.

Chapter Two

I'd ruther kindo git the swing O' what was needed, first, I jing !

James Whitcomb Riley

The idea expressed by the poet in the above lines is ' a good one. It is always well to find out why we are doing anything before we spend time and effort on it. Here are some of the reasons for learning gardening.

Gardening is educative. The chief reason for learning gardening is that it gives us a store of useful and interesting knowledge we would be likely to get in no other way. Through his work the gardener learns about insects, soils, and weather. He works with living plants and comes to understand how they live and grow. Thus he learns to know nature and nature's laws, and how the workings of these laws affect his own life.

Fig. io. Gardening is educative. Through his work the gardener learns many facts about plants, insects, soils, and weather.

IS

Gardening allows children to share in the family work.

It is wrong to accept something for nothing when we can pay. Through garden work children can give to their parents something for what they have received and are receiving from them. Excepting spading, garden wrork is light, and the average child of ten can do most of it. By taking up this work a child gains the respect of the older members of the family, and his ideas and wishes are more carefully considered in the family circle than they would be if he were not helping to carry the family load.

Another great advantage of gardening for many children is that it allows them to work with their parents or other older persons. Many parents play with their children but do not find time to discuss serious matters with them. Working with an older person in a garden i6 gives a child an opportunity to talk over many important problems, and to learn much about the work in hand and also about the larger affairs of life.

Gardening gives an appreciation of property rights. We own our gardens. We know the thought and labor we have put into them and .that without our labor they never would have existed. We know that what we have thus i^^^MH created by our own

dening is that it allows children to work to '

with older persons. This gives an oppor- and through an Under-

tunity for talking over many important (

problems not connected with garden work. Standing 01 OUr 0WI1

property rights we are led to understand the property rights of others.

Gardening leads to industry and an understanding of the importance of labor. By working in the garden we establish habits of industry, and through the garden we come to appreciate the value of labor and the importance of industry. When we care for a garden properly, it thrives and repays us in good harvests. When we spend only a little effort on it, the harvest is correspondingly scant. Thus we come to realize that men can have only that whic h they produce by their labor ; that by labor we can create something for ourselves without taking it from any one else.