The Colorado Statesman

School Garden Work Wins.

Of the numerous activities of the federal bureau of education the school garden work is proving most popular.

School supervised gardens could be found during the last summer in nearly every city, town and village in the United States and its across-ocean possessions. While the tangible results of the work of the millions of children enlisted in the U. S. S. G. A. in the United States, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippine islands are of great magnitude, yet the intangible results are infinitely greater.

Secretary of the Interior Lane said the other day:

"As a matter of fact, the United States school garden army of the bureau of education, department of the interior, has been raising citizens in school-supervised gardens."

It is estimated this year that the more than 2,500,000 children produced approximately $48,000,000 worth of vegetables and small fruits. These food products will be consumed where produced, without loss in handling or cost of transportation. In several cities in these states last year the average produced was more than $50 per child enrolled in the U. S. S. G. A.

Possibly the biggest, and certainly the most outstanding feature of the work of the school garden army is the spirit of national co-operation that it has developed. Governors of states who differ widely in political beliefs; parochial, private and public school officials; chamber of commerce and labor organizations; the General Federation of Woman's Clubs, and the National council of Women have united in working for the development of the child through the medium of school gardens and school-supervised home gardens, organized on the plan of the United States school garden army.

Helps Reduce H. C. of L.

School-directed home gardening, as promoted by the United States school garden army of the national bureau of education, is having a decided influence in reducing the high cost of living in many city homes in southern Virginia, the Piedmont section of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Three years ago one of the specialists in the bureau of education was stationed in this territory to direct the garden activities of the public school children of the upper grammar school grades.

Local boards of education in Lynchburg and Danville, Va.; Greensboro, Durham, Raleigh, Salisbury and other towns in North Carolina, and Chattanooga and Morristown, Tenn., employed garden teachers to work after school, on Saturdays and during the summer vacations. These teachers enrolled school children in regular classes, and the production of vegetables in back yards and vacant lots was begun. During the three years that the work has been in progress there has been marked increase in the enrollment and the value of the products of children's home gardens.

The actual expense of garden work to the children, which includes seeds, tools, fertilizer—in short everything but pay for the work of the children—totals $10,233.45. For an expenditure on the part of school boards and the homes of $16,983.55 a total of $208,930.53 was received.