Chapter 4

THE CHIEF'S GARDEN TALKS

I

THE SOIL

The following winter The Chief gave Friday afternoon talks to his boys and girls. These meetings did not in any way interfere with the boys' regular Saturday evening club.

Immediately after school each Friday afternoon they all trooped round to The Chief's little house, which had become a centre of village interest. Finally the men came too, for they had found out that this man knew of what he spoke.

But we are wandering away from those Friday afternoons.

There was the strangest collection of stools and benches in The Chief's side entry, all belonging to the boys and girls. "You must each one bring your own seat, because you all know that I haven't chairs enough to go around." And this called forth the collection.

It was an odd sight that first Friday in early November. A long straggly line of boys and girls, each one with a seat of some kind, wound its way up to The Chief's hospitable door, where he stood waiting, laughing aloud at the sight. In they came, and made a semi-circle about the big fireplace.

"I just love this room," said Albert, voicing the feelings of them all.

"I have thought," began The Chief, "that since our really successful first year of gardening, we ought to be in a position to undertake and to desire to know more about certain subjects which I shall discuss. Each Friday I am going to take up a topic such as I should if I were teaching you in school."

"You do not mean that we'll have to remember and answer questions just like school? You surely do not mean that, Big Chief," broke in Albert.

"No," replied the man laughing, "no, you may forget it all if you like. Remember it, if it seems to you useful. But if it's a strain on you, Albert, make it your business to forget."

They all laughed at this, but none so heartily as Albert himself. "That's one on this old head of mine," he said, banging that member up against the side of the chimney.

"My first talk I have given you in part, but I have more I wish to add. I believe even Albert can stand it. The subject is the soil.

"Soil primarily had its beginning from rock together with animal and vegetable decay, if you can imagine long stretches or periods of time when great rock masses were crumbling and breaking up. Heat, water action, and friction were largely responsible for this. By friction here is meant the rubbing and grinding of rock mass against rock mass. Think of the huge rocks, a perfect chaos of them, bumping, scraping, settling against one another. What would be the result? Well, I am sure you all could work that out. This is what happened: bits of rock were worn off, a great deal of heat was produced, pieces of rock were pressed together to form new rock masses, some portions becoming dissolved in water. Why, I myself, almost feel the stress and strain of it all. Can you?

"Then, too, there were great changes in temperature. First everything was heated to a high temperature, then gradually became cool. Just think of the cracking, the crumbling, the upheavals, that such changes must have caused! You know some of the effects in winter of sudden freezes and thaws. But the little examples of bursting water pipes and broken pitchers are as nothing to what was happening in the world during those days. The water and the gases in the atmosphere helped along this crumbling work.

"From all this action of rubbing, which action we call mechanical, it is easy enough to understand how sand was formed. This represents one of the great divisions of soil--sandy soil. The sea shores are great masses of pure sand. If soil were nothing but broken rock masses then indeed it would be very poor and unproductive. But the early forms of animal and vegetable life decaying became a part of the rock mass and a better soil resulted. So the soils we speak of as sandy soils have mixed with the sand other matter, sometimes clay, sometimes vegetable matter or humus, and often animal waste.

"Clay brings us right to another class of soils--clayey soils. It happens that certain portions of rock masses became dissolved when water trickled over them and heat was plenty and abundant. This dissolution took place largely because there is in the air a certain gas called carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas. This gas attacks and changes certain substances in rocks. Sometimes you see great rocks with portions sticking up looking as if they had been eaten away. Carbonic acid did this. It changed this eaten part into something else which we call clay. A change like this is not mechanical but chemical. The difference in the two kinds of change is just this: in the one case of sand, where a mechanical change went on, you still have just what you started with, save that the size of the mass is smaller. You started with a big rock, and ended with little particles of sand. But you had no different kind of rock in the end. Mechanical action might be illustrated with a piece of lump sugar. Let the sugar represent a big mass of rock. Break up the sugar, and even the smallest bit is sugar. It is just so with the rock mass; but in the case of a chemical change you start with one thing and end with another. You started with a big mass of rock which had in it a portion that became changed by the acid acting on it. It ended in being an entirely different thing which we call clay. So in the case of chemical change a certain something is started with and in the end we have an entirely different thing. The clay soils are often called mud soils because of the amount of water used in their formation. The slate that Myron brought for road making belongs to the clay family, and so does shale.

"The third sort of soil which we farm people have to deal with is lime soil. Remember we are thinking of soils from the farm point of view. This soil of course ordinarily was formed from limestone. Just as soon as one thing is mentioned about which we know nothing, another comes up of which we are just as ignorant. And so a whole chain of questions follows. Now you are probably saying within yourselves, how was limestone first formed?

"At one time ages ago the lower animal and plant forms picked from the water particles of lime. With the lime they formed skeletons or houses about themselves as protection from larger animals. Coral is representative of this class of skeleton-forming animal.

"As the animal died the skeleton remained. Great masses of this living matter pressed all together, after ages, formed limestone. Some limestones are still in such shape that the shelly formation is still visible. Marble, another limestone, is somewhat crystalline in character. Another well-known limestone is chalk. Perhaps you'd like to know a way of always being able to tell limestone. I'll drop a little of this acid on some lime. See how it bubbles and fizzles. Now Albert will drop some on this chalk and on the marble, too. The same bubbling takes place. So lime must be in these three structures. One does not have to buy a special acid for this work, for even the household acids like vinegar will cause the same result. Albert will prove this to you.

"Then these are the three types of soil with which the farmer has to deal, and which we wish to understand. For one may learn to know his garden soil by studying it, just as one learns a lesson by study.

"I believe the boys from their last winter's work feel fairly familiar with soils, I have in these three tumblers the three types of soil. As I pour water on them just see what happens. Observe how little water it takes to saturate sand. The limy soil holds more water and the clayey an amazing quantity.

"I do not know whether you are much acquainted with the sea shore, I doubt it."

"I am," broke in Katharine, "for each summer, except this last one, I have spent a month at the beach."

"Then possibly you can tell us, Katharine, whether, or not, the sand takes in, or absorbs, much heat during the day."

"Indeed it does absorb heat; why some days we used to go barefooted on the beach right after dinner. I can tell you there were times when we couldn't stand the heat of the sand."

"That is quite true," continued The Chief, "sand absorbs heat to a remarkable degree. This heat is, to be sure, in the upper layers of the sand. Had Katharine burrowed down with her toes below those upper layers she would have found moist, cool sands. But an upper layer of soil, made up of particles which fall apart easily because of the loose make-up, a layer which has absorbed little water and much heat--well, to me that sort of soil doesn't sound quite right for good gardening. Add to such a soil, humus in the shape of stable manure in large quantities and this same poor soil becomes very good.

"Now here is the lime soil tumbler. This soil has taken up rather more water than the sand took. But it, too, surely needs to develop greater power to take in and hold water. So the same sort of medicine which we gave the sandy soil may be dealt out to the lime soil. Lime is a pretty good substance to have in soil. Lime is a kind of fertilizer in itself; it's a soil sweetener; it helps to put plant food in shape for use, and causes desirable bacteria to grow. This sounds a bit staggering but all of these things I am going to talk over with you. So just at present forget it, Albert, if it is a heavy burden.

"The clay soil, you observe, has taken in quite a quantity of water. That seems like a good thing. It is. But clay has a mean little habit of squeezing tightly its particles together with the aid of water so that air is excluded from the mass. It forms huge lumps; it bakes out and cracks badly; and it is also very damp, cold and soggy in early spring.

"As the problem with sand is to add something so that more water may be held in the soil, so the problem with clay is to overcome that bothersome habit of baking and caking and cracking. To do this we might add sand or ashes. But perhaps it would be better yet to add manure with a lot of straw in it. This is the easiest kind of thing for country boys and girls to get, because the bedding swept out of horses' stalls is just the thing.

"When I speak of clay's horrid habit of tight squeezing, I always have to stop and talk about the two great needs of all soils. One is the need for water; the other, for air. A soil cannot exist without these two things any more than we can. Without these, or poorly supplied with them, a soil is as if it were half-starved.

"That trouble always comes from a lack of one or the other is quite sufficient to prove to us that these are essential. Just see how sand lacks water, as does lime soil too! But there is plenty of air space, unless these soils are too finely powdered. Now look at clay! plenty of water, but how about the air? When clay begins its packing, then air is excluded.

"So one of the questions to be asked in soil improvement concerns the water and air problem. We must have air spaces, and we must have water-holding capacity.

"Before we go home I must just speak of soil and subsoil. When you strike your spade down into the earth and lay bare a section of the soil this is what you see: on top is the plant growth, the soil beneath this, dark in texture and about our locality of a depth of from six to eight inches. This layer is called the topsoil. In sections of the West it is several feet in depth. Now below the topsoil is a lighter coloured, less fertile, more rocky layer, the subsoil. Beneath comes a layer of rock.

"And finally you may be a bit confused by the word loam. It is often given as one of the classes of soils. By loam we mean clay, sand and humus. You will often hear people speaking of a sandy loam or a clayey loam according as there is a greater percentage of sand or clay in the soil.

"Next Friday I shall talk about soil fertility. So trot home lively now!"

II

PLANT FOOD

A soil, as I have said before to the boys, may contain all the food necessary for plant growth and still not support any good growth at all. That means then we ought to be able in some way or other so to understand the soil that it will be possible to unlock these good things for the plants to live on.

"I see a question in Josephine's and Miriam's faces. I guess that this question is concerning what the plant food is in soils. That is right, is it not?

"Well, I'll take that up first, then;--different ways of improving and increasing the goodness of the soil.

"The foods that are necessary and essential to plants and most likely to be lacking in the soil are nitrogen, potash and phosphorus. Now by no means must you think that these are the only chemicals which are foods, for there are something like thirteen, all of which do a share in the food supply. Oxygen and carbon are very necessary indeed. Oxygen is both in the air and in water. Carbon plants take entirely from the air. I might go on and tell you of iron, of sulphur, of silicon and all the others. But you would only get confused, so I am going to make you acquainted with these three entirely necessary ones. They are capricious; often missing, and when not missing hard to make into available food for plants.

"The soil contains many bacteria, small living organisms. These may be divided into two classes, the good ones and the bad ones. The good ones acting on nitrogenous matter put it in shape for the plant to absorb or feed upon. You see nitrogen may be in soil in quantities sufficient for nourishment. But unless it is in a compound available for use, it is of no value to the plant. Then there are the bad bacteria which act upon nitrogen in such a way as to form compounds which escape from the soil as a gas. That is pretty bad, is it not?

"How can the good bacteria be encouraged to grow, and the bad ones prevented from forming? The necessary conditions for the growth of good bacteria are air, water, darkness, humus matter and freedom from acid condition of the soil. If the soil is acid then these other 'chaps' set up their work; so we must see to it that our soils are well cultivated, well aired, have plenty of manure, and, if acid, have a liming, so that these bacteria missionaries can start their good work.

"The manure I spoke of above is the great source of nitrogen upon which most plants depend. There is nitrogen sufficient right in the air, but that again is not available. Certain plants like beans, peas and clovers belonging to the family of legumes are a great deal more fortunate than the rest of the plant families, for, under favourable conditions, they develop bacteria which make it possible to take into themselves free nitrogen. Just look here! See this narrow box; I can drop down one side of it. Here is a sheet of glass put on so you may look at the roots of the beans which are planted close to this glass side. Just observe the great extent of root system. Now see on the roots these white lumps, or nodules as they are called. These contain nitrogen-gathering bacteria. Some farmers in order to get more available nitrogen in the soil plant a crop of some legume. Then these root masses with their treasures on them are spaded into the soil.

"But most plants depend for nitrogen on manure. Whenever you see sickly looking foliage know that nitrogen is lacking, and supply manure in order to obtain it.

"The next element is potash. Its most common source of supply is wood ashes, not coal ashes. One may buy potash in the form of the muriate or sulphate. I told the boys before that potash was good for seed and fruit. Pretty necessary to have in the soil, is it not? Stunted fruit and poor seed mean lack of potash. Phosphorus helps in this work too, and also assists in the forming of fine flowers. Bone ash and phosphates are the sources of this food element.

"So if we just consider the classes of soils with which we have to deal, remember the foods that must be had, and the effects on plants where one (or all) of these is lacking, we have in our hands a help to soil troubles.

"Take sandy soil--what is its greatest need? I should say humus. It certainly should have more nitrogen. So add humus in the form of manure. Spread it on your piece of garden plot anywhere from two to six inches deep. This spaded in will, I think, do the work. You see sand allows water to trickle away too fast. Water must be held properly in the soil.

"The clay soil really needs air. The good bacteria will not work without this. So spade the soil up in the fall, and leave it weathering in huge lumps. Sand or ashes added in the spring helps the air question too. A sprinkling of lime over the surface tends to sweeten the entire soil; for clay soil, so often too wet, is liable to get sour. Lime also adds another plant food called calcium. It would not be bad to add some humus in order to have an even greater supply of nitrogen.

"The lime soil, light and sweet, needs humus too. It should have this to add body and ability to hold water.

"Sometimes it is well to add in the spring a sprinkling of phosphates; that is a chemical fertilizer. Chemical fertilizers are like tonics to the soil.

"All this very briefly puts us in touch with plant foods. I think you all know from your school work that plants take their foods in liquid form. These solutions of foods are very, very weak. That is another reason why we should see that, if possible, there is plenty of nourishment available in the soil, and plenty of water too.

"These bean roots and rootlets show the feeding area or places of plants. Notice the small roots which apparently have a fringe on them. These fringes we call the root hairs. These absorb, soak up the dilute food which is in the soil.

"It is very wonderful what power they have of penetrating the soil. See the bit of blotter I have put down the path of one bean's root course. It would seem to shut the rootlets entirely off from the soil.

"Jay will gently press the bit of blotter away from the soil. See here and there how these root hairs have wound their way through the blotter to the soil, their feeding place. It is well that plants have this power of seeking and finding food. Because it greatly increases their food chances.

"So much very briefly for plant food. I have not told you very much to be sure, but it is quite enough, I think, for a 'starter,' I wish to tell you a bit about the plant itself soon. A few experiments may liven up the subject. So I shall ask Josephine, Miriam, and Ethel to attend to those for us. We can take turns at demonstrating as Jay and Albert have to-day. So you girls must remember to drop in to see me--say, Wednesday of next week."

III

SEEDS

Now before we begin just have a look at these geraniums. They have turned entirely around again and are looking out of the window at the sun. The power which plants have to move is very clearly shown, is it not? I am going to talk a little this afternoon about seeds.

"Any reliable seed house can be depended upon for good seeds; but even so, there is a great risk in seeds. A seed may to all appearances be all right and yet not have within it vitality enough, or power, to produce a hardy plant.

"If you save seed from your own plants you are able to choose carefully. Suppose you are saving seed of aster plants. What blossoms shall you decide upon? Now it is not the blossom only which you must consider, but the entire plant. Why? Because a weak, straggly plant may produce one fine blossom. Looking at that one blossom so really beautiful you think of the numberless equally lovely plants you are going to have from the seeds. But just as likely as not the seeds will produce plants like the parent plant.

"So in seed selection the entire plant is to be considered. Is it sturdy, strong, well shaped and symmetrical; does it have a goodly number of fine blossoms? These are questions to ask in seed selection.

"If you boys and girls should happen to have the opportunity to visit a seedsman's garden, you will see here and there a blossom with a string tied around it. These are blossoms chosen for seed. If you look at the whole plant with care you will be able to see the points which the gardener held in mind when he did his work of selection.

"Last winter we had quite a discussion on corn seed selection. So we will not discuss that further. Only let me say this for the benefit of the girls in order to show them the care which must be exercised in selection. Should a finely formed ear of corn have one or two black kernels on it, then that shows a cross or taint, do not use such an ear for the old trouble may crop out. Take an ear of seed corn, notice the small and rather undersized kernels at the top; do not use these. Select kernels, the largest, plumpest and best shaped.

"In seed selection size is another point to hold in mind. Suppose Peter had bought a package of bean seed. Pull the little envelope out of your pocket, young man, and open it up. Just look at those seeds as Peter spreads them out here. Now we know no way of telling anything about the plants from which this special collection of seeds came. So we must give our entire thought to the seeds themselves. It is quite evident that there is some choice; some are much larger than the others; some far plumper, too. By all means choose the largest and fullest seed. The reason is this: When you break open a bean--and this is very evident, too, in the peanut--you see what appears to be a little plant. So it is. Under just the right conditions for development this 'little chap' grows into the bean plant you know so well.

"This little plant must depend for its early growth on the nourishment stored up in the two halves of the bean seed. For this purpose the food is stored. Beans are not full of food and goodness for you and me to eat, but for the little baby bean plant to feed upon. And so if we choose a large seed, we have chosen a greater amount of food for the plantlet. This little plantlet feeds upon this stored food until its roots are prepared to do their work. So if the seed is small and thin, the first food supply insufficient, there is a possibility of losing the little plant.

"You may care to know the name of this pantry of food. It is called a cotyledon if there is but one portion, cotyledons if two. Thus we are aided in the classification of plants. A few plants that bear cones like the pines have several cotyledons. But most plants have either one or two cotyledons.

"Some plantlets, as they develop and start to push above the ground, bear along the cotyledon. This is true in the case of the bean. Jack and Peter have planted corn and beans in this box, not to have succotash but to show you about the habits of seeds. See the bean plantlet, big, sturdy, fellow, is still clinging to its seed leaves or cotyledons, its baby nourishment. Now look at the corn: there is absolutely no sign above ground of its one seed leaf.

"So from large seeds come the strongest plantlets. That is the reason why it is better and safer to choose the large seed. It is the same case exactly as that of weak children. Look at Myron, great strapping fellow! Hasn't he a fine chance in the world? Do you remember that little sickly boy who was in school last spring? He was as old as Myron, yet see how handicapped he is. Try not to bring weak little plantlets into the plant world. Bring strong, sturdy, healthy ones by careful seed selection.

"There is often another trouble in seeds that we buy. The trouble is impurity. Seeds are sometimes mixed with other seeds so like them in appearance that it is impossible to detect the fraud. Pretty poor business, is it not? The seeds may be unclean. Bits of foreign matter in with large seed are very easy to discover. One can merely pick the seed over and make it clean. By clean is meant freedom from foreign matter. But if small seed are unclean, it is very difficult, well nigh impossible, to make them clean.

"The third thing to look out for in seed is viability. We know from our testings that seeds which look to the eye to be all right may not develop at all. There are reasons. Seeds may have been picked before they were ripe or mature; they may have been frozen; and they may be too old. Seeds retain their viability or germ developing power, a given number of years and are then useless. There is a viability limit in years which differs for different seeds. This matter, along with directions for testing, the girls may get from our club secretary, Albert. All of this we took up last year in our preliminary garden work before we started outdoor work.

"From the test of seeds we find out the germination percentage of seeds. Now if this percentage is low, don't waste time planting such seed unless it be small seed. Immediately you question that statement. Why does the size of the seed make a difference? This is the reason. When small seed is planted it is usually sown in drills. Most amateurs sprinkle the seed in very thickly. So a great quantity of seed is planted. And enough seed germinates and comes up from such close planting. So quantity makes up for quality.

"But take the case of large seed, like corn for example. Corn is planted just so far apart and a few seeds in a place. With such a method of planting the matter of per cent, of germination is most important indeed.

"Small seeds that germinate at fifty per cent. may be used but this is too low a per cent. for the large seed. Suppose we test beans. The percentage is seventy. That per cent. would pass you in school, but it does not pass muster here. For if such low-vitality seeds were planted, we could not be absolutely certain of the seventy per cent. coming up. But if the seeds are lettuce go ahead with the planting. Peter will pass around these germinating per cent. tables which he has printed for you. I'd advise you to paste these in your garden diaries. After a test refer to this table which is from a United States Agricultural Dept. list for seeds not over one year old. You then know at once whether the seed is worth using.

