Master strove to do for that of the Hebrews-evolve it into a higher dispensation and reveal what lay concealed in it. Of course, conditions have changed: the buffalo is gone, the reservations are poor. We make it a crime for him to leave his impoundment; we crop his hair; forbid the festivals and dances of his religion. I do not object to some of our industrial arts for him, but I plead for the pious conservation of all that is good and that can be kept or restored of the old tribal life-its traditions, folklore, arts, industries, and above all its free, manly spirit. To let these perish is a crime for which our codes have no penalty and our lexicon no name. It is the slaughter of the soul of the people, in this case probably the noblest of all races living in this stage of development. It is a crime even against the noble science of anthropology which still has so much to learn that is passing away so fast that perhaps the very best of it all is likely to elude us. Can we not somewhere gather the remnant, and if the government will not do it, will not some philanthropic millionaire help to bring together the best weavers, tanners, bow-makers, those expert in lore of the forest and animals, the bards, the flint-chippers, artists, and the rest, and revive at least some of the best there is in tribalism, teaching the Indian to respect his own abilities, or at least to let him teach us his arts before he perishes; or is it too late even for this? Has anyone of them ever been so enamored of the pale face's works and ways as some of us have been of theirs, and if not, why not? Is there no good Indian but one whose soul has been killed under our system? Is the ghost dance in which the living hold holy commune with the clouds of ancestors in the happy hunting-ground still so dangerous that we must everywhere suppress this sacrament? Were the school Indians on the hill at the St. Louis exposition really better men and women than their wilder congeners in the tents below? These are questions to which everyone connected with the Indian Bureau of Schools has a glib and ready answer, which every popular audience will approve, and even some Indians have been well coached in such answers. But there is a large and growing minority of intelligent men and women in this country who read all these reports and who are not satisfied but who want something better, different and more indigenous, and who would ask the Indian bureau why it makes no use of the work of the Bureau of Ethnology, or if the results obtained by the latter have no educational value whether they are really worth the making-what other value have they that justifies the labor and expense of making them? HORTICULTURE AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING R. H. HOFFMANN, FLORIST, CARLISLE INDIAN SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PA. Horticulture and landscape gardening are practically nature-study. The Indian youth are by nature fond of the natural world and its laws, and gifted with a natural love of the beautiful. Consequently they are close observers and students of nature. With proper training we believe that they can become efficient in this particular line of work. In the greenhouse they are eager to compare different species of their native plants and flowers, growing perhaps in wild profusion on prairie and mountain side. In this they manifest more eagerness than most white children which have come under my observation. The teachers of the different departments say it is marvelous what effect is produced by a promise of a visit to the greenhouse. New life and spirit is manifested in the schoolroom after an hour of musing and study with nature. The students of the Carlisle Industrial Indian School with proper training along the line of horticulture, we believe, will make a success of their efforts in this department. They are not afraid to experiment with an idea they have gained in the study of plant life; consequently when they have been shown how in a lecture they are eager to apply their knowledge in a practical way. We believe that much can be accomplished thru this department to elevate the character of the surroundings into which many of these children go when they return to reservation life. In our small greenhouse we have raised about 20,000 bedding plants, geraniums, coleus, cannas, etc. We have also several hotbeds where the children. have been taught to raise cabbage and tomato plants, lettuce, etc. Likewise under the supervision of the agriculturist they have an opportunity to study this work further in the gardening department. Chrysanthemums and carnations are cultivated in large numbers, from which cut flowers are taken to adorn the school and living-rooms and the hospital wards. A number of decorative plants have been raised, palms, and the like, which are artistically arranged by the pupils for public and social functions. Landscape gardening is taught in the beautifying of our extensive school grounds. We have recently graded the lawn around the new hospital, the boys having the opportunity of starting the work: plowing, grading, raking, rolling the lawn, sowing the seed, staking off the driveways and walks, laying out flower beds in designs, planting of shrubbery and shade trees, sodding edges of walks, binding the crushed stone, and in fact everything connected with landscape gardening. Many trees are set out on Arbor Day, a day set apart by state proclamation