THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF REVIEWS.

sharpened stakes which were

to be used in marking off

the little patches of ground.

Over in the institute’s de-

partment of agricultural sci-

ence I found Professor Good-

rich—a man deeply versed in

the chemistry of soils and all

the methods of the acricul-

tural experimentalist—giv-

ing a part of his time on a

holiday to the kindly task

of working out on paper the

planting scheme for the

Whittier children’s gardens,

in order that the best prac-

tical and educational results

might be obtained.

A large part of the secret

A CLASS IN AMERICAN HISTORY.

of the future unlocking of the

South’s vast possibilities of

rying on the various branches of work, to-

wealth and culture and happiness lies in the thor-

gether with the wives and children of some of

ough and contented acceptance of agriculture by

the corps. The general population estimate as

the colored race. Generally speaking, the young

given above does not include the 500 or 600

colored people of the South associate farm and

colored children enrolled in the Whittier School.

plantation life with the most repellent drudgery.

These come from the humble homes of the sur-

And so they look instinctively toward the gre-

rounding neighborhood, and are taught by the

garious life of towns, with the accompaniment of

most approved methods and the most kindly and

the good clothes and the luxuries that do not go

accomplished body of teachers, who carry them

with the old tumble-down cabin of the farming

from the kindergarten through successive grades,

life that they have known. Nevertheless farm-

all on a plan of object-teaching that never for

ing must go on in the South, and the negro race

one minute loses sight of the general condi-

must continue to do the bulk of the farm work.

tions under which these children have been

The negro’s best chance for the advancement of

born and the range of social and industrial

his personal fortunes now lies in the purchase and

possibilities that the future has in store for them.

cultivation of a piece of land. A large part of

There are small school

children in thrifty Northern

communities who do not

greatly need to be taught in

the schools to save their pen-

nies. But no lesson is more

needed among the negroes of

the South ; and the children

of the Whittier School are

bank depositors in connection

with the Penny Provident

Fund system of New York.

In the present month of

April every one of them will

spend a part of the school

day out of doors working in

a little garden plot. Mean-

while, as a part of the shop

work I found last month that

these tiny children, girls as

well as boys, had been en-

gaged in fashioning the

THE HARNESS SHOP.

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