-------------------------------------------------------- PER CENT. OF GERMINATION -------------------------------------------------------- Beans 90 | Leek 80 | Pumpkin 87 Cabbage 90 | Lettuce 85 | Radish 90 Carrots 80 | Muskmelon 87 | Spinach 84 Cauliflower 80 | Okra 80 | Squash 87 Celery 60 | Onion 80 | Tomatoes 85 Corn 87 | Parsley 70 | Turnips 90 Cucumber 87 | Peas 93 | Watermelon 87 Eggplant 80 | Peppers 80 | --------------------------------------------------------

"After being sure of good seed the next step to consider is when to plant the seed. It is well to start certain seed inside and so get a bit ahead of the season. Other seed may as well wait, and be planted out in the open when the ground is warm.

"Such vegetable seed as the following may be started inside.

-------------------------------------------- INDOOR PLANTING TIME-TABLE -------------------------------------------- FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL -------------------------------------------- Artichoke | | Cabbage | | Celery | Cucumber | Egg plant | Egg plant | Lettuce | Lettuce | Muskmelon Onion | Pepper | Radish | Radish | Tomato | | Tomato --------------------------------------------

"Flower seeds I will take up later because I wish to think over the flower garden by itself.

"When shall we plant seeds outdoors? Now no one under the sun can say plant such and such a seed on May 30th or April 1st. It is the same absurd case as saying change your winter clothes for summer ones on May 1st. Many writers will cover this subject by saying plant seeds when the earth is warm. But even that is a pretty general sort of direction.

"Nature has given us a planting guide. She tacks her notice on the fruit trees. When those early blooming trees, the peach and the plum, put out their beautiful blossoms the first planting time is on. To be sure the temperature then is a bit low, only about 45 degrees, so the planting is not of the more tender vegetables. Get your seed of beet, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, endive, kale, lettuce, parsley, parsnip, onion, pea, radish, turnip and spinach. These may all be planted.

"The next signal to watch for is given by the blooming of the apple trees. This is the planting time for the more tender seed. These need a temperature of about 60 degrees in the shade, real apple-blooming time. Corn, beans, egg plant, melon, squash, cucumber, pumpkin, tomato and pepper seeds may be planted.

"But when is the time to put out the hotbed, or indoor-started seedlings? When the apple blossoms drop their petals and have passed by is the signal for them to go into the ground. Of course, they naturally would be the last, for they are made very tender from their glass-grown coddling.

"When it comes to the planting of seed there are certain things to remember always. First the ground should be made very fine. This is an easy matter if the planting is done in the hotbed, but more of a problem in the outdoor garden. It is foolish to plant at all if one does not intend to do things right. So work over the seed bed thoroughly. After all is fine and deeply worked, say to about a foot deep, the next thing to consider is this--how deep should a seed be planted?

"The depth depends upon the size of the seed. Take such small seed as poppy, parsley, even lettuce, and these may be just sprinkled on the surface of the ground. Then tread them in with the foot or place a board over them and walk on the board. In this way the small seed are pressed into the soil quite sufficiently.

"For seeds in general the following might answer for a rule: There are seeds like corn, oats, wheat and the grasses which come up unhampered by their seed leaves. Such seed may be planted deeply--say ten times the thickness of the seed. Other seed like beans, squash, radish, etc., push and carry their seed leaves up through the soil with them. So these, because of this extra work, should be planted nearer the surface. Four or five times the thickness of the seed is a safe rule to follow.

"When the seed becomes entirely or nearly saturated with water then germination begins. Sometimes people soak their corn in tepid water before planting. This hastens germination. But on the other hand if the soil is very wet and cold the soaked seeds may rot in so much moisture. Certain seeds have very thick coverings. Canna, date and nut seeds are examples. Their cases are so hard and absorb moisture so slowly that germination is a long process. To hasten this little holes may be drilled in the case, thus giving the plant germ a chance to get out. Nurserymen crack the nuts in order to help matters along. You can readily see what a really difficult piece of work it is for a tiny embryo or baby plant to break open a thick case.

"If seeds are planted too deeply again, a tremendous piece of work is imposed upon the little plant. To push up through, say one inch of soil, would be quite a task for a lettuce seedling.

"Finally in seed planting, the soil must be safely compacted or pressed about the seed. The object of this is to bring in contact with all parts of the seed soil particles with their films of water. Suppose a radish seed is planted and no soil happens to come in direct contact with the seed. That distance, so slight to us, is a well-nigh impossible one for the rootlets to extend to.

"There is a possibility of course, of too close compacting. This occurs when the soil is very wet. Do not compact at all then. In fact, such soil condition represents a very bad time for planting, anyway. Moisture is necessary for germination, but superabundance of water is fatal. It is simply ideal when after a planting a gentle rain comes--germination.

"I remember once seeing a garden which school children had planted so close to the surface that after a rain most of the seeds were lying all sprouted on the surface of the soil. Take care not to plant in such a manner.

"This talk has been largely for the purpose of bringing to your minds certain necessary points. Let me sum them up: Cheap seed are expensive because they are often full of impurities and lack vital power. Buy good seed and test _them_. Plant large seed, because the storage of food is greater. Make the soil conditions right in order to give every help to the seed. Plant neither too deep, nor too near the surface. Compact the soil, and so aid germination. The first start of work must be right; otherwise, trouble comes."

IV

THE PLANT ITSELF

"To think of a plant as a breathing, growing thing is wonderful, but it is far more wonderful to think of it as something possible for even boys and girls to train and improve. Here is a bed of petunias, let us say; do you know just how it is possible to have larger, finer petunias next year?

"A slight operation performed, and behold magic has been worked!

"First, we will go over the life history of a plant, and then I'll tell you of this magic and how to work it. Or better yet my assistants here, Josephine, Miriam and Ethel, will do the trick.

"A plant really goes through much the same operations in life as does an animal. Only to be sure, these operations are performed in a rather different way. A plant has a digestive, or feeding, system, a breathing apparatus, the power to rid itself of waste and to make seed; it moves, and it grows, too. Philip looked a bit skeptical when I said it moves. Well, it does. Of course, a plant does not walk about, and move from spot to spot. But a plant can and does move. Why it can turn itself around back to, even. Just look at my geranium slips there! they seem to be breaking their backs to peep out of the window and look at their best friend, the sun. Turn all of them around, George. See, they face us now! remember to look at them next Friday.

"But to start over again. A plant has just three necessary and important parts: these parts are the roots, stem, and leaves. No, Elizabeth, the fruit and flowers are not separate parts. Why? Well, merely because by some queer provision of the plant world, the leaves are responsible for making or forming both the flower and the fruit. If you watch a bud form and unfold, you will notice that the entire little bud seems to be a series of leaves. And if your fingers were clever enough you could take tiny leaves and fold them into the parts which go to make up the flower and the fruit. This last, like most of the rest of that I am telling you, is just one of the miracles of nature.

"The root, rootlets and root hairs all go to make up the root-system of a plant. This system is a feeding and food storage system; cold storage, we might call it.

"I have spoken before about how the root hairs absorb food. Food is soaked up something as a blotter soaks up ink. Underground plant food must be liquid in nature. This is because plants, like babies, must have very dilute food. Plants can no more get food out of a dry lump of soil than a little baby can get its food from a hunk of bread or a thick slice of corn beef. But let that soil be water-soaked, and have the proper bacteria at work, and the material is in plant-food form. Josephine has here an old, old experiment. What was a white pink is now a red one. It has been in that glass of red ink and a little water. And lo, up the stem the red fluid climbed until it suffused the white flower and made it red. Notice as Miriam holds that lump of sugar only just touching the surface of the water, the water moves up that lump. In this way water and liquid food rise up the stems of plants. Just so, too, water rises in the soil from the lower layers up to the feeding place of the roots, and even up to the surface of the ground.

"As the roots are feeding and storing places, so the stem is a sort of passage way for the passing back and forth of liquids. Take a stem of a big plant, like an oak tree, and you see in the wood where storage of fibre has gone on. But the great work is that of interchange.

"Leaves are very active portions of the plant. They represent a great, busy manufactory. Manufacturing what? That question I see stamped on Myron's face so plainly he need not speak it out. Manufacturing real food out of raw material--that is the work of these plant shops.

"Let me tell you about this. Ethel has in her hands two little plants. The one in her right hand has been growing in the light; the other, in her left hand, has been put away in the dark to grow. The absence of green colour is very marked in this latter plant. So you see it takes light to form this green, or chlorophyll as it is called. The chlorophyll-saturated cells, absorbing carbonic acid and the water-diluted food from the soil, literally break them up. And when broken, food is found suitable for plants to absorb. Wonderful, is it not?

"I spoke of carbonic acid; well, this is a gas, as some of you have found out before, made up of carbon and oxygen. It is a gas which we of the animal kingdom breathe out as waste from our bodies. The plant takes it in through the leaf--and, by the way, I ought to explain that. It is this way: if we had a magnifying glass we should find over the inner surface of leaves, pores, or stomata as they are called. They open in the presence of light; and from these openings what the plant has no use for passes out, and gases from the air may pass in. Some call these openings breathing pores.

"Quantities of water pass out through these pores. When this process goes on too rapidly a plant will wilt.

"So, to go back, we will suppose that carbonic acid gas has passed into the leaves. Straightway the chlorophyll bodies get to work. The gas is broken up, and oxygen and carbon are left. The carbon is wood the plant builds. Some of the oxygen passes out into the air and some is kept for plant food use.

"It is a good thing for us that some of the oxygen does escape into the air for we need it. So you see we, in our respiration, and the plant, in its breathing, are doing each other a good turn.

"Of course, there is the dilute food from the soil, which is largely mineral matter and water. The chlorophyll bodies work away on these minerals, and make them into foods. A great body of water, as I have said before, passes out of the plant through the stomata.

"I have told you a thing that the plant can do which we are not capable of doing. A plant takes a mineral and makes it over into food. You and I, unless we happen to be circus glass-eaters, are not built to do this work. But the vegetables which we eat do the work for us.

"A great deal of plant food is in the form of sugars and starches. I remember Katharine and Peter told me last winter that in their physiology they learned how sugars and starches were made in our own bodies. And lo and behold, the geranium can do a similar thing.

"Some plants store up lots of starch, as the potato. Others store quantities of sugar, as the Southern sugar cane and the beet. Wonderful? Well, I guess it is. If we could hear and see all the work these energetic little chlorophyll bodies are doing, we should be amazed.

"You will remember that I told you some plants could take the very necessary chemical nitrogen from the air; most of them, however, must get it from the soil. And so again this from the soil solution is worked over into available food.

"After all we must not fail to see that water is most important. It floats all the important food elements to the leaves for the work to be done there. The food carbon, of course, is an exception to this rule and I will say again in certain cases nitrogen is, also.

"Thus you boys and girls now understand how necessary it is that a soil should be of the right texture to hold water. If it is not, it must be helped to be so. Sand, you will remember, had to be doctored to hold water. Clay needed treatment in order to make it quit its bad habit of baking out.

"Here is a rather interesting experiment set up by Josephine and Ethel. Look at the first piece of apparatus--a tumbler partly full of water, a piece of cardboard over the top of the tumbler, and passing down through a hole in the cardboard a piece of plant just stem stripped of leaves, and finally a second tumbler clapped over the first. The second piece of apparatus is exactly like the first, only that the stem, one end of which is in the water, has leaves on the other end. Notice that the upper glass in the second case has moisture on it. The upper tumbler of the other set is perfectly dry. Whence, then, came the moisture? It must, of course, be the leaves which gave it off, since they represent the only difference in the two pieces of apparatus.

"I wish we might go on with whole sets of experiments, but for that we have not time.

"You understand a little of the mission of root, stem and leaf. The root does a good work in holding a plant in place. It is the foundation material of the plant. There is much, much more to be learned about all these subjects. This little is just to open your eyes to the wonders of the work each plant is performing all the time.

"I said I would show you some magic. Well, this magic has to do with plant improvement. It is not much of a trick to raise a plant, but it is a great one to be able to improve that plant.

"Let me tell you of a friend of mine whom we will call Rodney, because that is his real name. One day Rodney noticed the gardener doing something with a little flat knife to a pansy. Then he tied a little paper bag over the pansy, of course leaving the whole thing on the plant.

"'What are you doing?' asked the lad. 'I am fixing that pansy so that the seed from it shall be finer seed than they otherwise would be.'

"Then the old gardener explained this to Rodney: There are two parts to flowers which are very necessary, absolutely necessary to making seed. One part is the pistil, the other the stamen. Some flowers have both pistils and stamen, while others have just the pistil and one has to hunt for another plant having the stamen. You can tell the stamens in this way: they are the parts which have in their care the pollen. Most of you know pollen as a yellow powder or dust. Sometimes it is a sticky gummy mass. The pistil is that part of the flower which ends in the seed vessel. It very often takes a central position in the flower, standing up importantly as if it were the 'part' of the flower. And after all, it is. Now, when this pollen powder falls on the pistil it does not explode. The pistil merely opens up a bit and down travels the powder into the seed vessel to help form seed. There would be no real fertile seed without the pollen.

"Sometimes the pollen from one flower falls on its own pistil, sometimes the wind, the bees, the birds carry the pollen to flowers far off and drop it on their pistils. Marvelous, is it not? Everything has to be just right, or the pollen does not do its work nor the pistil, either. Pollen has to be ripe to help make the seed.

"But how can the work of the wind and the bees and the birds be improved on? Just as the old gardener was doing it. He had one pansy, oh such a large one, but not at all beautiful in colour. He had another one, small but exquisite in colouring. If he could but grow those two together, shake them up, say a magic word and get a pansy both beautiful and large!

"Rodney's gardener used magic but not a magic wand. He took a little knife called a scalpel. He carefully took some pollen from the beautiful pansy and then rubbed it gently over the pistil of the big pansy. The pollen was all ready to drop, and by this he knew it was ripe.

"Why did he place a bag over the pansy? Well, simply because he didn't wish that pansy interfered with. Suppose the bag were not on; suppose after he had put the pollen on, the wind had blown other pollen to this same pistil? Let us suppose that this other pollen came from a very inferior flower. The experiment would have been spoiled.

"Any of you can try this plant improvement. I see by Katharine's eyes and Dee's also that they are going to try it. It is well if you have a pair of forceps. Then you need not use your fingers against the plant at all. Gently pull the pistil a bit forward, gently place the pollen on with the scalpel and you have performed the operation entirely with the proper instruments.

"The girls did some saving of fine specimens of flowers this fall, but the kind of work of which I have just told you means far more. In the one case you choose from what you have; in the other case you make what you want.

"Good-by, again, until next Friday afternoon!"

V

INCREASING PLANTS

"This last garden season we have tried two methods of raising plants: one was by seed; the other by slips or cuttings. The girls will typify still another method with their bulbs. This last method is by division. A bulb as it stores up its nourishment after the blossoming time forms new little bulbs. These may be separated from the parent tuber if large enough. You all saw me dividing my peonies. Those peonies doubtless were started years ago from one or two roots. And now when I dug them up it looked as if I were laying in a stock of sweet potatoes so great was the increase.

"There are just three other methods of propagating or increasing plants. These are layering, budding and grafting.

"Layering is done in several ways. Suppose you have a gooseberry bush you wish to layer. The time to do the work is after the flowering season is past. Choose a branch which has not flowered. Strip off the lower leaves. Now where the old and new wood meet is the place for the cut. Make a cut right into the stem which will be like a tongue. Let this be about an inch long. Hold this to the ground with the cut side down. Bank soil over this. At and under the tongue the new shoots will start, and the new gooseberry bush grow from this. This new plant may be cut off from the parent. If the twig will not stay bent down in this position, cut a forked piece of wood which shall act as a pin. Do you picture this? A branch bent so that not far from the parent plant it is buried under ground with the rest of the root protruding from the ground.

"A rubber plant may be layered or topped as it is called. Rubber plants have an ugly habit of going to top, dropping off their lower leaves as they do this. So they look as if they were trying to develop into huge bushes, and they become very ugly in so doing. The top looks all right and many a person wishes that top were off all by itself and nicely potted.

"This is the way it is topped. A slit is cut in the bark about where you would like to see roots growing. Then soil and florists' moss is bound about the wound. These may easily be kept moist. A paper pot could be put about the soil if one wished. The soil mass should be a ball of about six inches in diameter. When the new roots appear through the moss or poking out of the paper pot, cut the stem of the plant below the pot. And behold you have a little rubber plant just as good as new, I have told this before to the girls.

"Another method of layering is to cut the parent off down to the ground. What is left is called the stool. This stool should be covered with about six inches of earth. Let us suppose this is done in early spring. When fall comes around uncover the stool. There will be found a number of new shoots or plants all nicely protected. These may be transplanted. Do you know that stool can be used over again?

"This work of layering is really very simple. Myron used it with his strawberries. The runners were bent and buried just as those of the gooseberry I spoke of. In this way new strawberry plants were obtained. One shoot may be bent and buried more than once. So one may get just as easily two or more new plants from one shoot. This seems as much a miracle as the cross fertilization of plants.

"The fifth method is that of budding. Apple, peach, plum, cherry and pear trees may be budded; so, too, may roses.

"In a word, a bud is taken from some desirable tree and inserted within the bark of a tree either less desirable or young. Young fruit trees, as you know, need some help before they produce good fruit. Now if George had at home a peach tree which bore very fine fruit he would be glad to cross a young tree with this. Budding is a kind of crossing.

"This work should be done in the spring, although it may be done in the fall. But the spring is a more limber time with Nature. Sap is begining to flow; life is new and fresh again; all the plant world is ready to start up and do something. Then, too, the bark of trees should be in as flexible a condition as possible. The two things really necessary for the work are mature buds and bark easy to peel.

"Buds should be taken from the very strongest and best twigs of the last year's growth. The little seedlings in which the buds are to be inserted should be one year old. These are called the stock.

"This is the manner of inserting the bud: first make a T-shaped cut in the bark of the stock. This cut should be made on the north side of the little tree, because it will thus be more sheltered from the sun's rays. The cut should not be far from the ground on the main trunk, although it may be at the base of strong shoots. But make it in the former position for these yearlings. Then loosen the bark with the flat handle of a regular budding knife. Not many boys and girls own such knives. Some of you have scalpels. The handles of these are flat enough to use. Again, you could easily whittle a piece of wood thin and flat enough for this work.

"The next question is how to sever a bud from its parent shoot. Suppose you have chosen a nice full bud. About a quarter of an inch below the base of the bud start cutting into the wood. Run the knife up to about one quarter of an inch above the bud. Do not cut out through to the surface, but rather from the upper surface cut the bark loose and peel this carefully down until you can see the under surface of the bud. You still have the wood attached to the twig at its upper edge. If as you look at the under surface of the bud you see that it is hollow, throw the whole thing away. If it has fibres then it is all right. The proper layer is left to reunite with the stock. Now the bud and peeled-off bark may be inserted in the T-shaped slip. Bind the bud in place with raffia. Do this raffia bandaging both above and below the slit.

"In about ten days the bandage may come off, for the knitting of fibres is well under way. Now the top of the little tree should be cut right back to about two inches above the bud, because you wish all the growth to go to the bud. This is the part of promise to the tree. All its hope lies in this new bud.

"The best method of increase is that of grafting. A graft or scion, which is a shoot with two or more buds on it of last year's growth, is inserted on the stem of another plant called the stock.

