Tree Planting on Rural School Grounds

National Agricultural Library

A great number of schoolhouses in the United States lack the surroundings that make for comfort and contentment. City school grounds are often so small that planting is out of the question, though, where space permits, it is not uncommon to find them carefully laid out, with a good arrangement of grass plots, flower beds, and shade trees. In towns and villages, also, may be pointed out many examples showing great care and attention. In the country, however, an improved school ground is rarely found. In hilly, forest regions they are often denuded of soil and full of stones and stumps, and on the prairie many are well-nigh as bare, bleak, and inhospitable as when they formed a part of the unsettled plain.

This lack of improvement is not due to causes evident at first sight. It is not on account of poverty, for it is almost as common in wealthy as in less prosperous communities. (Figs. 1, 2, and 3.) Ic is not due to lack of appreciation of the elements of beauty, for where homes are surrounded with trees, grass, and flowers the school ground is likely to be entirely neglected. Neither is it due to indifference in educa- tional affairs, for none are more cordial in their support of school systems and institutions of learning than the American people. The cause seems to lie rather in the failure to see the importance of comfort and beauty in education and to realize the interest of the American youth in the natural world around him. Some err so far as to mistrust the willingness of the boys and girls to allow trees and shrubs to grow unmolested on the school ground. This is a flagrant misinterpretation of the spirit of childhood. With a better understanding of youthful nature, one sees an easily awakened regard for things beautiful and a disposition to respect and help all well-directed activities for the improvement of school life.

Hall, William L.

1901

Farmers' Bulletin Number 134