p. 21 | A Model Garden

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 20, 1905

A Model Garden

WE have tried to give to every child below the eighth grade some piece of ground which should be entirely his for this summer. He has chosen what he wanted to plant, has himself done the entire work of planting, will have the entire care of it during school, and will get all the products to dispose of as he likes. By this means he reaps the result of his own labors as directly and immediately as if he were making something in wood; only in this case his product depends not upon his own efforts alone, but also upon the closeness with which he makes them conform to the laws of nature.

Besides these individual beds, each grade has a large bed of some product upon which the class works together. The object of these class beds, is, first, to furnish an illustration of the growth of the staple products of the country; second, to make experiments in their cultivation. The planting is generally preceded by some study of the best method to use. A careful record is made of what is done, and the results obtained in the fall are noted and recorded. Sometimes two ways of doing a thing are tried, and their results compared. We hope that the records thus made will prove of value to future classes in showing the best procedure for our particular soil.

We use all or most of the products of these beds in our school work. Last year, for instance, the third grade grew tomatoes, and in the fall made them into pickles. The kindergarten grew popcorn, which was used at Christmas. The fifth grade grew flax, which they rotted and hackled and prepared for spinning. It had got too brittle, however, to be spun, probably because it was too old when cut. They have another bed of it this year.

The sixth grade grew sugar-beets, and tried to extract and refine the sugar. Now, the extraction of sugar from sugar-beets is a matter of some difficulty. Slicing the beets, soaking in water, and boiling down is easy enough, thus making a molasses, sweet but black and ill-smelling, and tasting disagreeably of the beet. For two years we have experimented in getting rid of these undesirable qualities. We have not succeeded yet, but our hopes were never higher. This year we have planted more sugar-beets than ever before, and while we are not taking orders for sugar, we expect to obtain some which will be edible, if not marketable.—Selected.