clakkeJ DIRECT METHODS OF STUDYING NATURE 305 



It is the rule that to each plant shall he attached a label bearing the 

 English name of the plant, so that the gardens may be useful to other 

 students as well as to the owners. 



It is a good thing that town people should see ordinary vegetables 

 growing, and should know something about the methods of growing 

 them, so the girls have in their gardens potatoes, onions, tomatoes, 

 peas, beans, cabbages, lettuce. The owners take the greatest pride 

 in producing fine specimens and in sending them in for the school 

 dinner, and potatoes, peas, beans, etc., seem to acquire a great 

 importance when it is realized that they have been produced in the 

 school gardens. Last summer a girl owned eight tomato plants, the cost 

 of which was is. j\.d. The crop was a most successful one, and 21 lb. 

 of tomatoes were picked from these eight plants growing in the open 

 air. Most of the tomatoes were eaten at the school dinner, but some 

 were taken by the girl who grew them to show her home people, and 

 some were used in the cookery classes. The cookery mistress very 

 kindly gave two demonstration lessons on different methods of cook- 

 ing tomatoes, and these lessons were open to all girls except the very 

 youngs ones. The girls were taught how to make tomato soup, toma- 

 to souffle', tomato omelette, tomato chutnee, tomato jam, and galan- 

 tine of cold meat and tomato. There was not sufficient sunshine 

 in October to ripen the last of the tomato crop, and the green toma- 

 toes had to be picked and brought indoors to ripen. As this must 

 often happen in the case of tomatoes grown' out of doors, special 

 attention was given in one demonstration to showing different ways 

 of using these tomatoes. Many of the younger as well as the older 

 girls afterwards tried the various recipes at home, and there was a 

 distinct danger that for a time their relations would have to eat too 

 many dishes in which tomatoes played an important part. 



All the girls were astonished to find how easy it was to grow toma- 

 toes in the open air, and many determined to see what they could do 

 in their home gardens next year. Some of the gardens are devoted 

 to carrying on experiments in connection with the soil. The same 

 crops are being grown year after year in the same ground, without 

 any nourishment being given to the soil, and great interest is shown 

 in watching successive crops. Also lupins are grown every year in 

 the same plot, and beautiful specimens of roots covered with tuber- 

 cles containing bacteria are obtained. Unlike most plants, lupins pos- 

 sessing tubercles on the root are able to use the free nitrogen of the 

 air for food, and are not dependent for their supply of this element 