"By means of this process of grafting, trees bearing poor fruit are made to bear good fruit. Wild fruit trees are brought under cultivation, and a given tree may bear several varieties of its given fruit. For example, I have in mind a tree, the marvel of my childhood, which bore big sour apples, beautiful Gravensteins, and a good quality of Baldwins. This sort of experimenting with trees is not only as good as a puzzle, but is of great value. To make a wild apple tree with its gnarly, little sour apples into a really truly, well-behaved tree bearing good fruit is worth while, is it not? Grafting is not only a method of improvement but of taming stock, which is after all improvement.

"There are certain necessary precautions to take in this operation of grafting; for this, like budding, is a surgical operation.

"In all woody branches the outer layer is the bark; next comes the green layer. Between this layer and the real wood is a mass of fibres which go by the name of 'cambium'. The cambium layer of the stock and the scion must be one against the other in grafting in order that the sap may flow freely as before. This layer of cambium might be likened to our blood system. The two cambium layers must be pressed closely together so that the operation may be successful. And finally no cut surface should be left exposed to the air. It is air, you know, that plays havoc with flesh wounds. More and more we see that tree doctors have a work something like our own physicians.

"Grafting is usually done in the spring--in March or April--about the time sap begins to flow. The grafts or scions may be cut before this. Choose the tree from which you wish to take a scion. You choose it because of its fine-flavoured, sound fruit. Perhaps the fruit is especially large, too. Size of fruit, however, does not denote fine fruit. I once had an apple that weighed a pound. It was a beauty, fair to look upon. But what a tasteless, pithy piece of fruit it was. Appearances in fruit are often deceitful. The scions were to be of the last year's growth with two or more buds. The shoots should be clean, healthy and vigorous. You must transmit no disease along with the scions. These may be cut off in January or February, and stuck into the soil for about four to six inches. Keep away from direct sunlight. The buds of scions cut at this time are dormant as they should be.

"Grafting is named according to the manner in which the scion is put into the stock. There is whip grafting, and cleft grafting. Whip grafting is sometimes spoken of as tongue grafting.

"This latter method is accomplished in this way: Suppose you have a scion in your hand. Cut across the end of it diagonally. Use a sharp knife for this, and make a clean cut, as I now cut across this twig. About two-thirds of the distance back from the narrow or more pointed end of the cut make a vertical cut of about an inch right up into the scion. Cut the stock in a similar way. Then insert the tongue of the stock into the slit of the scion. Press these together carefully. Bind with raffia. Whenever this work is done outdoors, as it would be in the case of any of you who try this experiment, the union must be sealed over. As official documents are sealed with wax, so this union is legally sealed in wax. One can buy a regular grafting wax. Sometimes people mix clay and grease together. That is simple, but pretty sticky sounding.

"Realgrafting wax is made this way: To two parts of beeswax, add four of resin. Melt these together with one pound of tallow or linseed oil. When all are melted together, pour into cold water. Pull like molasses candy until it is light coloured. One's fingers should be greased to apply this wax properly.

"Cleft grafting is almost described by its name. A cleft or cut is made in the stock after the stem has been neatly cut across. The cleft is a vertical cut of about an inch in length. This is made through the centre of the stock. The scion is made to fit down into this, so naturally it is cut like a wedge. But there should be cuts made on both sides of the scion diagonally to form this wedge. So two cut surfaces of cambium are laid bare to fit against two similar surfaces of the stock. If the stock is several times thicker than the graft or scion, there should be two of these latter inserted. Place one at either end of the cleft. Bind and wax.

"If the stock is the same thickness as the graft then these two fit perfectly one into the other.

"This is only a little bit about grafting; but I trust this is enough to get you all interested in this work.

"'Is grafting really necessary?' I heard Albert whisper a while ago. It does seem like a great deal of work. The trouble with starting fruit from seed and expecting to get good results lies in this point: Fruit trees seems to lose in their development from seed the ability to produce fruit as fine as the parent stock; and so grafting becomes a necessity. Strange that this should be so, but it is.

"Start with a peach stone or seed. It came from a fine tree; the fruit was luscious. And yet the little seedling which comes from that very stone as a rule must be grafted to bear fruit of equally fine flavour as that of the original peach. Fruit trees have a tendency to revert to old wild poor forms. And so we must save them and help them.

"If any of you should start a little orchard he would wish to know how far apart the trees should be. Apple trees should be set thirty to forty feet apart each way; pear trees twenty to thirty feet each way; plums and peaches sixteen to twenty feet each way. Trees need room in which to spread out and develop; hence the distance given them. I am glad that Myron has made a start on small fruits. His strawberries were a success. I'd like to think that next season each of you was to have in his garden, vegetables, flowers, one small fruit and one of the larger ones, such as a seedling apple or peach."

VI

GARDEN OPERATIONS

"I suppose the talk to-day will seem to you all merely a repetition of things you already know. Beginnings, however, are most important. Results often take care of themselves, but beginnings never do. Gardens started wrong always go wrong; that is, unless one tears up one's work and begins over again.

"The first thing in garden making is the selection of a spot. Some of us are saved that trouble, since we have no choice; or like Josephine, have nothing at all in the way of space. Without a choice, it means simply doing the best one can with conditions. With space limited it resolves itself into no garden, or a box garden. Surely a box garden is better than nothing at all. At least, Josephine felt this to be true, and proved that parsley grows (with care) as well in a box as in the garden. I claim that everyone may have something of a garden if he be willing to take what comes to hand.

"But we will now suppose that it is possible to really choose just the right site for the garden. What shall be chosen? The greatest determining factor is the sun. No one would have a north corner, unless it were absolutely forced upon him; because, while north corners do for ferns, certain wild flowers, and begonias, they are of little use as spots for a general garden.

"If possible, choose the ideal spot--a southern exposure. Here the sun lies warm all day long. When the garden is thus located the rows of vegetables and flowers should run north and south. Thus placed, the plants receive the sun's rays all the morning on the eastern side, and all the afternoon on the western side. One ought not to have any lopsided plants with such an arrangement.

"Suppose the garden faces southeast. In this case the western sun is out of the problem. In order to get the best distribution of sunlight run the rows northwest and southeast.

"The idea is to get the most sunlight as evenly distributed as possible for the longest period of time. From the lopsided growth of window plants it is easy enough to see the effect on plants of poorly distributed light. So if you use a little diagram remembering that you wish the sun to shine part of the day on one side of the plants and part on the other, you can juggle out any situation. The southern exposure gives the ideal case because the sun gives half time nearly to each side. A northern exposure may mean an almost entire cut-off from sunlight; while northeastern and southwestern places always get uneven distribution of sun's rays, no matter how carefully this is planned.

"The garden, if possible, should be planned out on paper. The plan is a great help when the real planting time comes. It saves time and unnecessary buying of seed. Last winter we drew some plans to a scale. Peter, Philip, and Myron did this work in fine shape. They offer to take groups of you girls and show you how to do it; so whenever you are ready for this, the boys are ready, too. Sometimes we do change our plans some, anyway a change is easily made when a plan has been drawn as a basis.

"New garden spots are likely to be found in two conditions: they are covered either with turf or with rubbish. In large garden areas the ground is ploughed and the sod turned under; but in small gardens remove the sod. How to take off the sod in the best manner is the next question. Stake and line off the garden spot. The line gives an accurate and straight course to follow. Cut the edges with the spade all along the line. If the area is a small one, say four feet by eighteen or twenty, this is an easy matter. Such a narrow strip may be marked off like a checkerboard, the sod cut through with the spade, and easily removed. This could be done in two long strips cut lengthwise of the strip. When the turf is cut through, roll it right up like a roll of carpet.

"But suppose the garden plot is large. Then divide this up into strips a foot wide and take off the sod as before. What shall be done with the sod? Do not throw it away for it is full of richness, although not quite in available form. So pack the sod grass side down one square on another. Leave it to rot and to weather. When rotted it makes a fine fertilizer. Such a pile of rotting vegetable matter is called a compost pile. All through the summer add any old green vegetable matter to this. In the fall put the autumn leaves on. A fine lot of goodness is being fixed for another season.

"The girls, I suppose, think this is a wretched heap to have in the corner of a garden. So it is. But it is possible to screen it. Plant before the space allotted to this, castor beans, tall cannas or sunflowers. Perhaps the castor beans would be the best of all. Sunflowers get brown and straggly looking before the season is past its prime.

"Even when the garden is large enough to plough, I would pick out the largest pieces of sod rather than have them turned under. Go over the ploughed space, pick out the pieces of sod, shake them well and pack them up in a compost heap.

"What is to be done with the rubbish often found on new garden sites? If this be only weeds and other vegetable matter it may be very easily burned on the garden spot. But suppose it is a grand collection of tin cans, bottles and such things as cannot be burned? What can we do with them? Cities have public dumps where lots are to be filled in. All such trash may go to these. Oftentimes it is possible to find suitable places in the country for dumping. But do not dump where the rubbish is to be unsightly for others as it has been for yourself; far better have a dump heap on your own land and screen this as the compost heap was to be shielded from view. We take the wrong point of view if we dump rubbish anywhere, for the sake of getting rid of it. You remember your plan is to help make a more beautiful village.

"How must the small garden be spaded? A method called trenching, is good because it is so thorough. Here is a diagram George has made. Just get your heads around this, and I'll explain it.

"This rectangle is supposed to be the plot which needs digging. Line it off into strips one foot wide. Have your wheelbarrow right beside AA'. Dig one foot of top soil out of strip A' along all its length. Put this into the barrow and dump it into the strip marked EE' outside of the garden proper. Do the same thing to strip BB', only throw the soil into trench AA'. The top soil from CC' goes into BB'; that of DD' into CC'. Now the soil that was dumped outside the garden upon the strip EE' of course is already to go right into trench DD'.

"The value of this work is to get the soil of the bed entirely worked over. Most people dig but poorly. Digging is hard work; so a boy digs a little here, and a little there, throughout the seed bed and thinks the work is all done. It is really done when the above method is used. And after all we have said about the necessity for airing soil, and the need of stirring things up so that the good bacteria may do their work, I know you will all see the point immediately.

"Mere spading of the ground is not sufficient. The soil is still left in lumps. Always as one spades one should break up the big lumps. But even so the ground is in no shape for planting. Ground must be very fine indeed to plant in, because seeds can get very close indeed to fine particles of soil. But the large lumps leave large spaces which no tiny root hair can penetrate. A seed is left stranded in a perfect waste when planted in chunks of soil. A baby surrounded with great pieces of beefsteak would starve. A seed among large lumps of soil is in a similar situation. The spade never can do this work of pulverizing soil. But the rake can. That's the value of the rake. It is a great lump breaker, but will not do for large lumps. If the soil still has large lumps in it take the hoe.

"Many people handle the hoe awkwardly. Get up, Jay, and show us just how to hold it! Walk along as you hoe, drawing the hoe toward you. The chief work of this implement is to rid the soil of weeds and stir up the top surface. It is used in summer to form that mulch of dust so valuable in retaining moisture in the soil. I often see boys hoe as if they were going to chop into atoms everything around. Hoeing should never be such vigorous exercise as that. Spading is vigorous, hard work, but not hoeing and raking.

"After lumps are broken use the rake to make the bed fine and smooth. Now the great piece of work is done. To be sure I have said nothing of fertilizing. The kind and amount of fertilizer depends on the kind of soil. Well-rotted manure being the best all-around fertilizer, we will say that we have spaded that into the seed bed after the trenching operation is over.

"Now the plan made on paper comes into practical use, and garden stakes, cord and a means of measuring are the things necessary to have on hand. Jay and Albert have made their garden stakes one foot in length. They will serve as a good rule in furrow making. On their hoe handles Jack and Elizabeth have marked two feet off into inches. This is another scheme for measuring. George has a pole four feet long which he uses. This has inches marked on one foot of its length. Katharine has a seventy-five foot tape measure. And Leston and Helena have made this tool I have here in my hand. It looks like a wooden toothed rake with its teeth eight inches apart. This dragged over the surface of a nice, fine garden bed marks off furrows. It makes the most regular furrows you ever saw because it cannot help itself. Miriam used a board last summer. She laid this across her seed bed, kneeling on it, then she drew a dibber along the board's straight edge, pressing firmly into the soil with the dibber. This also made a good straight furrow.

"Peter and Philip always use a line and two stout garden stakes. Their hoes do the rest.

"We usually think of furrows, or drills, as they really should be called when little soil is removed, as being about a half inch or even less in width. Sometimes certain seed, beans and peas, for example, are placed in double rows in a wide drill.

"I think you all understand hill making. Then you remember how we planted certain seeds broadcast, as grass and poppy seeds. Remember that seeds thus sown need only a dusting of soil over them.

"But in general, drill sowing for both vegetables and flower seeds is the most satisfactory method.

"Most boys and girls sow seeds too thickly. The seedlings as they come up are too crowded for proper amounts of sunlight, air and food. You have seen lettuce seedlings crowded together growing small and weak. Why? Lack of light and air, lack of moisture and food are the reasons for this. Thin out pretty severely. Wait, of course, until the seedlings are an inch or more high. Then look over the little plants and gently take out the weakest and smallest specimens. Press the soil firmly about those which remain. If the first planting has been very thick have two times of thinning. It is a bit easier on those seedlings remaining if too many comrades do not go at once.

"Of course, some of these seedlings may be transplanted. They should be about two inches above ground for this purpose. Lettuce, cabbage and peppers transplant beautifully; so do asters. I would not try to transplant beets, radish or turnips. The reason is that these plants have long tap roots. Usually a portion of the root is left in the ground and the transplanted seedling has an injured root. So you either lose it, or it does poorly.

"Beets may be allowed to grow thickly for a time. Then when the thinning is done, the tender beet tops may be used for greens.

"Transplanting is a delicate operation. A trowel or a thin garden marker, a can of water and dibber are the necessary tools for the business. A cloudy day is a good thing to have on hand, also. If this is impossible, place the sun behind a cloud. The little seedling should be taken up with great care from its old home. A little soil should come with the roots. This gives the little plant a home feeling in its new quarters. The thin stick is often better to use than the trowel. If the soil is watered a bit about the small plant, one is far more likely to get the soil up with the roots.

"Now make the hole in the ground with the dibber just where you wish. A motion, like that of a revolving top, is the one to use in working the dibber. Water the hole. Drop a little soil in the bottom of the hole. You see the dibber leaves an awkward little peak there at the bottom of the hole. Water lodges there and stays. The tiny rootlets do not quite reach into the bottom of the hole, and perhaps dangle in the water and begin to decay. A little soil dropped in prevents all this. Now a little plant goes in. Do not place it too low, nor too high in the hole. Have the roots uncramped. Drop soil in gently and finally firm it all with both hands.

"The sun must not shine too hotly for the first few days on these little plants in their new home. They are not yet used to their surroundings and must be coddled a bit if they are to do well.

"The remaining garden operations are weeding and constant cultivation. A part of the work in the flower garden is close picking, if constant bloom is wished.

"I have said nothing about how to plant different seeds because each of you had tables to cover all of that.

"The object of this talk is to impress upon you the necessity for careful preparation. Well-prepared soil, carefully handled tools and plants are ways to success.

"Good tools, good seed, good hard work make for results such as will satisfy your highest hopes. But it is not the result only that is worth the struggle; the knowledge and the power are the greater glories."

VII

COMMON WEEDS

What a delight it would be if we could garden without weeds. But that is well-nigh impossible. For these rascals, the weeds, are such persistent fellows, so clever in their devices for getting over the surface of the earth, so able to live where nothing else in the plant world can live, that it is a discouraging matter to attempt to exterminate them. They always seem to me like pushing sort of people trying to live among those who do not want them. Then, too, they crowd the better class of inhabitants out.

"There are a certain number of plants which we always looked upon as weeds, such as burdock and wild carrot, for example. But if a beautiful garden plant should persist in living and spreading itself over our vegetable garden, then that, too, would become a weed. Over across the sea in England the poppy grows wild in the fields. It looks very beautiful to the traveler, because it makes lovely red splashes of colour through the field. But I doubt very much if it looks really attractive to the farmer. These things depend largely, do they not, upon one's point of view?

"Even a question like weeds we have no right to look at from one point of view only. The good points of weeds do not balance up the bad points; but it is well to give even weeds their due. Rid the world of weeds and unless these despoiled spots were cultivated, think of the great waste places there would be over the earth's surface. The weeds shade the ground thus preventing too great surface evaporation. Then the weeds are a signal to farmers and all gardeners to get busy. We people of the world are lazy, just naturally so, and perhaps if there were no weeds we might cultivate the soil too little. Years ago certain weeds were much used in medicine. This is more or less true, to-day. The dandelion with its bitter secretion was good, it was believed, for the liver, a sort of spring tonic. The Department of Agriculture has printed a pamphlet on 'Weeds Used in Medicine' (Farmers' Bulletin, No. 188). Jack and Jay each sent for a copy last spring. You all might start a garden library with these pamphlets for a basis. They are sent to you free and are invaluable in your work. Get together all the helps you can on the subject you are studying. Boys and girls receive free so much in the present day that it seems a shame not to make use of these things. The boys have written to the Department of Agriculture and each month it sends to the club a list of the publications sent out or reprinted during the previous month. You girls might follow this good example set you by the boys.

"Well, we have wandered a bit from the subject in hand. Weeds are again discouraging because they have such facilities for travel. Talk about flying machines--weeds are centuries ahead of men along these lines. Look at a milkweed seed; it is a complete flying apparatus. With its perfect ballast it flies beautifully along over field and river ready to alight in proper seed style, end down.

"There is a piece of mechanism in the end of each burdock seed that seems to make travel possible, and dissemination sure. Never was fish hook more cleverly made than this hook of the bur seed. It catches on to your clothing and travels until you feel its pull. Then you pick it off and cast it aside. So it goes. It sticks to the furry and hairy coats of animals and again is carried along.

"Did you ever observe the seed of wild carrot? It, too, is arranged with clinging points all around and about its seed. If you should give just a little attention to the subject of the means of distribution of wild seeds you would have a greater respect for the ways and means of Nature.

"Here is another discouraging side to the weed question. Weeds produce so many, many seeds! Look at a single stalk of plantain. This stalk does not stand for one seed capsule, but all up and down the stalk are the seeds; again, not one seed here and one there, but each capsule or seed case holding many seeds. When these become ripe, then the top of the capsule comes off just like the cover of a box, or the top of a salt cellar, and the seeds are sent out. It would not be a useless thing to count sometimes the number of seeds on one plantain stalk, and thus gain an idea of the tremendous possibilities of increase which the weeds have.

"A lad I once knew counted the number of seeds in a milkweed pod which he had, and found very nearly two hundred. I do not remember the exact number. It was between one hundred and ninety-five and two hundred. Think of one pod scattering that number of seeds! Think again of the number of pods on one milkweed plant! It is staggering, is it not? To be sure we can remember the parable of the sower and have some hope, for some seed may fall on soil in which they will never come to maturity.

"Weeds, like the wild morning glory, form new plants not from their seed only, but from their travelling, trailing branches.

"If, then, the chances are so good for renewal of weeds, what is the plan of campaign which we should follow? Once a German gentleman who loved and cultivated roses was asked how to get rid of rose bugs. 'Kill them,' he said. 'Pick them off by hand and kill them by foot is the sure method!' he continued.

"So, to get rid of weeds, just destroy them. Persistently and constantly weed them out and cultivate the soil. Clean cultivation is the only sort for good crops and freedom from weeds.

"Weeds, as flowers, drop in the three classes of annuals, biennials and perennials. Any annual is easy enough to hold down. Just pull such weeds up. Some merely cut the weed off at the surface of the ground, but it is a better way to be rid of the thing entirely. And should you not be quite sure of the kind of weed, then pulling up is the only really safe plan. For if the weed happened to be a perennial, leaving the root in the ground would be the worst possible thing to do.

