File:American homes and gardens (1912) (17530649484).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar91912newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Feb ruary, 191! AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS IX
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FOR MARCH, THE ANNUAL HORTICULTURAL NUMBER WHEN one sits in his easy chair, drawn up before the cheery blazing fire of the Winter months, he may be dreaming of the delights of Summer and of all that Na- ture's loveliest season now holds in store for him to be dis- closed when the months to come shall clothe the earth in gay raiment of emerald verdure, patterned with countless gorgeous flowers. But if he would assist in making the days to come more joyful in all the happiness the possession of a beautiful garden (even though it may be a tiny one) brings to everyone, he must begin early in the year to busy himself with all the things that concern planting. That is one of the reasons why the March number of American Homes and Gardens, this magazine's annual horticultural number, will devote much of its space to gardening articles. Indeed, no amateur gardener can afford to be without it, for it will serve as a veritable garden primer of the subjects of which it will treat. The opening article will tell the reader all that it is probably necessary for him to know about the flower garden, while the original and very helpful planting table for flowers, as well as the exquisite illustrations that accompany the text, will make this March gardening guide invaluable not only to the amateur, but to the professional gardener as well. Moreover, the article will be of interest to every reader whether or not he is or has been interested in the subject, for it is approached from an unhackneyed point of view in a manner that should make a wide appeal. The Editor of American Homes and Gardens believes that many of the gardening articles appearing from time to time in various publications that assume the task of helping the home-builder are, after all, little more than "dry bones" of compilation dug out of encyclopaedias of horticulture, culled from agricultural bulletins, or government reports, with little reference to their constructive value outside of specialization. Of course, a magazine devoted solely to the subject of gardening may be expected, in the course of its run throughout several years, to have covered its field pretty thoroughly, and for novelty to be depending somewhat upon specialized subjects with a limited interest. However, know- ing that there exists a perennial interest in the planning, planting and care of a garden, the Editor of American Homes and Gardens seeks writers on horticultural sub- jects who are also alive in their interest to the fact that our readers should have, and are having horticultural articles placed before them in the pages of this magazine, designed to have a definite constructive bearing upon the relationship of the garden to the home and home life. American Homes and Gardens does not seek to present mere horti- cultural novelties, compilations or specialized agricultural experiment notes, but instead gives every one of its readers horticultural information that will prove of value to all, and presents it clothed in readable text that is more than mere pen-task. Mr. F. F. Rockwell, an American agri- culturist and horticulturist of recognized authority, will con- tribute an unusually valuable article to the March number on "Planning and Planting the Vegetable Garden," which will be copiously illustrated with reproductions of the finest photographs procurable, and further enhanced in both utility and interest by the accompaniment of one of the best and most practical planting tables ever devised. There will be other gardening articles in the March number, and two architectural articles on two attractive Western houses, to- gether with a description of "A Chalet on the Maine Coast." FARMING AND EDUCATION AT the time of its recent national convention in New _ Orleans, the American Bankers' Association appointed a committee, to be known as the Committee on Agricultural Development and Education, for the purpose of referring to it the matter of looking into the financing of farmers on small tracts of land. This follows the example set by the Minnesota Bankers' Association, appointed some time ago to investigate the subject of agricultural development in Minnesota. It was found by the Minnesota committee that out of the state's 435,000 school children, some 1,800 were taking the agricultural courses offered by the state's various schools and colleges. From these figures, the committee reasoned that 99.6 per cent, of the coming generation were being educated by the state primarily to be consumers, whereas the future producers were represented by only four tenths per cent. With Minnesota's 45,000,000 acres of uncultivated land, against some 19,000 million acres of farm land under cultivation, as has been pointed out in a recent review of the situation by Mr. Joseph Chapman, Jr., chairman of the American Bankers' Association committee, it would seem that there must be some definite connection between the educational problem and the agricultural problem, suggesting the necessity of bringing about a re- construction of our present school system to meet the neces- sity of fitting our children for meeting the more practical problems of life, that must be faced by an earlier training for pursuits, trades or professions that will enable them to earn their own livelihood. This is a matter which the Editor of American Homes and Gardens believes to be one of the most important questions of the day. We have been prone to admit everything from bead-stringing to basketry into the curriculum of our schools, but we have paid very little attention either to discovering the natural bent of the child in school or of developing it in accordance with natural interests. The old-time apprenticeship system, fraught with hardships and rigors our civilization could not tolerate to-day, still offers to us much in the way of valuable suggestion that our educators could well afford to study, inasmuch as the seriousness of our present drifting away from the responsibility of beginning early enough in the child's life to help him to help himself in the matter of choosing the vocation that shall make his future a happy one is definite enough to call for some decided reaction against its pernicious tendencies. Of course, the Editor does not mean that we must return- solely to the three R's, nor does he ignore the value of the manual training and like courses in our schools, but he does believe that we waste an enormous amount of time over pedagogic foolishness, to the detriment of our national advance, and he wishes that for every library donated to a municipality there would stand someone ready to follow it—or, better still, precede it— with a trade, technical, agricultural or vocational school.

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