In 1872, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society offered prizes to children of the city for window gardens. Plants were distributed by those charitably disposed and by the churches, and the good work has gone on ever since. The illustrations on our cover and on page 20, are sketches of actual scenes by D. Lothrop & Co., of Boston, publishers of Wide Awake, showing the children coming to the exhibition with their prize plants.

The committee's report says : " The first year, prizes were awarded to over one hundred children. * * * It is a most beautiful sight to see the children come trooping into the hall with their little arms firmly clasping the prize plants, and testimony from the home shows that all the inmates come to claim a sort of ownership in the reward."