"The greatest business of all annuals is to form seed. Now I know you wish to say that this is the business of all plants. It is. But with annuals there is only one chance to produce seed. That chance is the one short year of their lives, and this is doubtless the reason why these chaps work so hard at seed forming, and produce so many seed. Therefore, the thing evidently to be done is to make it impossible for annuals to form seed.

"The biennials and perennials must have further treatment than just that of preventing seed formation. The underground part of such weeds must be destroyed. For these live in the ground ready to come up again. Biennials may be killed out by deep hoeing. Get rid of all the young plants, keep at the older ones with the hoe and prevent seed formation, too. Biennials are found most abundantly in waste places along woodsides and where the soil for a long time has been left undisturbed.

"Perennials need about the same treatment as biennials. But even greater persistency should be exercised in destroying the underground portion. For these underground plants produce new plants as surely as seeds do. The bindweed has a creeping root, wild garlic has a bulb, and such forms are always producing new forms underground while the seed above the ground is able to do the same thing.

"Ploughing helps destroy perennials, as the roots are exposed to direct sunlight and so destroyed. Another method of treatment is that of cutting off the top down to the root and putting salt on the freshly cut root tap. Then again these roots may be starved out by never allowing the top or leafy part to form. You will remember that it is the leaf which makes the food. And if there is no food then there will be none to store away in the root for new root formation. Some farmers smother roots. This is done by planting such crops as hemp, clover or cowpeas. These crops choke out the weeds. They cover the ground very completely, and so the weeds have less of a chance.

"I give the following table of a few very common weeds in order that you may know just how to handle them.

"I must speak especially about snapdragon or butter and eggs. It came to our country as a garden flower. It has spread and spread, partly by its seeds and partly by its root stalks, which are creeping ones, and now it is a perennial weed. For since it has become a nuisance it must be classed as a weed. As it spreads along it tends to force out other plants.

"This weed, like the wild carrot, is really very lovely. Could such weeds be properly held down in small garden areas they would be very ornamental. I saw a little flower garden once, quite beautiful, with two small clumps, one of wild mustard and one of field daisy, among the other flowers.

----------------------------------------------------------------- COMMON NAME CLASS SEED TIME COLOUR OF FLOWER ----------------------------------------------------------------- Burdock Biennial Aug.-Oct. Purple

Bur-marigold or Annual July-Nov. Yellow beggar ticks

Canada thistle Perennial " " "

Chickweed Annual Mar.-July White

Cocklebur " July-Oct. Green

Dandelion Perennial May-Oct. Yellow

English bindweed or " Aug.-Oct. White morning glory

Moth Mullein Biennial July-Nov. Yellow

Narrow-leaved Annual July-Oct. Blue stickseed or beggar tick

Ox-eye daisy or Perennial Aug.-Oct. White white daisy

Pigweed Annual Aug.-Nov. Green

Prickly lettuce, " July-Nov. Yellow milkweed

Purslane, pursley " June-Dec. "

Rib-grass, plantain Biennial July-Nov. White

Ragweed, Roman wormwood Annual Aug.-Nov. Yellow

Russian thistle " " " Purplish

Smartweed Perennial Aug.-Sept. Pink

Sorrel Perennial June-Nov. Red

Wild carrot, Biennial July-Nov. White Queen Anne's lace

Wild garlic, onion Perennial July-Oct. "

Wild mustard Annual June-Oct. Yellow

Wild parsnip Biennial July-Oct. "

Yellow daisy, " July-Sept. " ox-eye daisy, brown-eyed Susan

Yellow dock Perennial Aug.-Oct. Green -----------------------------------------------------------------

"The seeds of the wild mustard, like those of the plantain and other weeds, get in with the grain seed and so cause constant trouble. Farmers feel that such weeds must be thoroughly gotten out of the fields.

"It is not our own native weeds which are so troublesome but the foreign ones. Most of our worst weeds are foreigners. They have come to this country as stowaways from across the seas. They have fought for centuries and can keep the fight up over here.

"I am not going to give you a description of each weed we have. This table, a copy of which is for each of you, will be, I think, of true help. The study of weeds is something quite by itself. It is for you to help prevent the seeding of weeds everywhere. Do not carelessly scatter seeds. Keep your own garden plots free from these pests by clean and careful cultivation. Remember, too, the value of cover crops.

"There is another pest to fight. This pest is of the animal kingdom and not of the plant kingdom. Next Friday our talk is on animal pests, and how to destroy them."

VIII

GARDEN PESTS

If we could garden without any interference from the pests which attack plants, then indeed gardening would be a simple matter. But all the time we must watch out for these little foes--little in size, but tremendous in the havoc they make.

"As human illness may often be prevented by healthful conditions, so pests may be kept away by strict garden cleanliness. Heaps of waste are lodging places for the breeding of insects. I do not think a compost pile will do the harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite trouble.

"There are certain helps to keeping pests down. The constant stirring up of the soil by earthworms is an aid in keeping the soil open to air and water. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. The sparrows, robins, chickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this way. Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do this good deed. The ichneumon-fly helps too. And toads are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. The toad deserves very kind treatment from all of us.

"Each girl and boy gardener should try to make her or his garden into a place attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled about in early spring, a water-place, are invitations for birds to stay a while in your garden. If you wish toads, fix things up for them too. During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat but not to kill, since toads prefer live food. How can one "fix up" for toads? Well, one thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some size underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves, would appear very fine to a toad.

"Suppose a certain crop in your garden has had an insect pest. Do not plant this same crop next year, for it would doubtless have the same pest. Don't let the soil get full of insect troubles; therefore, keep the soil open and aired and study it well.

"There are two general classes of insects known by the way they do their work. One kind gnaws at the plant really taking pieces of it into its system. This kind of insect has a mouth fitted to do this work. Grasshoppers and caterpillars are of this sort. The other kind sucks the juices from a plant. This, in some ways, is the worst sort. Plant lice belong here, as do mosquitoes, which prey on us. All the scale insects fasten themselves on plants, and suck out the life of the plants.

"Now can we fight these chaps? The gnawing fellows may be caught with poison sprayed upon plants, which they take into their bodies with the plant. The Bordeaux mixture which Peter used is a poison sprayed upon plants for this purpose. So, too, is Paris green.

"In the other case the only thing is to attack the insect direct. So certain insecticides, as they are called, are sprayed on the plant to fall upon the insect. They do a deadly work of attacking, in one way or another, the body of the insect. The kerosene emulsion made by the girls for their infested house plants worked this same way. Tobacco water and tobacco dust sprinkled on act in similar manner.

"Lime, soot, and sand are other means of blocking and choking off insects.

"Sometimes we are much troubled with underground insects at work. You have seen a garden covered with ant hills. Here is a remedy, but one of which you must be careful.

"Carbon bisulphid comes in little tin cans. It is a liquid of a vile smell, something like onions and rotten eggs mixed. The girls' noses are going up sky-high now. But it does the work of ant killing. You must be careful in handling this. It has a horrid explosive habit. Pour about a teaspoonful down an ant hole. Do not use a good silver spoon from the dining room. Get an old spoon, or buy a tin one. For you will never use it again except it be for carbon-bisulphid work. After this liquid has been poured down the hole, place a bit of a chip over it, for there may be a slight volcanic action underground. It is well to do this on a damp, cloudy day when all the ants are at home.

"Remember this stuff is not to be fooled with, as it is poisonous and also takes fire readily. Never open the can inside by a fire, in too great a heat, or near a lighted match. Invite your fathers to help in this. By no means do anything silly. Keep the can closed except when pouring out a teaspoonful.

"This question is constantly being asked, 'How can I tell what insect is doing the destructive work?' Well, you can tell partly by the work done, and partly by seeing the insect itself. This latter thing is not always so easy to accomplish. I had cutworms one season and never saw one. I saw only the work done. If stalks of tender plants are cut clean off be pretty sure the cutworm is abroad. What does he look like? Well, that is a hard question because his family is a large one. Should you see sometime a grayish striped caterpillar, you may know it is a cutworm. But because of its habit of resting in the ground during the day and working by night, it is difficult to catch sight of one. The cutworm is around early in the season ready to cut the flower stalks of the hyacinths. When the peas come on a bit later, he is ready for them. A very good way to block him off is to put paper collars, or tin ones, about the plants. These collars should be about an inch away from the plant.

"Of course, plant lice are more common. Those we see are often green in colour. But they may be red, yellow or brown. Kerosene emulsion is the medicine for plant lice. Lice are easy enough to find since they are always clinging to their host. As sucking insects they have to cling close to a plant for food, and one is pretty sure to find them. But the biting insects do their work, and then go hide. That makes them much more difficult to deal with.

"Rose slugs do great damage to the rose bushes. They eat out the body of the leaves, so that just the veining is left. They are soft-bodied, green above and yellow below. Since they are eating insects Paris green will kill them. But the kerosene emulsion penetrates their soft bodies; so this also may be used.

"A beetle, the striped beetle, attacks young melons and squash leaves. It eats the leaf by riddling out holes in it. This beetle, as its name implies, is striped. The back is black with yellow stripes running lengthwise. White hellebore powder kills these pests. Ask the druggist for five cents' worth and you will have a great plenty for any of your gardens. It, too, is a poison. This poison is also good to use for the caterpillars that eat many of our garden plants. Make a circle four inches from the stalk of an infested plant and sprinkle the powder in this. Evening time is good for this, because the dew moistens the powder just enough to make it a nuisance to the insect.

"Then there are the slugs, which are garden pests. The slug will devour almost any garden plant, whether it be a flower or a vegetable. They lay lots of eggs in old rubbish heaps. Do you see the good of cleaning up rubbish? The slugs do more harm in the garden than almost any other single insect pest. You can discover them in the following way. There is a trick for bringing them to the surface of the ground in the day time. You see they rest during the day below ground. So just water the soil in which the slugs are supposed to be. How are you to know where they are? They are quite likely to hide near the plants they are feeding on. So water the ground with some nice clean lime water. This will disturb them, and up they'll poke to see what the matter is.

"Beside these most common of pests already mentioned, pests which attack many kinds of plants, there are special pests for special plants. Discouraging, is it not? Beans have pests of their own; so have potatoes and cabbages, as George well knows. In fact, the vegetable garden has many inhabitants. In the flower garden lice are very bothersome, the cutworm and the slug have a good time there, too, and ants often get very numerous as the season advances. But for real discouraging insect troubles the vegetable garden takes the prize. If we were going into fruit to any extent, perhaps the vegetable garden would have to resign in favour of the fruit garden.

"A common pest in the vegetable garden is the tomato worm. This is a large yellowish or greenish striped worm. Its work is to eat into the young fruit.

"A great, light green caterpillar is found on celery. This caterpillar may be told by the black bands, one on each ring or segment of its body.

"The squash bug may be told by its brown body, which is long and slender, and by the disagreeable odour from it when killed. The potato bug is another fellow to look out for. It is a beetle with yellow and black stripes down its crusty back. The little green cabbage worm is a perfect nuisance. It is a small caterpillar and smaller than the tomato worm. These are perhaps the most common of garden pests by name. It might be well to take up the common vegetables and flowers mentioning the pests which prey on each one.

"Let us take the vegetables first. None of us have grown asparagus yet; but it will be well to know about this vegetable. There is a beetle which may trouble asparagus plants. It is red with markings of black. The grub of this beetle is dark green. Look out for the asparagus beetle during April and May, for these are the months when it appears. The eggs are laid on young shoots of the plant. Such shoots should be cut right off. After the cutting season is over the plants should be sprayed. This may be done in August. Very dilute Bordeaux mixture or Paris green may be used for a spray.

"Next in the alphabet come beans. The most common trouble that beans have is one called anthracnose. That staggering word means that the leaves become covered with spots which are round with purple borders. Again, a spray of Bordeaux mixture should be used. The plants should be sprayed until the pods form. Look for this trouble in July.

"Beets are prone to leaf spots. As soon as such spots appear, the plants should be sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture. Every two weeks give the plants about three sprayings.

"The cabbage worm I have spoken of. This worm works all summer. Cabbages, if neglected, become literally alive with the little caterpillars. They eat and eat the foliage, riddling it completely. They eat into the heads so that the cabbage plant is completely spoiled. George treated his with pyrethrum powder. This he mixed with five times its bulk of dust. It was then dusted or shaken over the cabbage plant. A very good thing to do before trouble begins is to dust the soil and tender plants with lime. After the plants have begun to head use hellebore powder.

"Lice appear on cauliflower. The kerosene emulsion which we use on our indoor plants is all right for this work, too. The lice appear on the foliage in great white masses. They suck the life and goodness from the plant. They come all through the summer at any time. Whale oil soap is another good spray to use. Peter has typewritten receipts for these sprays which you may have at the close of this talk. Sometimes the root of the cauliflower is attacked. Little white maggots mine or burrow through the root. They are quite likely to begin their bad work in June or July. That rather dangerous carbon bisulphid is the medicine for this trouble. Make a hole in the soil as you did when treating the ant. Do not make this too near the plant. I should say six inches away would be about right. Pour a teaspoonful of the poison into the hole and it will take care of itself. Cover the hole over as you would in the case of the ant. When cauliflower plants begin to look sickly pull one up. If it is full of maggots that is easy to determine. But it may be that you will find great lumps or knots on the root. Since these knots appear during the same months as the maggots, you can only be sure of the real cause by pulling up a plant. If these knots are on the root, then you have a very serious trouble to contend with. So serious is the club root condition that the only safe thing to do is to pull up and completely destroy the diseased plants. Dig the soil up after this. Then lime it. Put a lot of lime on, not just a dusting over the surface of the soil. This represents soil that is in trouble, so do not plant cauliflower here again, or its coarser cousin, the cabbage.

"Sometimes a little red or orange and black bug appears. This is called the harlequin bug from its fantastic appearance. This bug may come all summer long at any time. The whale oil soap spray is the one to use. Celery may be troubled with the light green caterpillar with the black bands before spoken of. This caterpillar arrives in August. It is not difficult at all to see, so many may be picked off just by hand. One may use Paris green as a spray.

"None of you had any trouble with corn being infested. But sometimes a worm, called the earworm, which is like the tomato worm, will appear during June and eat the tips of the young ears. A little Paris green sprinkled on the leaves, at their base will kill them.

"Cucumbers and melons, as I have before said, are prone to be preys of the cutworms, squash bugs, striped beetles, and lice or aphis. You know treatment for cutworms and lice. The squash bug may be destroyed by hand. Sometimes when bits of sticks are placed on the ground the bugs will crawl under them. Next morning a small harvest of bugs can be killed. The squash bug lays its eggs on the under surface of the plant's leaves. These leaves should be removed and burned. The striped beetle is kept off by the Bordeaux mixture spray. This beetle appears in June. A spraying during this month often prevents a blight of the leaves in July. This blight appears first as a spotting on the leaves, after which the leaves soon wither up.

"Onions, as well as radishes, are affected by maggots which will mine through the onion bulb as well as the stems of the young, tender plants. A solution made from carbolic soap and water is excellent with which to water the soil about the plants.

"Peas have green lice as melons and cucumbers do. The lice appear early in May and June, and are killed and kept down by the regulation treatment. Many times during the latter part of summer peas may become mildewed. You can tell this by a growth of white down on stem and leaves. Put some soap in the Bordeaux mixture and spray.

"From May to October potato bugs flourish. Paris green is the spray to use. In the start they may be hand picked. But do not let them get ahead of your hand. A very serious potato disease is that of scab. Scales appear on the potatoes themselves. To prevent this, uncut seed potatoes are soaked in poison. But this is not a work for you to do alone by any means.

"The squash bug naturally seeks out the squash vine. He should be treated as we said when we talked of the same bug and melons.

"Tomatoes have numerous troubles. The cutworm, the tomato worm, the horn worm, potato beetle and various blights may come to tomatoes. The horn worm is a large green worm named from the horn at one end of its body. It appears in midsummer. Such large worms usually may be hand picked. If you should see a tomato plant wilting for no reason at all, pull it up and burn it; it probably has an infectious trouble which is carried from one plant to another by insects. It is really an infectious disease.

"These are the most common vegetable garden pests and their remedies.

"As the girls know, the flower garden is not without pests, too. Plant lice are plenty enough. These may appear at one time or another during the entire year.

"Some plants become covered with a little red spider. It attacks the foliage and does great damage. This may be due to lack of moisture with house plants. I do not mean lack of watering, but a dry condition of the air of the room. Often just a spray of clear water is sufficient to rid the plant of the mites.

"Roses have more troubles than any one other flower. The rose bush may have lice or it may have a little green bug that jumps very quickly and so gets its name of leaf-hopper. Kerosene emulsion is good to use. Often slugs will feed upon the surface of the leaves. A dusting of lime over the leaves keeps these feeders away. There is a brown beetle called the rose chafer, which eats the flower itself. Hand picking is about the best weapon to employ against this enemy. A scale sometimes comes on the stems. This scale looks like a white crust. It is wise to spray such rose bushes with kerosene emulsion. And better still, if possible, cut off and burn such scale-encrusted parts.

"Cutworms bother the early bulbs and the violets, too. A great many of the larger pests may be hand picked. The lice should be sprayed.

"And for the remedies. The following will be the ones you will need the most:

KEROSENE EMULSION

Soap (Ivory) 1/4 pound

Boiling water 2 quarts

Kerosene 4 quarts

"The soap should be shaved up and dissolved in the water. To this add the kerosene (of course not when the soap and water is on the stove) a little at a time. Beat it with an egg beater to be kept for that purpose; or shake it vigorously.

"For use against plant lice add to one cup of this emulsion 8 cups of water. For scale insects dilute with four cups of water.

BORDEAUX MIXTURE

I. Copper sulphate (blue vitriol) 1 lb. Water 1 gal. Dissolve the sulphate in the water.

II. Slaked lime 1 lb. Water 1 gal. Dissolve the lime in the water.

To one bucket (2-1/2 gallons) of fresh water add four pints of the first solution. To another bucket of fresh water add six pints of the second solution.

Stir these together. Keep the rest of the solutions I. and II. for later mixing when it is needed.

WHALE OIL SOAP HOT WATER SOLUTION

Whale oil soap 1 pound Hot water 6 quarts

This is the right dilution for plant lice but for scale insects it is too weak; for them use about two quarts of water to one pound of soap.

"The best way to apply liquid sprays in small gardens is to use a whisk broom. Just dip the little broom into the mixture needed and shake the brush over the plant. Then the hands need never come in contact with the poison. Careful children can use sprays without any trouble. Josephine has used kerosene emulsion in this fashion: she pours a little into a saucer, takes a bit of cheese cloth and dipping it into the emulsion wipes the lice off an infested part. Usually one application is enough. This sounds like a much more disagreeable task than it really is. A plant syringe may be used. But personally I like the hand method. Of course if there are lots of lice on many plants this would not be practical at all.

"It stands to reason that sick plants need medicines of some kind. Sometimes to be sure they need better living conditions. Often the soil is sour, water-logged, unaired and totally unfit for a self-respecting plant to live in. The whole thing resolves itself into a study of conditions, and a desire to help the plant have as comfortable a time as possible in life."

IX

VEGETABLE CULTURE

"As a rule, boys and girls choose to grow bush beans rather than pole beans. I cannot make up my mind whether or not this is from sheer laziness. In a city backyard the tall varieties might perhaps be a problem since it would be difficult to get poles. But these running beans can be trained along old fences and with little urging will run up the stalks of the tallest sunflowers. So that settles the pole question. There is an ornamental side to the bean question. Suppose you plant these tall beans at the extreme rear end of each vegetable row. Make arches with supple tree limbs, binding them over to form the arch. Train the beans over these. When one stands facing the garden, what a beautiful terminus these bean arches make.