in Pennsylvania. The boys are taught pruning, trimming, and fertilizing the lawns and flower beds. In springtime the campus is covered with tulips and crocuses. Thus is laid the foundation for beautifying the home and its surroundings. A more practical side of our work for commercial purposes is the nursery which has just been started. We have many fruit trees, California privet hedge, and hardy roses, set in the nursery. Here the Indian youth are taught, along with the aesthetic culture, a useful and profitable side of the work so much needed to give them proper conceptions of true home life. Even weeds are worth the while to study, not only as to how they may be destroyed, but also their uses for the culture of the honey bee, etc. Emerson said; "Succory to match the sky, columbine with horn of honey, scented fern and agrimony, clover, catchfly, adder's-tongue, and brier-roses dwelt among." But our own Whittier put the poetic touch upon some of the common flowers that have grown wild in our country when he sang: Along the roadside, like the flowers of gold That tawny Incas for their gardens wrought, Why should not the practical as well as the beautiful be impressed upon these sons of the forest, who are by nature lovers of the life shown in the natural world? We contend, therefore, that there is no more important department for the education of the native American than that of horticulture. To show the results of this training I quote an extract of a letter received from a boy who, having spent part of a year in the study of horticulture, has had an opportunity to apply his knowledge thru the Outing System. He says: "I have transplanted a bed of strawberries, and other house plants. I have also edged the lawn along the walk and driveways. Have prepared some flower beds, which I will fill with plants later on, thus putting into practice what I have been taught in the department of horticulture at the school. I shall go back again to this department when I return to Carlisle in the fall." With so large a field for useful and efficient service, we commend this study for wider and larger purposes among the young Indians. DEMONSTRATION LESSONS Demonstration lessons were given by teachers in the service, showing how the classroom instruction in the different grades may be correlated with the work on the various industrial departments. Classes of Indian pupils were used in the presentation of these lessons, synopses of which are included in the report of the proceedings for the assistance of teachers who were not present at the institute. TOPIC: SUGAR BEETS PRESENTED WITH A CLASS OF INDIAN PUPILS BY MISS ALICE M. KINGCADE, PRINCIPAL TEACHER, MOUNT PLEASANT INDIAN SCHOOL, MOUNT PLEASANT, MICH. I have selected the beet-sugar industry for my subject because of its importance in our state. With two exceptions all the Indians attending Mount Pleasant School reside in Michigan, where there are twenty-four beet-sugar factories-a greater number than in any other state. Each year the beet growers are learning to produce larger supplies of beets and it is important for the children to acquire in school some knowledge of the industries in which they will engage, after leaving school, as a means of livelihood. Teachers must not think that they must all teach sugar-beet raising; I do so because the subject is of vital importance to my pupils. You must find out in what work the Indians in your locality are interested; it may be cattle or sheep raising, or lumbering, etc. In your classroom exercises help your pupils by giving them information of a practical character respecting the paying industries in which they will most likely engage upon leaving school, that they may work intelligently. We secured literature on beets from the Department of Agriculture and the experiment station at Lansing. These, together with newspaper reports on markets, crops, etc., are used in the class for reading, composition, and arithmetic lessons. The industry includes healthful and industrious habits, and enables the pupils to earn and save money. This is a mixed class of primary- and fourth- and fifth-grade children and the lesson, as I shall give it, is intended to cover the work that may be accomplished from the first to the fifth grade. Teacher.-Angelina and Bertha (primary grade) may go to the board and draw a few beets showing the average size and growth of Michigan beets. Levi may work the problem he finds on the board, while the primary class is reciting. Interesting experiments are made in the garden by the small children. We buy the seed, charging the pupils with them. The children plant the gardens and sell the produce. This work is correlated with arithmetic, reading, writing, and other studies in the classroom. Let us look at Bertha's and Angelina's drawings. Bertha, what can you say about your drawing? This (pointing to the drawing) is not a good beet, it is short and part of it has grown out of the ground. Q.-Angelina, will you tell us about yours? A.-This is a good beet, it has grown deep in the ground. Teacher. Now come and sing us something about beets. (Bertha and Angelina sing a little song entitled "Two Little Sugar Beets.") Teacher.-Nancy may tell us on the board of the beets she raised. Nancy (writes).