Abstract
ELEMENTARY education is indebted to Mr. Lay for a number of school books on various subjects intended to train children to do more and think more for themselves. Were school gardening made a subject of scientific study as well as of manual instruction, it would teach children to think as well as to work. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and, even in the counties where most is done to encourage observation and experiment, many gardening-teachers find it difficult to get away from rule of thumb. If only to help such, Mr. Lay's book is to be welcomed. Intended for class reading to accompany outdoor work, it not only describes the operations, crops, insect pests, etc., of the garden, but also puts, in an interesting-way, the problems that have to be faced, and leads the children to make simple experiments through the results of which many of the problems can be tackled intelligently. As a class reader it is the most useful gardening book that has yet appeared in this country, and its use should greatly enhance the value of school gardening as a means of real education. It comes at an opportune time, for in connection with the food production campaign school gardens are being multiplied, so that a host of new teachers will be grateful for its guidance.
The Vegetable Garden.
By Ed. J. S. Lay. (The Pupils' Class-book Series.) Pp. 144. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 1s. 6d.
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The Vegetable Garden. Nature 100, 463 (1918). https://doi.org/10.1038/100463b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/100463b0