"Beans like rich, warm, sandy soil. In order to assist the soil be sure to dig deeply, and work it over thoroughly for bean culture. It never does to plant beans before the world has warmed up from its spring chills. There is another advantage in early digging of soil. It brings to the surface eggs and larvae of insects. The birds eager for food will even follow the plough to pick from the soil these choice morsels. A little lime worked in with the soil is helpful in the cultivation of beans.

"Bush beans are planted in drills about eighteen inches apart, while the pole-bean rows should be three feet apart. The drills for the bush limas should be further apart than those for the other dwarf beans--say three feet. This amount of space gives opportunity for cultivation with the hoe. If the running beans climb too high just pinch off the growing extreme end, and this will hold back the upward growth.

"Among bush beans are the dwarf, snap or string beans, the wax beans, the bush limas, one variety of which is known as brittle beans. Among the pole beans are the pole limas, wax and scarlet runner. The scarlet runner is a beauty for decorative effects. The flowers are scarlet and are fine against an old fence. These are quite lovely in the flower garden. Where one wishes a vine, this is good to plant for one gets both a vegetable, bright flowers and a screen from the one plant. When planting beans put the bean in the soil edgewise with the eye down.

"Beets like rich, sandy loam, also. Fresh manure worked into the soil is fatal for beets, as it is for many another crop. But we will suppose that nothing is available but fresh manure. Some gardeners say to work this into the soil with great care and thoroughness. But even so, there is danger of a particle of it getting next to a tender beet root. The following can be done; Dig a trench about a foot deep, spread a thin layer of manure in this, cover it with soil, and plant above this. By the time the main root strikes down to the manure layer, there will be little harm done. Beets should not be transplanted. If the rows are one foot apart there is ample space for cultivation. Whenever the weather is really settled, then these seeds may be planted. Young beet tops make fine greens. Greater care should be taken in handling beets than usually is shown. When beets are to be boiled, if the tip of the root and the tops are cut off, the beet bleeds. This means a loss of good material. Pinching off such parts with the fingers and doing this not too closely to the beet itself is the proper method of handling. I throw this in for the benefit of our future cooks, the girls.

"There are big coarse members of the beet and cabbage families called the mangel wurzel and ruta baga. About here these are raised to feed to the cattle. They are a great addition to a cow's dinner.

"The cabbage family is a large one. There is the cabbage proper, then cauliflower, broccoli or a more hardy cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi, a cabbage-turnip combination. George has worked out cabbage culture successfully. I refer to him for full particulars.

"Cauliflower is a kind of refined, high-toned cabbage relative. It needs a little richer soil than cabbage and cannot stand the frost. A frequent watering with manure water gives it the extra richness and water it really needs. The outer leaves must be bent over, as in the case of the young cabbage, in order to get the white head. The dwarf varieties are rather the best to plant.

"Kale is not quite so particular a cousin. It can stand frost. Rich soil is necessary, and early spring planting, because of slow maturing. It may be planted in September for early spring work.

"Brussels sprouts are a very popular member of this family. On account of their size many people who do not like to serve poor, common old cabbage will serve these. Brussels sprouts are interesting in their growth. The plant stalk runs skyward. At the top, umbrella like, is a close head of leaves, but this is not what we eat. Shaded by the umbrella and packed all along the stalk are delicious little cabbages or sprouts. Like the rest of the family a rich soil is needed and plenty of water during the growing period. The seed should be planted in May, and the little plants transplanted into rich soil in late July. The rows should be eighteen inches apart, and the plants one foot apart in the rows.

"Kohlrabi is a go-between in the families of cabbage and turnip. It is sometimes called the turnip-root cabbage. Just above the ground the stem of this plant swells into a turnip-like vegetable. In the true turnip the swelling is underground, but like the cabbage, kohlrabi forms its edible part above ground. It is easy to grow. Only it should develop rapidly, otherwise the swelling gets woody, and so loses its good quality. Sow out as early as possible; or sow inside in March and transplant to the open. Plant in drills about two feet apart. Set the plants about one foot apart, or thin out to this distance. To plant one hundred feet of drill buy half an ounce of seed. Seed goes a long way, you see. Kohlrabi is served and prepared like turnip. It is a very satisfactory early crop.

"Before leaving the cabbage family I should like to say that the cabbage called Savoy is an excellent variety to try. It should always have an early planting under cover, say in February, and then be transplanted into open beds in March or April. If the land is poor where you are to grow cabbage, then by all means choose Savoy.

"Carrots are of two general kinds: those with long roots, and those with short roots. If long-rooted varieties are chosen, then the soil must be worked down to a depth of eighteen inches, surely. The shorter ones will do well in eight inches of well-worked sandy soil. Do not put carrot seed into freshly manured land. Another point in carrot culture is one concerning the thinning process. As the little seedlings come up you will doubtless find that they are much, much too close together. Wait a bit, thin a little at a time, so that young, tiny carrots may be used on the home table. These are the points to jot down about the culture of carrots. I am saying very little about depths and distances because these were all worked out by the boys last winter and tables may be had for the asking.

"Peter covered the ground of celery raising. One or two points only I will speak of. A very rich, workable soil is a celery soil. In the process of getting such a bed ready it ought to have a thorough wetting down a day before planting. Celery seed is small, and, as is the case with other small seed, it is quite likely to be planted in clumps or bunches. To avoid this the seed should be mixed with sand and then sprinkled in drills. These drills should be six inches apart, and very shallow. Sow the seed, cover, and water. This bed should be screened from direct sunlight. A careful, gentle, daily watering is necessary. Thin the little plants to four inches apart. Peter can tell the rest of the story. The only other thing I need add is this, that in transplanting the work should be done quickly. One should not take up celery plants and perhaps leave them a long time before placing in new quarters. Plant immediately. It takes little to upset a celery plant and check its growth. So never take up a whole lot of celery plants at one time. Take up a few, keep them moist, plant them, and then start again.

"I am not going to say a word about corn. You all remember the boys' work of last year. Your teacher has planned next Friday afternoon for the boys to discuss this at school. So we shall not have our meeting, but I shall come to the school to hear their report. I hope our girls will take notes on this. For I know that Eloise has decided to raise corn next year; Helena is going to; and Leston will not be out of the corn contest this season.

"The cucumber is the next vegetable in the line. This is a plant from foreign lands. Some think that the cucumber is really a native of India. It is believed that it was brought here by the Negro, and that a species of cucumber from Africa became finally at home in this country. A light, sandy and rich soil is needed--I mean rich in the sense of richness in organic matter. When cucumbers are grown outdoors, as we are likely to grow them, they are planted in hills. Nowadays, they are grown in hothouses; they hang from the roof, and are a wonderful sight. In the greenhouse a hive of bees is kept so that cross-fertilization may go on.

"But if you intend to raise cucumbers follow these directions: Sow the seed inside, cover with one inch of rich soil. In a little space of six inches diameter, plant six seeds. Place like a bean seed with the germinating end in the soil. When all danger of frost is over, each set of six little plants, soil and all, should be planted in the open. Later, when danger of insect pests is over, thin out to three plants in a hill. The hills should be about four feet apart on all sides.

"Egg plant is another vegetable we have not tried. It is another of those which has been improved by crossing, usually with peppers and tomatoes. But as we are not Burbanks yet, I shall not talk of that side of egg plant culture. Some varieties of egg plant grow to a large size but the smaller fruits, on the whole, have the better flavour. A good, well-worked, rich garden loam is the soil for this vegetable. The seed may be planted out in the open in little drills six inches apart. The seed should be scattered along as lettuce seed is. When the plants are about six inches high, transplant them to their permanent place. They should then stand about two feet apart on all sides. More often the seeds are started inside in March. When the little plants are about two inches high they should be transplanted into boxes or pots. Screen from too hot sunshine. About the time of corn planting the plants should go into the open. A rich soil is now quite necessary. Again I would suggest as a good method the placing of a little well-rotted manure under each place where an egg plant is to go. There is a rather interesting parasite which sometimes fastens itself upon the egg plant. A parasite is a form which clings to another and takes its nourishment from this latter or host. The parasite is a lazy shirk. So in this case the parasite grows on the egg plant and absorbs the food which the egg plant needs for itself. This is not an uncommon thing in nature. When such a thing happens first pull up and destroy the poor egg plant, for the parasite is clinging too closely and persistently to be removed.

"Nearly everyone in our country clings to lettuce as the only plant for a salad. Over across the sea in old England this is not so. Other plants are used in this way and called salad plants. Endive is one of these. Some of the endives are curly-leaved, and when blanched are attractive to look upon; and surely there is no reason why we should not consider the side of beauty in vegetables.

"Endive is a very hardy plant. One-half an ounce of the seed will sow one hundred feet of drill. Sow it as you would lettuce seed in soil which should be moist and rich. The plants finally should be about eight inches apart in the drill. The outer leaves should be tied over the top in order to blanch the inner ones for table use. In the fall the plants from summer sowings may be taken up with balls of earth on the roots and placed in the coldframes ready for use through the winter. The coldframe is a blessing. It is a place of storage all the fall and early winter. It is a place for early work in the late winter and first part of spring.

"Lettuce with children has always been a prime favourite for cultivation. Before the time of Christ, lettuce was grown and served. There is a wild lettuce from which the cultivated probably came. There are a number of cultivated vegetables which have wild ancestors, carrots, turnips and lettuce being the most common among them. Lettuce may be tucked into the garden almost anywhere. It is surely one of the most decorative of vegetables. The compact head, the green of the leaves, the beauty of symmetry--all these are charming characteristics of lettuces.

"Not all form heads. There is a mistaken idea abroad among children that by transplanting, any lettuce can be made to head. Only such varieties as are called heading lettuces will head. And these must be transplanted in order to have really good heads. There are two general types of lettuce--the Cos and the cabbage. The cabbage grows more like a cabbage with great tendency toward heading. The Cos grows longer, narrower, and has spoon-shaped leaves, which have a big, coarse midrib. The inner leaves cling more closely together after a heading fashion; the outer leaves spread apart. We grow in our American gardens more of the cabbage type than of the Cos. Should we go to see our French cousins next summer, the Cos lettuce would be served to us with plenty of oil as a dressing.

"As the summer advances and as the early sowings of lettuce get old they tend to go to seed. Don't let them. Pull them up. None of us are likely to go into the seed-producing side of lettuce. What we are interested in is the raising of tender lettuce all the season. To have such lettuce in mid and late summer is possible only by frequent plantings of seed. If seed is planted every ten days or two weeks all summer, you can have tender lettuce all the season. When lettuce gets old it becomes bitter and tough.

"Melons are most interesting to experiment with. We suppose that melons originally came from Asia, and parts of Africa. Watermelons grow wild in Africa. The Negroes and wild animals feed upon them. Perhaps that is the reason why the coloured people so love them. Anyway, melons belong to these countries. Melons are a summer fruit. Over in England we find the muskmelons often grown under glass in hothouses. The vines are trained upward rather than allowed to lie prone. As the melons grow large in the hot, dry atmosphere, just the sort which is right for their growth, they become too heavy for the vine to hold up. So they are held by little bags of netting, just like a tennis net in size of mesh. The bags are supported on nails or pegs. It is a very pretty sight I can assure you. Over here usually we raise our melons outdoors. They are planted in hills. Eight seeds are placed two inches apart and an inch deep. The hills should have a four foot sweep on all sides; the watermelon hills ought to have an allowance of eight to ten feet. Make the soil for these hills very rich. As the little plants get sizeable--say about four inches in height--reduce the number of plants to two in a hill. Always in such work choose the very sturdiest plants to keep. Cut the others down close to or a little below the surface of the ground. Pulling up plants is a shocking way to get rid of them. I say shocking because the pull is likely to disturb the roots of the two remaining plants. When the melon plant has reached a length of a foot, pinch off the end of it. This pinch means this to the plant: just stop growing long, take time now to grow branches. Sand or lime sprinkled about the hills tends to keep bugs away.

"Onions are about as popular a vegetable as we have. Some people are quite scornful of onions because of their truly disagreeable odour. But I do not know what we should do without the onion for flavourings. Peter is to plant onions where he last had celery. That is very wise, because onions do especially well coming after a crop for which the land was heavily fertilized. Onions like moisture of soil, too. If the soil is not rich enough, nitrate of soda may be added. The most discouraging thing about chemical fertilizers is the fact that advertisements say to have a certain quantity for an acre of land. Few boys and girls are planting entire acres, to just one thing. Now, suppose you write down this: Add 1/4 pound of nitrate of soda to 100 square feet of land then use the proper fractional amount. To buy 1/40 of a pound for example sounds absurd. Buy your quarter pound and put the approximate amount on. Sprinkle chemical fertilizer over the surface of the soil and rake it in just under the surface.

"There are two methods for the planting of onions. One way is to use seed; the other, sets. Sets mean little onion bulbs. These are placed in drills about six inches apart and so that the little bulb may be just beneath the surface of the soil. Do not set too low. These bulbs are ready before seed onions. Seeds are rather slow in development. If you make sowings pretty thick the tender tops may be used, and so the thinning process is done to advantage.

"I believe that all your gardens should have some parsley in them. It can be planted as a border, since it grows low and has a fringy, decorative effect. If you were Italian girls and boys you would have parsley if you had nothing else; for the Italians always use it in their soups. There is a European variety, not as pretty as the common variety, which grows taller and ranker. It has a stronger smell. An Italian boy who was living in America had a garden in which he grew both kinds of parsley. He was asked which he liked the better. Straightening up, he pointed to the European saying, 'Smells stronger.'

''I believe none of us have raised parsnips. It takes 1/4 of an ounce of seed to plant 100 feet of drill. Any deep, rich, moist garden soil will do. Just as early as the ground is workable, the seed should be sown. Sow in drills of 1/2 inch depth and 6 inches apart. The plants should finally stand about eight inches apart. They may be dug before or after frost. Some people think that the early frosts improve the flavour of parsnips.

"I suppose there is no vegetable so well liked as peas. Who would wish a Fourth of July dinner without peas? The early varieties of peas go into the ground just as early as possible. I like best to dig trenches six inches deep and about eighteen inches apart. As the peas are dropped into the trench, cover over with about two inches of soil. As the plants grow, fill soil into the trench. Of course, peas have to be brushed. So as soon as the little runners form put brush behind the plant and start the twiners about the brush stalks. A variety of pea called Gradus is very excellent in flavour.

"As for potatoes--well, now, just see Peter grin! He has covered that subject. Of course, I can add nothing to an expert's advice.

"Peppers are worth trying. If you do not care for them in your home gardens, add them to the school garden. They work in with the courses in cooking. Just as egg plants are started inside, so ought peppers to be. Whenever the soil is warm and the weather settled, the pepper plants may go out. The best soil for them is a rich, sandy one. The little plants should have about one and a half foot of space on all sides. At first they look pretty lonesome so far apart but soon they will grow to large, bushy plants. A little hen manure mixed with soil and put on top of the ground about the little peppers gives them a good start in their new quarters. There are many interesting kinds of peppers to grow. If a pepper with a little sting is wished try such varieties as Bird's Eye, Red Cluster, and Tobasco. Suppose the peppers are to be used for stuffing. Then large, rather more mild-flavoured kinds are needed. Ruby King pepper is a bouncing beauty. The Red Etna, Improved Bull Nose and Golden King are other good ones.

"The word pumpkin stands for good, old-fashioned pies, for Thanksgiving, for grandmother's house. It really brings more to mind than the word squash. I suppose the squash is a bit more useful, when we think of the fine Hubbard, and the nice little crooked-necked summer squashes; but after all, I like to have more pumpkins. And as for Jack-o'-lanterns--why they positively demand pumpkins. In planting these, the same general directions hold good which were given for melons. And use these same for squash-planting, too. But do not plant the two cousins together, for they have a tendency to run together. Plant the pumpkins in between the hills of corn and let the squashes go in some other part of the garden.

"We have very nearly worn out the subject of radish. About the only cultural point I would add is this: Make radish develop quickly. If growth is slow, the radish is likely to be poor. Sometimes all the growth goes to top. Fine, green leaves result, but no good radishes. Then doctor the soil in order that fruit development may be quickened. Radishes are the quickest in maturing of all vegetables. That is why your teacher had radish beds for the lower grades in the school. The children got a result and got it quickly. Josephine might have raised radishes as well as parsley in the box garden she had. People in cities could raise these two vegetables on their roofs just as well as not. They are worth the effort it takes in trying.

"There is one point I wish to speak of in tomato culture. The great trouble in cultivating comes in the overgrowth of vines. Each plant becomes a large, overgrown, unwieldy sort of affair unless looked out for. Use a stake for each vine. Tie the main stalk of the plant to this. Let the development of fruit come from the top of the plant. So pinch back the lateral branches and remove these. In this way the tomato garden is a neat and pretty one. This treatment is similar to that given grapes.

"There is a tomato called the dwarf champion. This is a dwarf variety and so gives less trouble than the other kinds. It does not get troublesome and often does not need staking. If you were little boys and girls, I should say plant this kind of tomato every time.

"I have little more to say about turnips. They are an old vegetable, for over two thousand years ago, the Greeks dined on turnips. I usually plant mine right out in the open. The soil may be a sandy one.

X

FLOWER CULTURE

In planting the flower garden there are a few things always to be considered. These are matters of colour, of time and of persistency. "The subject of colour is not so trying, after all, as many gardeners seem to think. If you people wish to plant a few of a good many gay-blooming plants, then I guess colour is a problem. The chief thought in a flower garden should be, how I can make a beautiful picture of this garden of mine. You see right off how tiring and dazzling the garden of too many little dots of colour could be. Look about in nature--see the beautiful range of the butterfly weed, the pinky purple of Joe Pye, the scarlet of cardinal flowers, the blue of certain asters, the pink of bouncing Bet, the yellow of tansy and goldenrod. Nature is constantly presenting perfect splashes of brilliant colour here and there. And yet it is not inharmonious. Why? One reason is that much of the colour is in great masses, and what is not has been softened by stretches of soft green.

"Let us take a hint from this for our small gardens. Plant colours in masses, and have breaks of green in between. Not a bad idea! I seem to hear you say.

"Then a garden should have a strong time element about it. By this I mean that one should plan a garden for a round of bloom. Why have all the blooms in August? If you look at this bulb time-table I shall have ready for you, you will find that it is possible to start with bulbs. Snowdrops and crocuses will gladly usher in a continuous round of bloom for you. I do not mean that these two will bloom continuously. Not at all! But I mean they are the starters. There are conditions, where spring bloom and fall bloom alone is desired. This is the case with all school gardens where summer care is impossible. Another table called a garden of continuous bloom will help you plan this.

"Another point to think of is persistency. Why not plant some seed which will produce plants that come up year after year? Why not have some hardy perennials and some self-sowing annuals? Poppy and cornflower sow themselves. These are annuals. Think of the perennials, which come year after year to welcome us. I think you should have hardy matter in your gardens. Peonies come up year after year, iris takes care of itself, helianthus or perennial sunflower bobs up each year.

"George asked me one day, what I meant when I spoke of herbaceous plants. A herbaceous plant is one with a non-woody stem, as geraniums. Mock orange is not herbaceous, because it has a woody stem. When I speak of hardy plants, I mean those which can stand living outdoors through their existence, from start to finish. A half-hardy plant is one that requires fostering before being planted outdoors. We consider asters half-hardy, because they need the extra heat for start which the nasturtium does not need. You would not think of starting nasturtiums indoors. But asters and stock really need this sort of a start in life.

"The tall flowers must go toward the back of the garden, for if they were placed in the foreground they would screen the others. The plants of medium height make up the main part of the garden; while the low plants are in the foreground as borders.

