Kitchen Garden Association
The growth of the association work was based on the development of an idea, the "kitchen-garden", by Emily Huntington, who published a book on the subject in 1878.
[3] The first kitchen-garden was the invention, or discovery, of Emily Huntington, who came to take charge of a mission school for girls on the East Side of New York.
Developing this idea into a complete system of progressive training lessons, using songs and employments in the use of all kinds of small copies of the implements and utensils used in housekeeping, Huntington began her classes in 1877.
[2] In January 1880, a number of women in New York City interested in the kitchen-garden system united in the formation of the Kitchen Garden Association.
[4] Huntington established and continued Normal Classes to train young women who wanted to teach children in kitchen-garden.
[2] The association was convinced of the value of the application, and in its first annual report, made in May 1881, was able to state that during the year, the principles of the kitchen-garden had been applied in 29 classes, comprising 999 children in New York City and vicinity alone.
Many other cities followed New York's example, and similar classes were reported as existing in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Boston, Albany, Troy, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Wilkes-Barre, Meadeville, Newark, Poughkeepsie, Elmira, and Newport.
In thus insisting on professional training for teachers, the association, in the earliest days of its history, placed itself upon an educational plane and made its future successful development possible.
[1] The Second Annual Report, dated May 1, 1882, added, as a motto, on the title page of this Bible text: "She looketh well to the ways of her household".
[1] An outgrowth of the kitchen-garden was the adapting of its principles by Mrs. Briant (a graduate of the Normal Class) to a system for instructing young boys in the elements of agricultural pursuits.
They were taught, by using a large box of earth to work in, and using miniature plows, harrows, rakes, and hoes, the processes of preparing the ground, sowing the seed, caring for it, gathering in the crops, taking the corn or wheat to the mill, grinding it, and finally leaving it in the kitchen for the women to turn into bread.
It operated at the Children's Aid Society Industrial School, 208 West Eighteenth Street, New York City.
At Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in a building being built to be devoted to industrial training, there was to be a large room given up exclusively to kitchen-garden.
The Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Ladies' Sanitary Association of London gave four pages of description of the system.
It is proposed to make this change because, first, the title "Kitchen-garden association" is too limited in its scope; second, experience has proved that a more advanced work in addition is essential; third, it is desirable that industrial training for schools in general, for older pupils, and for boys, be added to the present work; fourth, other systems having been developed, it seems advisable to incorporate them with our own.
[1] Arrangements were early made with the educational publishers J. W. Schermerhorn & Co. for supplying the material –furniture, dishes, and implements in sizes suitable for the use of children– needed for this novel instruction.
This Second Annual Report closed with the announcement of the forthcoming issue by Ivison, Blakeman & Co. of a new volume on "Household Economy", for use in both public and private schools.
[2] In addition to Household Economy, a Manual for Schools, a second handbook, Advanced Lessons and Songs, was published and used by kitchen-garden teachers.