-I raised 3 rows of sugar beets: I had 7 beets in the first row I had to beets in the second row I had 8 beets in the third row I raised 25 beets in all. I sold these beets to the teachers' club. I put the beets up in bunches of 5 beets to each bunch, so I had five bunches, or 5)25 beets 5 bunches with 5 beets in each bunch. I sold these beets for 10 cents a bunch. If one bunch brings 10 cents, 5 bunches will bring 5X10c, or 50c. I received 50c. for the beets, and I spent 5c. for the seed, so I cleared the difference between what I received and what I spent, or 50c.-5c.=45c., clear profit. Teacher. This subject is interestingly used in the higher grades correlating language, composition and other subjects, as I will now illustrate with fifth-grade pupils. Q.-Frank, tell me why we plant sugar beets, and something of the soil in which they should be sown? A. Some of the reasons for growing sugar beets are: to make money, to establish a paying business and to give employment to many people. The soil for sugar beets should be strong and productive, but not newly cleared land. Beets do not contain as large an amount of sugar when planted on low, damp land, corral or barnyard soil. in such soil are of a low grade for sugar making. Q. When is the best time to plow; and how deep do we plow? Beets grown A. It is best to plow in the fall, because where the ground freezes plowing has a pulverizing effect and makes plant food available. We usually plow ten inches deep in Michigan, and some farmers use a fertilizer. Clover sod is a good fertilizer. After the ground is properly prepared it should contain sufficient moisture and warmth to sprout the seed. It is a good plan for the farmer to have the ground all well prepared in order to seize the first favorable opportunity for planting. Q-Lucille, where do the seeds used in Michigan come from, and how are they planted? A. The kind of seed most used in Michigan comes from Germany. (Lucille here displays some seed.) In planting we use drills for drilling the seed into the ground, and a beet cultivator, which takes two rows at a time, the horse walking between the rows. The average quantity of seed sown is about fifteen pounds to the acre; and to those experienced in sugar-beet growing this is not excessive, but a necessary safeguard because so many things interfere with germination that it is wise to have the plants thick. They also help break the ground if it is dry or crusted, while if there were only a few they could not get thru. In Michigan we plant seed about half an inch deep, or just deep enough to cover them. Q. A. Why has it been necessary to cultivate the soil up to the time of planting? The soil is cultivated up to the time of planting in order to kill the weeds, and to pulverize the soil so that it will cling to the seeds and enable them to extract moisture from it. If the soil is in large clods, air circulates around the seed and deprives it of sufficient moisture to enable it to sprout. Teacher.-Frank may tell us more of the cultivation of the sugar beet. A.-After blocking, which means thinning, we weed the fields. Beets should be cultivated once a week until they are ready to be harvested. They are ready to harvest when the leaves turn yellow. Q.-Levi, how are beets harvested? A.-Beets are first lifted. A specially constructed plow goes just beneath them and cuts the tap root, a man follows, takes a beet in each hand, slaps them together to knock the dirt off, then he throws them in a pile. The leaves are now cut from the beet, and they are usually shipped right away; if not, they are covered with the leaves that they may not lose their moisture. Q. How are beets sold? A.-Beets are sold by the ton and bring from five to six dollars a ton. It is hard work raising beets, but a farmer makes more money at it than raising hay. He usually plants about two acres and raises about fifteen tons to an acre, while he raises only about two or three tons of hay to the acre. If a farmer raises fifteen tons of beets on one acre and sells the crop for $5 per ton he has made $75 per acre, or $150 for his two acres, and has not spent more than $8 or $10 for labor. Q.-Tell us of a good fertilizer for sugar beets; of the influence of the crop upon the roads; and of the crop rotations in Michigan. A.-Nitrate of soda is a good fertilizer for beet-sugar farms. The beet-sugar industry has done more than any one thing toward the good-roads reform. The farmers hauling their grain can wait until the roads are good, but the beets must be delivered when the factory needs them and that is the time of year when the roads usually are bad. After the beets are harvested the fields should be planted in oats, fall wheat, potatoes, or other root crops, or sown in clover or grass. The crop rotations practiced in Michigan are: sugar beets, oats, fall wheat, clover, then back to sugar beets. Teacher. The Indian boys of Mount Pleasant school have made considerable money by working in the sugar beet fields. Q.-Frank, tell us something about how the Mount Pleasant boys spend the money they make in the beet fields. A.-Ward Pego made $10, gave half to his parents, and spent the rest himself. Sam Leo earned $2.50, spent a little, loaned the rest to some boys who never paid him back. Alfred LeBlanc made $7 and gave it all to his mother. Mitchell Mobey earned $13 and spent it on having a good time, going to shows, etc. Christy Price made $15, bought shoes, a shirt, a hat, a necktie, etc. Q. How much are the wages for working in sugar-beet fields in Michigan ? A. per day. The wages for working in sugar-beet fields in Michigan are from $1.50 to $2.50 |