"Perhaps it would be wiser to put some tall perennials or self-sowing annuals in the background, and among the shrubbery. Then save bed spaces for the annuals. This will cause less disturbance in the garden than the sowing of annuals in with the perennials.

"I cannot take up all the garden flowers with you, because it is an impossibility. But a certain number of the more common ones I will talk of.

"There are certain plants rather easier to grow than others, and very satisfactory in results. One of these all-around plants is the pansy. It likes best of all cool, moist places but it will do well, under rather reverse conditions. Pansies are the easiest of plants to grow from seed, and they offer a ready response to experiments with cross-fertilization. The very best time to sow plants is after midsummer. Anyway, the work must be done before October the first. Let us claim then that the middle of August is a good time. Make little drills a quarter of an inch deep for the seed; or better, sprinkle it on a fine seed bed. Over the seed sift a little soil. Pansy seed is fine and small, so great care must be taken in the early waterings; better far to cover the bed with old sacking, and water the sacking. In this way, the seed is not washed away. The little sturdy plants should be covered over with leaves or straw for the wintertime. When early spring comes, you will be delighted with plants which are well along.

"Pansy flowers should always be kept well picked. Do not let the seed pods form if you desire continuous bloom. It is well to hold this in mind--that if plants are hurried along too fast, the flowers suffer in size. Small, inferior flowers result from such treatment. Pansies have a habit of running out--that is, the flowers grow smaller each year. It is merely a warning to keep making new sowings in order that one may always have large, vigorous blooms.

"Choice seed of this flower is very expensive. It is a plant that some florists have put all their time upon. It has seemed to certain men that one of the greatest things in the world, is to find out ways of improving the plants of the earth. So certain fruits are crossed to make new and better ones; and certain flowers are being constantly worked over to get superior strains. Sweet peas, pansies, stock, and dahlias are plants which have been much improved by man's skill.

"Larkspur is one of those plants which children so rarely try. I have wondered often why. It is not hard to raise, and so I am hoping that some of you will try it another season. The larkspur is a hardy plant, and there are both annuals and perennials in this family. Some varieties are dwarfed, and grow only a foot and a half high, while others grow five feet in height. This latter growth is very charming in the background of the garden. The flower spikes are showy and the foliage pretty. The larkspur likes a pretty rich sort of soil. The seed is very slow in germinating, and that is reason enough for fall planting. The stay over winter gives these fussy seeds time to make up their minds to germinate. This sowing should be done after the middle of October.

"Really charming blue flowers are a bit difficult to find because we have fewer blue flowers than those of the reds and yellows. Do not get the impression that larkspurs are only blue in colour. There are yellow, pink, red, and white varieties. But the blue is very fine. So when you are thinking of high flowers for backgrounds, keep the larkspur in mind.

"Hollyhock is another good background plant, because of its height and sentinel-like effect. It sows itself, so will take care of itself. Perennial phlox is well to put into the garden. Helianthus, I have mentioned, as suitable for backgrounds. It has a rather bad habit of too free spreading.

"Peonies are very satisfactory. I am sure you will all want some of them. They look their best planted in clumps. A certain pink and white peony is called the rose peony. It is sweet scented, and when in blossom it scents the portion of the yard where it is placed. These look well planted in wide borders. The roots, or bulbs, should go about three inches below ground in nice, rich, garden soil. Do not plant where they get the full blaze of early sun.

"I'd put some iris in the border, too. It requires no care. You need not bed it over, even, in the fall. It likes a certain amount of moisture, but grows readily under almost all conditions. The German iris is an easy grower; the French fleur-de-lis is lovely with its more delicate blossom. Certain irises, to be sure, are particular about their quarters, but the two kinds mentioned are not. They like a certain amount of open space. Do not hide them in the shrubbery, although they may be planted near it.

"You might put in some hardy chrysanthemums. These need good rich garden soil. They should also be placed near the back of the garden for good effect. You may choose almost any colour in these. Some of the little button chrysanthemums are good for backgrounds. The yellow ones make good splashes of colour, while the dull reds are most beautiful. These bloom after frost. When the frost has made havoc with the foliage, cut the plant down to about one inch of the ground. It is well to cut the flowers before frost.

"You have now a few good background plants which are hardy.

"The biennials can be so planted as to behave like perennials. These plants, you remember, are doing their best blossoming work the second summer. So by yearly sowings you may always have good effects. I have mentioned some already for your garden:--Canterbury bell, cornflower and foxglove are biennials. Cornflower tends to self sow, but needs help in this work from you. Sweet William is an old favourite. Of course, it is pretty gaudy. But I like old sweet William in spite of his gay tendency. They are rather stiff, but so easy to raise, being not very particular about anything.

"When it comes to annuals there is a multitude of these to plant each season. There are candytuft and alyssum for borders. Then mignonette is absolutely necessary to keep the garden sweet. Coreopsis is easy to raise, and so is godetia. If a great big bold mass of colour is desired, put in Shirley poppies. These grow well even on sandy soil. It is well to remember, that these do not lend themselves kindly to transplanting.

"Suppose there is a bit of sandy ground which needs a low-growing plant. Put in this spot portulaca. The bright little blossoms, constantly blooming, add a bit of cheer to that old sandy place.

"There are the old stand-bys which are good bloomers--nasturtiums, zinnias, marigolds and petunias. In the case of zinnia, it is better to buy these seeds by the ounce. Children's penny packages and the regular five-cent packages are filled usually with seeds which produce variously coloured blossoms. One can plan for no good effects in this way. If you get a seed catalogue, and look through the zinnia list, you can choose just what you like.

"Certain plants are spoken of as plants for bedding. These plants are placed in a formal bed after the spring flowers have finished their blooming. You sometimes see in the park fine beds of tulips and hyacinths early in the season. After these have finished their blooming, plants which are all started are put in their bed. If seeds were planted they would take so long to develop that the bed would look bad for a long time. So bedding plants are put in. Geraniums are the most popular of all. Begonias, fuchsias, heliotrope and coleus are often used. Geraniums will stand almost any kind of soil, and therefore have great advantages over most plants. Begonias will flourish in the shade; while the strong point about coleus is that of beauty of foliage.

"To those of you who have started outdoor bulb beds, the bedding list will be of some service. Marguerites look well in such a bed. Often one sees a border of ageratum about such a one. There is always a sort of stiff effect about such borders, however. A canna bed is after the same order, yet is effective. Salvia, or scarlet sage, looks well in wide borders, or near the underpinning of the house. Both these may act as bedding plants.

"There are three other kinds of gardens I should like to bring to your minds--the rock garden, the herb garden and the wild-flower garden. This last we shall have to leave for another time, however.

"Whenever a rockery is mentioned to some people they shrug their shoulders, and murmur something about a mere heap of rocks. Now, a rock garden may be very pretty, or very ugly. Such a garden should never be stuck out in the front yard to hit one in the face. But if you have a place in your yard, which is near the woods or in the vicinity of trees, or by a rocky ledge--in short, if you have any place with a bit of wildness surrounding it, use this for a rockery. If your yard is just a plain, tame, civilized yard, you'd better leave the rock garden out. I know of a lady living in a city, whose backyard is a rocky ledge. That ledge itself told her what her garden ought to be. It just cried out to her, 'Build a rock garden on me.' And she did it. Any other kind of a garden would have been out of place and taste there. Wherever a rocky ledge is found, there is a possibility for a rock garden.

"To have a good garden of this sort, one must have earth as well as rocks. Earth must be put into all the crevices of rock, so that there is some depth to it, and at such an angle that it won't be washed out by hard rains. A rock garden should have an earth foundation. I mean that there must be much of earth about it. I saw a charming one, which had only climbing nasturtiums planted over it. It was a great rock jutting out, and extending back into the yard--a big, flat, irregular affair--and all over it were these running vines. It was very simple and very effective. Go to the woods and seek out ferns which are growing in rocky places. Take what little earth they have about them, and try to give them a similar position in your own rockery. Bring back some leaf mould from the woods, and mix the garden soil for the rockery. Candytuft, dwarf phlox, stonecrop, morning glory, saxifrage, bleeding heart, rock cress, myrtle, thrift, columbine, bell flower, and moss pink. Get some moss, too, for chinks between rocks.

"If we could go back to old colonial days, and visit a dame's garden, I am sure we should find a little herb garden there. Our mothers might call these herbs pot herbs. Here all the flavourings for the soups were raised. Here sweet lavender might be found, its flowers used to make fragrant the bed linen. Horehound, anise and others were used in medicines; while little caraway seeds made delicious the cakes and cookies. I can see bunches of dried sage hung in the attic.

"Even with us there might be good use made of this garden both at home and at school. We do, of course, grow parsley, which is an herb, but the others seem to have dropped out of our gardens. We might at least grow next summer the sage and savoury for the turkey stuffing.

"Herbs need a sandy, well-worked soil. Seed should be sown in drills about twelve inches apart. The seed should be sown in early spring, as soon as the ground is warm. Sprinkle the seed just below the surface, and cover lightly with soil.

"A list of common herbs includes the following: Anise, balm, basil, borage, caraway, catnip, coriander, dill, fennel, horehound, hop, hyssop, lavender, pot marigold, sweet and pot marjoram, parsley, pennyroyal, rosemary, rue, sage, savoury, tansy, sorrel, thyme, and wormwood. It would be of little use to plant all of these, even to see what the plants were like. I would suggest your trying lavender, sage, savoury, and dill.

"Lavender seed is very slow to germinate, so sow the seed plentifully in early spring. The soil should have a dusting of lime over it as lavender plants enjoy lime. The flower is the part you wish. Pick these flower stalks before the flowers get old. Dry, and then sprinkle the dried flowers in the linen chest. Lavender is very sweet, and is often spoken of as sweet lavender. To this day one will hear women singing in the streets of London, 'Sweet lavender, buy my sweet lavender.'

"Sage likes a good, well-drained soil. It, too, likes lime. The little seedlings should be thinned out to stand about ten inches apart. When you see flowers forming cut the sage plant and quickly dry. It makes a pretty border plant in the garden. Savoury is also a border plant. But this is a hardy annual, while lavender and sage are perennials. It likes a light but rich soil. Both the leaves and flowers are used in soup flavouring. "Dill is also sown in early spring. It is the seed of the dill plant, and not the leaves and flowers, which is the useful part. The seeds are used in the making of pickles.

"I shall hope to see something in the herb line, in your gardens next year--a hardy garden started, and a good bit of taste displayed by all of you. You girls might raise mint to put in lemonade.

"Next time we shall have our talk on wild flowers. Some of you know and love many of these wild flowers."

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNUALS FOR SANDY SOILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Clarkia Rose June 1-1/2 ft. Good to use for a border White Oct. plant. Purple Use single varieties.

Poppy White July 1-1/2 ft. Do not transplant. Fine for Red Aug. mass effects.

Nasturtium Yellow June Most satisfactory, especially to Maroon Oct. 1-5 ft. for cut flowers. Blooms freely.

Portulaca White June 1/2 ft. Blooms freely -- grows close Red to the ground. Yellow

Zinnia Red June 1-1/2 ft. Grows without great care. Magenta Frost Blooms freely. Looks best when massed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNUALS FOR HEAVY SOILS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Godetia Red July 1-2 ft. Easy to grow. An English White Oct. favourite: blooms freely.

Sweet Pea Variety July 4-6 ft. Plant early in the spring in Oct. a sunny spot. Keep flowers well clipped for constant bloom.

Petunia Magenta May 1-2 ft. Mass or use in borders. Give plenty of sun. Good for the outdoor window box.

Sweet White July 1/2 ft. Sow thickly in the borders. Alyssum Sept. Blooms freely. Grows in every soil.

Pot Orange June 1-1/2 ft. Blooms freely. Looks well Marigold Yellow Frost in masses. Stiff effect as a cut flower. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ SEVEN FAVOURITE ANNUALS FOR CUT FLOWERS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sweet White July 1/2 ft. Use in low bowls for table Alyssum Red Sept. decorations.

China Aster White July 1 ft. Lasts long after cutting. Blue to Oct. Purple

Baby's White June 2-3 ft. Use in bouquets with other Breath Rose Oct. flowers.

Coreopsis Yellow June 1-2 ft. Place by themselves in tall Brown Nov. vases.

Nasturtium Scarlet June 1-5 ft. Cut freely for constant Yellow Oct. bloom. Use in great masses in low vases.

Pansy Purple May 1/2-1 ft. Cut closely. Place in low Blue June dishes. Yellow White

Pink White May 1 ft. Lasts well after cutting. Maroon Aug. Rose ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNUALS THAT BLOOM AFTER FROST ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sweet Alyssum White July 1/2 ft. Withstands early frosts. Sept. Good border plant.

Candytuft Red June to 1/2 ft. Sow at intervals through White Sept. the summer. Good cut flower.

Cornflower Rose June 2-3 ft. Good for cut flowers. Blue Blooms freely. White

Marigold Yellow June 1/2 - 2 Better for garden effects Browns Aug. ft. than for cut flowers.

Annual Phlox Yellow May 1/2 - 1 Self sows. Good all round Reds Aug. ft. plant. White

Ten-weeks White June 1 1/2 A second sowing made in stock Purple July ft. May flowers the same Pink season. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ FRAGRANT ANNUALS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mignonette Green May 1 ft. Beautifully fragrant. Do Oct. not transplant. Good to use as a break for clashing colours.

Sweet Peas White July 4-6 ft. Free bloomer. Try variety Scarlet Oct. _Lathyrus odorata._ Blue Yellow

Ten- weeks Pink June 1 ft. Good for cut flowers. stock Purple July Fragrant at night. White

Sweet Sultan White June 2 ft. _Centaurea moschata_ good Yellow Aug. for cut flowers. Purple

Sweet Alyssum White July 1/2 ft. _Alyssum maritimun._ Low Sept. growing, border plant. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNUALS THAT RE-SOW THEMSELVES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Morning glory Reds July 15-30 ft. Grows rapidly. Makes a Blues Oct good screen. Whites

Poppy Pink June 1/2-2 ft. _Papaver Rhocas_ and P. Scarlet Sept. _somniferum_. White

Phlox Yellow May l/2-1 ft. _Phlox Drummondii._ Reds Aug. Need much water. White

Pot Marigold Orange June 1-2 ft. _Calendula officinalis_ Yellow Oct. Likes a warm soil. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNUALS THAT CLIMB ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Balloon Vine White Aug. 10 ft. Grows rapidly. Good screen.

Japanese Hop Incon- July 8-20 ft. Rapid grower. Looks well spicuous Oct. growing along old fences.

Moon-flower White July 15-30 ft. Night bloomer. Grows Sept. rapidly.

Morning Glory Purple June 20 ft. Rapid grower. Good White Aug. screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNUALS FOR SHADY PLACES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Godetia White July 1-2 ft. The flowers are showy. Red to Oct.

Musk Yellow June 1/2-1 ft. Need moisture and coolness. to Aug

Nemophila Blue June 1-3 ft. Moisture, partial shade and White to Oct. coolness.

Pansy White May 1/2-1 ft. Sow under same conditions Yellow to Oct. as musk in early spring. Purple Blooms freely in the fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNUALS FOR SUNNY PLACES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Balsam Red June to 1-2 ft. Plant in rich sandy loam Yellow Oct. under direct rays of sun. White

Cornflower Blue May to 2 ft. Full flower. Resows itself Sept.

Cosmos White July to 4 ft. Overrich soil retards Pink Sept. bloom. Crimson

Gaillardia Red July to 3 ft. Good cut flower. Blossoms Yellow Oct. freely.

Marigold, Yellow July to 3 ft. Blooms profusely; stiff African Frost flower head.

Nasturtium Yellow June to 1-5 ft. Both dwarf and tall varieties Scarlet Oct. are rapid growers and free bloomers.

Rose moss White June 1/2-3/4 ft. _Portulaca grandiflora._ Magenta Aug. Plant in position direct sunshine.

Verbena Various July to 2 ft. Start inside for early Sept. bloom.

Wallflower Orange June 1-1/2 ft. Sown in Sept. blooms in July May. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ANNUALS FOR ROCKY PLACES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phlox Red June to 1-1-1/2 ft. Variety _Phlox Drumondii_ White Oct. Duration of bloom depends on richness of soil.

Candytuft Red May 1/2-1-1/2 ft. Plant in the fall and cover White Frost for early spring bloom.

Clarkia Purple June 1-1/2 ft. Use _Clarkia elegans._ Red Oct. Thrives in both sun and White partial shade.

Nasturtium Reds June 1 ft. _Tropoeolum minor;_ blooms (Dwarf) Yellows Oct. very early. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ FRAGRANT PERENNIALS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Winter Lilac Dec. 1 ft. Blooms outdoors in winter. Heliotrope Feb. Flowers small.

Russian Violet March 1/2 ft. Double flowers. Hardy. Violets

Lily-of- White May 3/4 ft. Plant by middle of March the-Valley for that season's bloom. Needs part shade. Spreads.

Valerian Pinkish June 3 ft. Finely cut foliage. Easy to grow.

Lemon Lily Yellow June 2 ft. Flowers 4 in. long. Tubers which multiply rapidly.

Fringed Pink Lilac July 1 ft. Blooms until autumn if prevented from seeding.

Bee Balm Scarlet July 2 ft. Odour of mint. Good for Aug. mass effects.

White Day White Aug. 2 ft. Lilies 4-6 in. long. Fine, Lily Sept. broad-leaved foliage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ PERENNIALS FOR CUT FLOWERS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Christmas Rose White Nov. 1/2 ft. Blooms outdoors in the Feb. snow. No fragrance. Charming in masses.

California Violet March 1/2 ft. Large flowers but single. Violets Fragrant.

Foxglove Purple June 3-4 ft. Large flowers, long stems. Oriental Blue June 2-3 ft. Beautiful colour, long Larkspur White stems. Let no flowers go to seed.

Japan Iris Variety July 3-4 ft. Short lived when cut. of Fine blooms.

Japan Anemone Pink Sept. 3 ft. Finest September flower. White Plant in spring. Plant for afternoon sun. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ TALL PERENNIALS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hollyhock Variety July 6 ft. Single varieties are the of hardier; double varieties last longer.

Plume Poppy Pinkish July 6 ft. Spreads rapidly. Fine for massing and screening. Do not plant on the west as it shuts off sun.

Golden Glow Yellow Aug. 6 ft. Multiplies rapidly. Fine bloomer. Liable to pest lice. Spray with soap solution.

Double Yellow Aug. 5 ft. Largest double flower of Sunflower any perennial. Likely to run out unless divided

Late Yellow Sept. 10-12 ft. Tallest of perennials; Sunflower blooms till October. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ LOW GROWING PERENNIALS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Crested Blue April 9 in. Earliest of iris. Good for Dwarf Iris edgings. Plant the middle of March.

Dwarf Flag Purple April 9 in. Increases rapidly. Large flowers. Good colouring

English Pink April 6 in. Good for spring budding Daisy White purposes.

Tufted Blue June 6 in. More but smaller flowers Pansies or Yellow than pansies. After Violets White July cut back, manure and they will bloom again in September.

Carpathian Blue July 8 in. Bloom for 6 weeks. Easy Harebell to grow.

Coral Bells Red Aug. 12 in. Grow in sandy, well-drained soil. Coral red flowers.

Popp-mallow Crimson Sept. 9 in. Blooms nearly 12 weeks. Colour does not harmonize with others. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------ PERENNIALS OF MEDIUM HEIGHT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAME COLOUR TIME HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bleeding Pink May 1-1/2 ft. Long lived and long of Heart bloom. Graceful.

European Crimson May 3 ft. Earliest of peonies. Poor Peony White appearance in the fall.

