Junior Naturalist Monthly. 345 



the third, about two tablespoonfuls of sour milk. You will find that 

 a piece of blue litmus paper held into each of these will turn red. 

 When reddened, take the pieces of paper out and allow them to dry. 



You may now empty these three glasses or get three more clean ones 

 and again half fill each with water. Into one put a teaspoon! ul of wood 

 ashes and stir, into another a teaspoonful of baking soda, and into 

 the third some lime water. You can get the lime from a mason or 

 ask the druggist for a piece of hard "quick-lime" about as big as a 

 hickory nut. Put this on a small saucer, and then slowly drop water 

 on it, one drop at a time, till it gets warm and swells. After it has 

 swelled, stir about a teaspoonful of it into the third glass of 

 water. 



Hold the reddened pieces of paper into these three glasses and see 

 how they turn back to the blue color. Things which turn the blue 

 paper red are acids. Things which turn the red paper back to blue 

 are alkalies. 



I think you will see now why cooking soda is used with sour milk 

 and one reason why lime and ashes are put on soils. 



HOW THE WHITE PINE GROWS. 

 Ralph W. Curtis. 



On my desk are some twigs of the white pine in blossom. They 

 are very strange, these little blossoms that have responded to the 

 warmth of my room. I wonder how many of our boys and girls 

 have ever seen a pine tree in bloom? Let us consider how the white 

 pine grows and bears fruit, and then you may find it interesting to 

 watch one during the year. 



When you looked at the white pine branch in winter, you found 

 several buds clustered at the end, nicely covered by the overlapping 

 bud scales to protect it. You also noticed other buds, the covered 

 tips of very short side branches. 



Spring comes and these tips, both of the main branch and the 

 little side branches, begin to grow. When they begin pushing off 

 the bud scales we say the "buds are opening." All spring these tips 

 grow into longer and longer branches with bundles of scales along 

 their sides. After a while, during the summer, the young tips stop 

 getting longer and begin forming buds right at their ends. Inside a 

 winter bud are the twigs and leaves for next year, all packed away 

 like a telescope, ready to push out and grow big as -soon as spring 

 comes. It is by this growing on at the ends of the branches that 

 pine trees grow higher and their branches become longer. 