Sweet Red June 12 in. Self sows. Flowers at their William Pink best the second year. White

Chinese Crimson June 2-1/2 ft. Long-lived. Very Peony Pink satisfactory. Plant White in September.

Foxglove Purple June 3-3-1/4 ft. Spire-like cluster White of flowers.

Oriental Blue June 2-3 ft. Best blue perennial. Cut Larkspur flower spikes as soon as they fade.

Oriental Red June 3 ft. Self sows. Flowers 6 in. Poppy across.

Gaillardia Red June 1 ft. Flowers more freely than Yellow Nov. any other perennial. Cover plants after ground freezes.

Late Phlox All best Aug. 1-1/2 ft. Fragrant in the evening. Blue Sept. Many colours of bloom. and Yellow

Hardy Blue Sept. 3ft. Long season of bloom. Chrysanthemum Scarlet Nov. Deep rich soil and sunny exposure for best results. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

XI

THE WILD-FLOWER GARDEN

"A wild-flower garden has a most attractive sound. One thinks of long tramps in the woods, collecting material, and then of the fun in fixing up a real for sure wild garden.

"If the wild garden is to be a school affair, then I certainly should plant the different kinds of flowers together. The north corner near the building is a suitable place. But if the garden is to be at home--your own private little garden--I am inclined to think it would be better to plant the wild flowers here and there among the cultivated ones.

"A wild-flower garden is a joy each year, because up it comes without constant replanting of seed. It is a hardy garden. As Nature often covers her wood-flowers over with leaves preparatory to winter, so you might copy her and do the same.

"Many people say they have no luck at all with such a garden. It is not a question of luck, but a question of understanding, for wild flowers are like people and each has its personality. What a plant has been accustomed to in Nature it desires always. In fact, when removed from its own sort of living conditions, it sickens and dies. That is enough to tell us that we should copy Nature herself. Suppose you are hunting wild flowers. As you choose certain flowers from the woods, notice the soil they are in, the place, conditions, the surroundings, and the neighbours.

"Suppose you find dog-tooth violets and wind-flowers growing near together. Then place them so in your own new garden. Suppose you find a certain violet enjoying an open situation; then it should always have the same. You see the point, do you not? If you wish wild flowers to grow in a tame garden make them feel at home. Cheat them into almost believing that they are still in their native haunts.

"Wild flowers ought to be transplanted after blossoming time is over. Take a trowel and a basket into the woods with you. As you take up a few, a columbine, or a hepatica, be sure to take with the roots some of the plant's own soil, which must be packed about it when replanted.

"The bed into which these plants are to go should be prepared carefully before this trip of yours. Surely you do not wish to bring those plants back to wait over a day or night before planting. They should go into new quarters at once. The bed needs soil from the woods, deep and rich and full of leaf mold. The under drainage system should be excellent. Then plants are not to go into water-logged ground. Some people think that all wood plants should have a soil saturated with water. But the woods themselves are not water-logged. It may be that you will need to dig your garden up very deeply and put some stone in the bottom. Over this the top soil should go. And on top, where the top soil once was, put a new layer of the rich soil you brought from the woods.

"Before planting water the soil well. Then as you make places for the plants put into each hole some of the soil which belongs to the plant which is to be put there.

"I think it would be a rather nice plan to have a wild-flower garden giving a succession of bloom from early spring to late fall; so let us start off with March, the hepatica, spring beauty and saxifrage. Then comes April bearing in its arms the beautiful columbine, the tiny bluets and wild geranium. For May there are the dog-tooth violet and the wood anemone, false Solomon's seal, Jack-in-the-pulpit, wake robin, bloodroot and violets. June will give the bellflower, mullein, bee balm and foxglove. I would choose the gay butterfly weed for July. Let turtle head, aster, Joe Pye weed, and Queen Anne's lace make the rest of the season brilliant until frost.

"Let us have a bit about the likes and dislikes of these plants. After you are once started you'll keep on adding to this wild-flower list.

"There is no one who doesn't love the hepatica. Before the spring has really decided to come, this little flower pokes its head up and puts all else to shame. Tucked under a covering of dry leaves the blossoms wait for a ray of warm sunshine to bring them out. The last year's leaves stay on through the winter brooding over the little fresh sprouts. These embryo flowers are further protected by a fuzzy covering. This reminds one of a similar protective covering which new fern leaves have. In the spring a hepatica plant wastes no time on getting a new suit of leaves. It makes its old ones do until the blossom has had its day. Then the new leaves, started to be sure before this, have a chance. These delayed, are ready to help out next season. You will find hepaticas growing in clusters, sort of family groups. They are likely to be found in rather open places in the woods. The soil is found to be rich and loose. So these should go only in partly shaded places and under good soil conditions. If planted with other woods specimens give them the benefit of a rather exposed position, that they may catch the early spring sunshine. I should cover hepaticas over with a light litter of leaves in the fall. During the last days of February, unless the weather is extreme take this leaf covering away. You'll find the hepatica blossoms all ready to poke up their heads.

"The spring beauty hardly allows the hepatica to get ahead of her. With a white flower which has dainty tracings of pink, a thin, wiry stem, and narrow, grass-like leaves, this spring flower cannot be mistaken. You will find spring beauties growing in great patches in rather open places. Plant a number of the roots and allow the sun good opportunity to get at them. For this plant loves the sun.

"The other March flower mentioned is the saxifrage. This belongs in quite a different sort of environment. It is a plant which grows in dry and rocky places. Often one will find it in chinks of rock. There is an old tale to the effect that the saxifrage roots twine about rocks and work their way into them so that the rock itself splits. Anyway, it is a rock garden plant. I have found it in dry, sandy places right on the borders of a big rock. It has white flower clusters borne on hairy stems.

"The columbine is another plant that is quite likely to be found in rocky places. Standing below a ledge and looking up, one sees nestled here and there in rocky crevices one plant or more of columbine. The nodding red heads bob on wiry, slender stems. The roots do not strike deeply into the soil; in fact, often the soil hardly covers them. Now, just because the columbine has little soil, it does not signify that it is indifferent to the soil conditions. For it always has lived, and always should live, under good drainage conditions. I wonder if it has struck you, how really hygienic plants are? Plenty of fresh air, proper drainage, and good food are fundamentals with plants.

"It is evident from study of these plants how easy it is to find out what plants like. After studying their feelings, then do not make the mistake of huddling them all together under poor drainage conditions.

"I always have a feeling of personal affection for the bluets. When they come I always feel that now things are beginning to settle down outdoors. They start with rich, lovely, little delicate blue blossoms. As June gets hotter and hotter their colour fades a bit, until at times they look quite worn and white. Some people call them Quaker ladies, others innocence. Under any name they are charming. They grow in colonies, sometimes in sunny fields, sometimes by the road-side. From this we learn that they are more particular about the open sunlight than about the soil.

"If you desire a flower to pick and use for bouquets, then the wild geranium is not your flower. It droops very quickly after picking and almost immediately drops its petals. But the purplish flowers are showy, and the leaves, while rather coarse, are deeply cut. This latter effect gives a certain boldness to the plant that is rather attractive. The plant is found in rather moist, partly shaded portions of the woods. I like this plant in the garden. It adds good colour and permanent colour as long as blooming time lasts, since there is no object in picking it.

"I suppose little children would not have a perfect spring without the dog's tooth violet. The leaves are attractive and almost make the beauty of a bouquet. It is sometimes called trout lily. The mottled effect of the leaves accounts for the trout part of the name, and as for lily, it _is_ a lily, and never belonged to the violet family at all. Dig the plant up, and the bulbous root tells the story. It really does belong to the lily family. The nodding yellow flower is pretty, too. These, when picked, last a long time in water. They like to grow in the neighbourhood of the brook. A moist, half-shaded half-open piece of land is their delight, and therefore in many gardens the trout lily might have to be left out.

"There is a sweet little flower called the wood anemone, or wind-flower. It is another modest little flower, white in colour. The constant nodding of the petals stirred by even a breath of wind gives it the name of wind-flower. These also grow in colonies. Have you noticed how social, but clannish, our wild flowers are? Especially is this true of the real woods flowers, rather than of the wayside flowers. The anemone grows in open places by the woods or the hillside. They are a sort of border plant evidently trying to leave the woods, but still bound to it.

"If in your yard there happens to be a big old fatherly tree or a decaying stump, plant wind-flowers all about it. You may make the flowers feel that they are on the edge of the woods.

"While I have numbered bloodroot among May flowers, it often does appear in April, and before the wood anemone. The silvery, white blossom pushes its head above the leaves in a fine fashion. They are sensitive flowers, closing partly in cloudy weather, and actually dropping to pieces in a rainstorm or under severe winds. The leaves are large, rather coarse, but pretty with their light under surfaces. The stems have tinges of red on them, a dark red sap in the roots. These roots bleed when disturbed. The Indians used to stain their faces with this orange sap-blood. You will find bloodroot growing in rich soil either in open woods or on rocky slopes.

"In a nice, rich, moist place put a few Jack-in-the pulpits. This flower is much like a child's jack-in-the-box. It is so different from most of our plants that it has the effect of the joker in a pack of cards. Push back the flap over Jack's face and you will see a club like a policeman's billy. Along this club the inconspicuous flowers are borne. Later, in the fall, the fruit forms, and inside, instead of rather uninteresting flowers, are bright red berries. So Jack jokes again.

"There is always a great feeling of joy when the first trilliums, or wake robins, appear. Walking in the deep, moist woods suddenly one sees a mass of big leaves and white flowers. The same irresistably lovely trilliums have come again. Three big leaves, then a flower stalk shooting up from the centre of this whorl of leaves, and on top the crowning glory--the three-petaled trillium flower. A fragrant white or pink form is called the nodding wake robin. These in a glance tell their wishes. The plant sometimes is nearly two feet high. So a clump of these could easily go toward the back of the wild-flower garden in shade and moist soil.

"Another wild flower of striking beauty is the May apple or mandrake. It comes very early in May, often in April. This plant grows to about the same height as the trillium. Only the big spreading leaves of the mandrake are visible at first sight. Beneath these, and daintily hung in the junction of the leaf stalks, is the lovely, waxy, white blossom. Late after the fading of the blossom the fruit appears. So its name of May apple comes from this fruit, which has a sickly sweet taste. The leaf and stalk part of the May apple are of a poisonous nature. This flower, too, likes rather low, moist, shaded places.

"The false Solomon's seal is found in woods where moisture is. During June and July this plant is in blossom. After the white flowers the fruit, or berry, appears. The berry changes from green, to white, to red. There is a two-leaved Solomon's seal called the false lily-of-the-valley which is found at this same time. It has usually two little lily-like leaves and a blossom stalk running up from these. Tiny fragrant flowers are borne on this stalk. These plants grow in moist woods, also. One might plant these two near together in the garden, for the soil conditions are the same for both.

"Who would wish a wild-flower garden without violets? The little sweet wood ones, the big horse shoes, the rare white, and more rare yellow--any and all are worth our while! Violets, at least the most of them, prefer not to be huddled away. I wonder why, when people think of transplanting violets, a dull, dark, moist spot immediately comes to mind? Violets like the sun, like good soil, and plenty of air. Some violets are found in the swamps, but did you happen to notice what long stems they have? Why? The reason is to raise the lovely flowers into the light. Nothing could be sweeter or more satisfactory than a violet bed. I rather like violets bedded by themselves. They fill in corners beautifully. They grow gladly about trees. They adorn borders. You may cover them, in the fall or not as you like. They are not fussy. Take a north corner at school, a corner not wholly shaded by any means--fill that in solid with violet plants in the fall. That corner always will be a thing of real beauty.

"The bellflower coming in May blooms on until September. The flower is blue, purple or violet. It is a flower found in dry places, on grassy slopes, along hillsides, and is common to most localities.

"I have a sneaking fondness for mullein. One or two stalks of it give a charming effect in the garden. Its yellow flowers, its tall flower stalk, the thick, hairy leaves--all these are its charms. It is said that these same hairy leaves were used as wicks by the ancients. Anyway, the flowers themselves on the tall stalks that often reach to seven feet, look like gleaming lights on a torch. The mullein has a simple dignity. It grows in the dry fields and along roadsides. So you see it is by no means particular about its habitat, its place of abode.

"Another tall plant is the foxglove. The flowers are gathered together in a sort of spike at the end of the stalk, are large and yellow and really lovely. The plant grows to about four feet in height. It has a bad habit, this downy false foxglove, of absorbing some of its nourishment from the roots of plants near which it stands. This plant, too, is fond of dry places.

"A very gay flower, intensely red, is the bee balm. It is an herb, and a perennial. It is often called Oswego tea, because the Indians are supposed to have used it for tea. Then, again, you will hear it called Indian's plume. This name seems most suitable. I can just imagine a chief strutting around with this gay plume on his head. It likes a somewhat secluded, moist, shady, cool place. I think it would be possible for some of you to make it grow at home. For colour it would be invaluable. The cardinal flower is the only flower more gaudy in red than this bee balm.

"When one comes to orange colour the butterfly weed takes the prize. This flower has a variety of names: it is called pleurisy root, and wind root, and orange root. Would you think that this gay little beggar was a member of the milkweed family? It is. When seed time comes it produces a seed pod like unto the milkweed pod only more slender than this. All summer long the insects hover about it. It is just like a signal to them. "Come over here to me!" it calls to them all. It is found in dry places, in the fields and pastures, along the dusty road sides, and by the sooty railroad track it flashes its signal. You can make this plant feel at home surely. And think of the butterflies that will visit your garden all summer long.

"Then later comes old Joe Pye weed. Joe Pye was an Indian doctor but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with his weed. Yes, it has its connection. For when old Joe Pye went out on a case of typhoid fever he carried this plant along; hence, its name. The plant sometimes grows to ten feet in height. Really the swamp is its home. So if you are to use it at all remember that it must have this condition of great moisture, even to swampiness. The flower clusters are of a charming colour, a beautiful dull pink.

"Another inhabitant of wet places is the turtle head. The flower resembles in shape a turtle's or a snake's head, and so receives both names.

"When it comes to Queen Anne's lace, you say that is a troublesome weed. Yes, it is. But it is truly beautiful with its lacy flower head. A great bouquet of these on the porch, the dining table, or the school piano is a real picture. A clump of these in the garden, if held in check, is simply stunning. How can they be held down? The only way is to let no flower heads go to seed. The little, clinging, persistent, numerous seeds are seeds of trouble. This lovely bother grows in any sort of soil.

"There are numbers and numbers of wild flowers I might have suggested. These I have mentioned were not given for the purpose of a flower guide, but with just one end in view--your understanding of how to study soil conditions for the work of starting a wild-flower garden.

"If you fear results, take but one or two flowers and study just what you select. Having mastered, or better, become acquainted with a few, add more another year to your garden. I think you will love your wild garden best of all before you are through with it. It is a real study, you see."

XII

LANDSCAPE GARDENING

The subject to-night is a very pretentious one, for no one would expect boys and girls to be landscape gardeners. But many boys and girls have excellent taste and taste is the foundation stone of landscape gardening. This work has often been likened to the painting of a picture. Your art-work teacher has doubtless told you that a good picture should have a point of chief interest, and the rest of the points simply go to make more beautiful the central idea, or to form a fine setting for it. Look at that picture over Miriam's head. See that lone pine, the beautiful curve of the hillside, the scrub undergrowth about the tree, the bit of sky beyond! As soon as one looks at that picture one's eye rests on the pine, and the other features seem to appear afterward.

"So in landscape gardening there must be in the gardener's mind a picture of what he desires the whole to be when he completes his work. Take, for example, your school grounds. You did a bit of landscape work there, although we never called it that before. The little schoolhouse itself was our centre of interest. How could we fix up the grounds so that the little building should have a really attractive setting? That, I believe, was the thought in each of your heads, although no one of you ever put this into words.

"Notice now with me the good points about that work, and from this study we shall be able to work out a little theory of landscape gardening.

"First there is a good extent of lawn about the building, the path to the door is slightly curved and pleasingly so, a fine little maple stands out rather interestingly on the side lawn, the flower garden has a good mass effect, the screen of poplar trees at the back acts as a stately rear guard, and the vines over the outbuilding hide what was once a blemish.

"Let us go back to the lawn. A good extent of open lawn space is always beautiful. It is restful. It adds a feeling of space to even small grounds. So we might generalize and say that it is well to keep open lawn spaces. If one covers his lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One's grounds lose all individuality thus treated. A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn. Do not centre the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a pleasing side feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should be one of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit. While the poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing, bare and ugly, before the fall is old. Mind you, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective. But I think you'll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picturesqueness. The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech--all these are beauty points to consider.

"Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree. Suppose the lower portion of the grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow. Don't group trees together which look awkward. I never should have Peter and Myron march together in school. Why? Because they look wretchedly together. Myron makes Peter look short and Peter causes Myron to look overgrown. So it is with trees. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut. One must keep proportion and suitability in mind.

"I'd never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it.

"There are no shrubs on the school grounds. You had spoken of doing that but bulbs took up the attention of the girls this fall. And as for you boys--you were attending to your own crops. Shrubbery is very pleasing if properly placed. It is just the thing to fill in corners near buildings, to help define the turns in walks, and to use as hedges. Usually one shrub standing by itself is not nearly so pleasing as one tree by itself. It has a squatty and isolated appearance. There is a corner close by the school building where shrubs should go. Why? Because the place looks bare and staring, and the building is very ugly at that point; the shrubs would fill in the space, and make the building look much better.

"As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should be. In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter. This list of shrubs which Philip has made out will be a help to you in this work.

PHILIP'S SHRUB TABLE --------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMON NAME BOTANICAL NAME HEIGHT COLOUR SPECIAL POINTS --------------------------------------------------------------------- _March_ Spice Bush _Benzoin_ 6-15 ft. Yellow Flowers appear _odoriferum_ before leaves. Crimson fruit in fall. Aromatic odour. Daphne _Daphne Mezereum_ 4 ft. Purple The only hardy deciduous daphne. Plant in light soil and in shade. _April_ Barberry _Berberis- 2-4 ft. Yellow Prefers dry soil. Berries _Thunbergii_ all winter.

Golden Bell _Forsythia_ 5-8 ft. Yellow Flowers appear before _suspensa_ leaves. Hardy; free from insects.

_May_ Red-osier _Cornus_ 4-8 ft. White Red branched. Plant Dogwood _stolonifera_ in moist soil.

Japanese Snow _Deutzia_ 1-3 ft. White Very beautiful when Flower _gracilis_ flowering. Needs well drained soil.

Japanese _Viburnum_ 8 ft. White Not as likely to have Snowball _plicatum_ lice as common snowball. Larger balls.

Lilac _Syringa_ 15 ft. Purple Very fragrant. Will _vulgaris_ grow anywhere even in some shade.

_June_ Deutzia _Deutzia_ 1-3 ft. White Hardy; flowers showy. _Lemoinei_

Weigela _Diervilla_ 6 ft. Pink May have white or red _Florida_ White flowers. Flowers under Red trees. Lives where other shrubs die.

Spirea _Spiræa_ 4 ft. White Most showy of spireas. _Van Houttei_ Grows anywhere.

Mock Orange _Philadelphus_ 10 ft. Varieties Fragrant; _Coronarius_ of different makes good screen. colours.

Smoke Bush _Rhus cotinus_ 4-10 ft. Purplish Hardy. Beautiful all summer. Purple colour changes to smoke colour. _July_ Spirea _Spirea_ 3 ft. White Flowers run from white _Bumalda_, to deep pink. Late var._Anthony_ flowering. Hardy. _Waterer_

Sweet Pepper _Clethra_ 3-10 ft. White Moist soil or sandy. Bush _alnifolia_ Late blooming; fragrant flowers.

_August_ Althea, Rose _Hibiscus_ 12 ft. White to Very hardy. Plant in of Sharon _Syriacus_ purple any good garden soil.

_September_ Hardy _Hydrangea_ 8 ft. White to A showy shrub. Flowers Hydrangea _paniculata_ pink remain on all winter.

_October_ Witch Hazel _Hamamelis_ 6-20 ft. Yellow Grows anywhere. Likes _Virginiana_ moisture. Fruit "explodes."

"Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prettier usually than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte's spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.

"You have to remember that not only should grounds look well to the passerby but they should look equally well from the inside of the building. As your mother is working in the kitchen during the hot summer or sewing during a long dull winter afternoon, would it not be a joy to her to look out at a syringa sweet with blossom or a barberry with nodding red berries? Landscape gardening is not only for the purpose of adding beauty to the earth's surface, but also for the putting joy into the heart of a person as well.

"I forgot to say that in tree and shrub selection it is usually better to choose those of the locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize but poorly with their new setting.

"I spoke of the path to the schoolhouse with its slight curve. Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.

"The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead somewhere. That is its business--to direct one to a definite place. Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.

"Garden paths may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would serve as well in your small gardens. Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work. Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.

"A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and so let it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all most satisfactory.

"Just close your eyes and picture a house of natural colour, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly corner of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there climbing over, and falling over a trellis was a trumpet vine. It made beautiful an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter work.

"Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, especially in school work, it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until the better things and better times come. The annual is 'the chap' for this work.

"Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One might try to rival the woods' landscape work. For often one sees festooned from one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine.

"Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and unbroken by beds. What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory. These are little or no bother, and start the spring aright. One may make of some bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect, but just blend with the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there. Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too. You all remember the grape hyacinths that grow all through Katharine's side yard.

"The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.

"You should have in mind some notion of the blending of colour. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas. So we should endeavour not to blind people's eyes with clashes of colours which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colours you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.

"The old-fashioned flowers are lovely--sweet William, phlox, old-fashioned pinks, petunia, verbena, zinnia, marigold, mignonette, and poppy are always dear and sweet. Hollyhocks are charming. They represent a kind of guard for the garden. Stand this hollyhock phalanx up against a wall like naughty boys, close to the house, or by an old fence. They are so tall that they must be in the background. They grace it. Otherwise they would overtop and shadow the other garden plants. If there is an old ash pile, an old dump or anything else unsightly, plant something tall before it. Hollyhocks would not do for this, since their foliage is too scanty. Castor beans are just the thing, however; and sunflowers, the old giant ones, are good, too. A screen is for screening, so that the foliage is of first consideration.

"A wild-flower garden is a good scheme, too. What is lovelier? Bank in a north corner full of these. Hepatica, columbines, anenome, bellflower, butterfly weed, turtle head and aster represent wild flowers which bloom from March through October. I can see that north corner now. Miriam has planned to have one, and has really done the work this fall.

"The water garden is another good thing to try with just the right setting. A place at the end of a slope of land, near some drooping trees, a bit shaded would be right. The garden Philip made is a pattern for you all to follow.

"Finally, let us sum up our landscape lesson. The grounds are a setting for the house or buildings. Open, free lawn spaces, a tree or a proper group well placed, flowers which do not clutter up the front yard, groups of shrubbery--these are points to be remembered. The paths should lead somewhere, and be either straight or well curved. If one starts with a formal garden, one should not mix the informal with it before the work is done.

"At one time we said a little about poor taste in garden furnishings. Painted kettles, old drain pipes, whitewashed bricks, and edgings of shells seemed to us then a bit fussy and crude. So, too, is a summer house stuck out on the front lawn, a rustic seat all by itself in an open spot, an archway which forms an arch over nothing. The summer house should be placed in the side yard, or in the rear in a spot where trees lend it a background. If its use is that of a resting spot for your mother, she certainly would not wish it right out on the front lawn. If the house is for children to play in, then again it is not for the front of the house. An appropriate place is near the garden where it makes a cool place to rest after labour, a spot from which to view the beauties of the garden, and a charming place to serve afternoon tea.

"A good general plan to follow in this landscape work is to see what natural charms your place has, and then try to increase and help these. 'Help Nature' is a good watchword. Even though the garden plan is to be a formal one, the natural resources and setting of your place should be kept in mind. The little we did last year on the school grounds was a bit of landscape garden work. I did not call it that to you then, for if I had you would have been scared off. Philip's work in his backyard was of the same nature. The girls' flower garden was a bit of formal work. I guess, too, the outdoor bulb planting which Albert scorned might come under the same head. So you see you have been landscape gardeners without knowing it. To continue to be, all we have to do is to go on somewhat along the general lines I have spoken of to-night. Different committees have prepared a number of tables which should help you much in matters of selection."

GARDEN OF CONSTANT BLOOM BY MONTHS -------------------------------------------------------------- NAME COLOUR HEIGHT SPECIAL POINTS -------------------------------------------------------------- _March_

Columbine Red 1 ft. Grows on rocky places. Graceful flower.

Hepatica White 6 in. Early spring flower. Ready to blossom Blue under the snow. Last year's Pink leaves shelter flower.

Saxifrage White 8 in. Grows in rocky, sandy places. --------------------------------------------------------------------- _April_

Bluebell Blue 16 in. Likes rock soil and sun.

Dwarf Iris Blue 1 ft. A good border plant. Does not require any special soil. Spreads.

Moss Pink Pink 6 in. Likes full sun. Spreads rapidly.

Violet Blue 6 in. Good soil. Plant in either sun or shade. --------------------------------------------------------------------- _May_

Lily-of- White 9 in. Grows under trees, spreads rapidly. the-Valley Flowers fragrant. Cut flower effect.

German Iris Different 2 ft. The best of flags for general planting purposes. Forget- Blue low Thrives on moist soil. Planted with me-not tulips follows them in bloom.

Chinese Different 4 ft. The earliest of peonies. Good in Peony borders.

Myrtle Blue low Grows even in shade and poorly drained soils. Spreads rapidly. --------------------------------------------------------------------- _June_

Bleeding Pink 2 ft. A hardy plant. Needs moist, good Heart soil. Good border plant.

Foxglove Purple 4 ft. Perennial which self sows. Effective in backgrounds. Likes shade.

Garden Peony Crimson 3 ft. The real old-fashioned peony. Good border plant. Large blossoms.

Larkspur Blue 4 ft. Good for borders and backgrounds. The finest of blue flowers.

Sweet Different 2 ft. A self sewing perennial. Bright William colours. Good for massing. Sweet and constant bloomer. --------------------------------------------------------------------- _July_

Baby's White 3 ft. Grows in rocky soil. Use for formal Breath bouquets.

Butterfly Orange 2 ft. Likes full sunlight and dry soil. Fine Weed colour effect.

Perennial Different 2-5 ft. Good for borders and cut flowers. Phlox Spiked Pink 3 ft. Belongs in wet swamp lands. Will Loosestrife grow in borders.

Hollyhock Different 6 ft. Use for backgrounds and borders.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- _August_

Aster, New Blue 4 ft. Grows in any soil. The best of tall England asters.

Golden Glow Yellow 6 ft. Grows in any soil and spreads rapidly. Good background.

Japanese White Climber Rapid flowering vine. Use on trellis. Clematis Sweet flowers.

Sunflower Yellow 6 ft. Fine for backgrounds and screens. Any dry soil.

Turtle Head Rose 2 ft. Flowers on spikes. Any soil, but wet Purple preferred.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- _September_

Hardy White 6 ft. Blooms till frost. Blossom heads Hydrangea effective.

Japanese Carmine 3 ft. Good border plant. Blossoms last Anemone till frost. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------- WATER AND BOG PLANTS --------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME SPECIAL POINTS --------------------------------------------------------------------- Arrowhead _Sagittaria latifolia_ One of the most popular water plants. Spreads badly.

Arum (water) _Calla palustris_ Popular water plant. Grows less than 1 ft. high. Blooms in June.

Blue Flag _Iris versicolor_ Grows from 2-3 ft. high. Grows in bogs and gardens.

Cat-tail _Typha latifolia_ Grows to 8 ft. or more. Spreads rapidly.

Floating Heart _Limnanthemum Grows less than 1 ft. high. nymphoides_ Good plant for a pond. Spreads readily.

Forget-me-not _Myosotis Palustris_ Grows less than 1 ft. high. Prefers half-shady places.

Lotus, American _Nelumbo lutea_ Good for a pond.

Marsh Marigold _Caltha palustris_ Grows 1-1/2 ft. high. Blooms in May.

Pickerel Weed _Pontederia Grows 3-4 ft. high. Blooms in cordata_ July.

Pitcher Plant _Darlingtonia Grows less than 1 ft. Good for Californica_ bog planting.

Sweet Flag _Acorus Calamus_ Height is 2 ft. Flowers in early summer.

Water-lily _Nymphaea odorata_ Sweet-scented, most popular water-lily.

Water Mint _Mentha Aquatica_ One of the popular mint family. Low growing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- FOUR WATER-LILIES FOR BEGINNERS --------------------------------------------------------------------- NAME COLOUR SPECIAL POINTS --------------------------------------------------------------------- _Nymphaea Gladstoniana_ White This is a hardy variety " _Marliacea_ Yellow " " " " " _dentata_ White Tender, night blooming plant " _Zanzibariensis_ Blue Tender, day blooming plant.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- WATER-LILIES FOR SMALL PONDS --------------------------------------------------------------------- NAME |COLOUR |REQUIRED DEPTH | | OF WATER --------------------------------------------------------------------- _Nymphoea alba_ (hardy) | White |More than 2 ft. " _tuberosa_ (hardy) | White | " " " " _Marliacea rosea_ (hardy) | Pink | " " " " _odorata_, var. _minor_ |White |Less than 1 ft. (hardy) | | " _tetragona_ (hardy) |Yellow | " " " " _Laydekeri_, var. |Pink | " " " _rosea_ (hardy) | | " _Zanzibariensis_ (tender) |White | " " " --------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE:--Any of these forms may be grown in from 1 to 2 ft. of water.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- TREE TABLE --------------------------------------------------------------------- NAME |HEIGHT | SPECIAL POINTS --------------------------------------------------------------------- Carolina Poplar |100 ft.|Grows in a dry soil. Fastest growing street | | tree. Its dropping fruit is a nuisance. | | Sheds leaves early.

Catalpa |50ft. |Lovely white blossoms in June. Seed pods | | stay on into winter. Quick growing. | | Good lawn tree.

English Hawthorn|30ft. |Flowers in June. Red berries. Grows on | | dry soils. Slow grower. Sharp thorns.

Linden |90ft. |Easy to grow. Fragrant flowers. Rapid | | grower. European species smaller than | | American.

Live Oak |100 ft.|Not hardy in the North. Grows south of | | Virginia. Beautiful evergreen oak. Likes | | moist soil.

Locust |80ft. |Fragrant flowers in May and June. Rapid | | grower. Seeds in pods. Thorny bark.

Lombardy Poplar |90ft. |Quick grower. Stiff, straight and tall. | | Dignified but melancholy tree. Fine for | | pathway effect.

Norway Maple |100 ft.|Tall, well rounded tree. Yellow foliage in | | the fall.

Pin Oak |100 ft.|Fastest grower among oaks. You cannot | | grow plants under it.

Red Maple |100 ft.|Earliest flowering maple. Good for lowlands. | | Bright red foliage in the fall.

Sugar Maple |100 ft.|Moist soil. Bright foliage in the fall. Best | | street tree among maples.

Horse Chestnut |60 ft. |Fine white flowers in June. Attractive buds | | and leaves. Foliage grows very dense. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

XIII

HOW BOYS AND GIRLS CAN MAKE MONEY FROM THEIR GARDENS

Naturally, we are all interested in ways and means of earning money. It is not a bad thing at all for a boy or girl to wish to turn work into cash. Not always is it possible for one to find a market next door for products. No, it is rarely as easy a matter as that. One has to really work a bit.

"Let me tell you one boy's story. This lad, let us call him Newton, had a nice vegetable and flower garden. He had worked so hard over it, it did seem to him as if he ought to be able to sell some of his produce. One day he loaded a little cart with vegetables and went down the street to a corner market. I imagine he went in a half-hearted sort of way. The market-man was busy and he spoke a bit roughly to the boy. But Newton went on to another store. He received the same sort of treatment there. This time he gave up discouraged and went home. His mother was not discouraged. She showed him how he should have made his vegetables, wagon and all, look more attractive.

"So Newton went to work again. He scrubbed his radishes and new carrots until they shone. He bunched them up into neat little bundles. Then the lettuce came in for its washing and cleaning. Thus he treated all the vegetables. Then he printed a sign 'Fresh Vegetables For Sale' and started off again. This time he went to the largest hotel in the little city in which he lived. There he was sent to the cook. This big, good-natured fellow said that he would look at his stuff. 'Looks good to me,' said the cook, 'it really looks like home-grown things,' Straightway he bought a good part of what Newton had and there and then made arrangements for daily deliveries of certain vegetables.

"The lesson from Newton's experience is this: in order to sell, you must put your wares in attractive shape. Who wishes to buy dirty radishes or droopy looking lettuce? No one is willing to pay decent prices. Putting materials in such condition that all the good points speak loudly at first, is one way to attract notice and sell later. If you find you can sell by shipping your goods the same points hold true.

"Another way to make money is to raise young plants for sale. Jack did this with his aster plants. Lots of people wish their garden plants partly started. They either do not have the interest, or else they have not the time for initial work. Asters, stock, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, pepper, celery--all of these may be started for market purposes.

"Suppose you have planted tomato seed. You are bound to have more young plants than you wish. Why not sell them? Suppose Mrs. Jones always buys hers. Then go to her and ask if she will not buy of you. She may not believe you can be a very good gardener, so she hesitates. Well, then just ask her if you cannot bring your little plants around for her to see when the time comes. Get to work in your best style. Transplant in little paper cups or strawberry baskets. Then the setting out of the plants will be very easy and quite a scientific performance. I think you will sell to Mrs. Jones all right.

"If you really intend to go into this early market side then you should certainly have a coldframe. You could not blame your mother if she refused to have the kitchen littered up with old tin cans and boxes all the spring. Do not be a nuisance at home just to make money.

"I know a little girl who raised aster and stock plants, also young vegetable plants. She had a coldframe. In the spring, when people were starting their gardens and wondering where they should go for plants, she fixed up an attractive basket filled with her plants. She asked no exorbitant price, but a fair one for a little girl's good work. One year she bought herself a dressing table from her garden earnings. I think that well worth while. Don't you?

"Another way to make money from your garden is to sell your seed. I do not think any of you will be at all likely to try to rival the seed houses. But I am sure that you can supply certain seeds for your own fathers and mothers.

"Such seed as those of radish, lettuce and turnip you would not save. It is better to buy them. But surely you can make some pretty good selections for seed corn. I believe you can manage beans, peas, melons, pumpkins, potatoes and squash. Then we have, I believe, learned from the school flower garden how to select seed. Nasturtium seed may always be saved, dried and put into its own envelope. This will be found to be true, that seeds saved from our own flower garden often do not give satisfactory results as time goes on. The plants and flowers after a few seasons seem to spindle out. In the large seed gardens the varieties of flowers raised are either many or cross-pollination is carried on.

"In putting up your seeds in envelopes give a few cultural directions on them; that is, tell how to plant the special seed. Also, put on when to plant and the proper soil conditions under which planting should go on. If the seeds are those of flowers add information concerning height, colour of blossom, and time of blossoming. Someone might like to know also if the seed was that of an annual, biennial or perennial plant. Think out a neat, attractive way to fix these envelopes. If you do not wish to sell them, they will serve as nice Christmas gifts.

"Among the garden trappings which we made last winter are things you could easily sell. Such a plant stand as Jack made for his own room is certainly marketable. Make samples of your wares and then take orders for them. Again, these represent Christmas gifts, too.

"Rustic seats, a woven mat of corn husks to kneel on when weeding, a bit of nice trellis work, a little tool house are all possible pieces of work.

"I saw once what a boy called his handy boxes. These were wooden boxes, with hinged covers and handles, so that they might be carried about. One was for seeds. This box had partitions inside, and all the different envelopes of seeds were arranged in the different cubby holes. Another box had garden accessories. The word sounds interesting. It means all the little extras needed in the work. Labels, small stakes, a garden reel, measure, knife, cord, note book, pencil--all were in the box, all were things which the boy often used. You can make variations on these. But a box which may be carried about has advantages over one that is screwed up in the tool house.

"I believe the flower-gathering basket would sell well. It is not that it is a rather picturesque sort of Englishy custom to go out and pick flowers with a pretty basket tucked under one's arm, but it is very inconvenient, very hot work, and very mussy, to have to hold bunches of flowers in the hand as one gathers.

"In some places where there are summer colonies it is possible to sell bunches of flowers. I knew of a case where big bunches of sweet peas were brought to the hotel every morning. These sold for ten and fifteen cents the bunch and went like hot cakes.

"The girls may think of all sorts of wicker mats and trays that would make the garden tea more attractive. One ought to think of the aesthetic side.

"I have not mentioned working for others. Hire yourself out. Let it be known that you can and will weed, mow lawns, plant and transplant for so much per hour. Someone may be going off for a few weeks; see to it that you are the boy or girl to be employed. Prove yourself faithful.

"In the winter make garden utensils and also attend to the bulb end of it. At Christmas time you could do a big business.

"Someone might make and bottle kerosene emulsion. Paste on each bottle directions for using. Print very neatly, so it will look well.

"There are doubtless many other ways of making money. But, above all, do not neglect the other side; give away some things from your garden and some of your labour, too. If all you think of is the making of money the soul and heart of you all will get as small and shrivelled as a dry pea. Who wants to be stingy? Better never to make money than to grow like that. Don't let people pay you for everything you do. Do certain things for mother and father for nothing. The home garden is as much theirs as yours. Wouldn't it be ludicrous if your mother said, 'No, Katharine, you cannot have those flowers to carry to school unless you pay ten cents for them,' How cross you would be! Just as absurd, is it not, for you to suggest that you cannot work on that same garden unless you receive ten cents an hour? No, that is all wrong. And if any one of you feels that way do one of two things--either sit down and be ashamed for a good, long time and think of all the things done freely for you; or else go take all the money in your own little bank at home, buy something your mother wants, and give it, being glad, so glad you can get rid of what you have been so stingy about.

"Give flowers to the poor, the sick at home and the sick in hospitals, the church, the people you love, the people you think you don't love, and the people who seem lonely and forlorn.

"Once upon a time there was made a wondrous garden. It was called the earth. The flowers, the trees, the plants which afterwards became through man's skill our staple products--all these were free, absolutely free.

"If this is a true story, how can we be so small as always to make money from this garden? Let us pay our debt to it freely and gladly.

"This is our last talk. Some of you already have started your early vegetables and flowers. Instead of one coldframe we have four in our family and one belongs to a girl.

"It is going to be a better year of gardening than before. Leston is with us now. Another season there will be others. The school grounds look well, and if you have noticed the entire village looks a little better than ever before.

"We will shake hands all around. In a few weeks we shall have hands quite dirty with good old garden soil. You may take your stools and benches off with you, or leave them all here."

"We shall leave them," said Eloise; "for I am coming back often to sit on my little cricket right on your hearth."

"I am a little large for a cricket," went on Albert; "but I'd not quit this hearthstone, so my stool stays."

"And mine, too," each one added.

Off they trooped again, some down the country road, some up the road, others across the fields, and George, as usual, on his old horse. They shouted until out of sight.

"The best things in the world," the man murmured as he stepped out into the open and drew into his lungs deep breaths of the fresh spring air.