556 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



TEACHER'S LEAFLETS 



FOR USE IN THE RURAL SCHOOLS 



PREPARED BY 



No. 1. 

 DEC. 1, 1696. 



THE AGRICULTUEAL EXPERIMENT STATION 

 OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 



Issued undpr the aaspices 

 of the Eiperiment Station 

 Extension, or Nixon Law. 

 By L. H. Bailey. 



ITHACA, N. Y. 



HOW A SQUASH PLANT GETS OUT OF THE SEED. 



BY L. H, BAILEY. 



If one were to plant seeds of a Hubbard or Boston 

 Marrow S(j[uash in loose warm earth in a pan or box, 

 and were then to leave the parcel for a week or ten 

 days, he would find, upon his return, a colony of plants 

 like that shown in Fig. 1. If he had not planted the 

 seeds himself or had not seen such plants before, he 

 would not believe that these curious plants would ever 

 grow into squash vines, so different are they from the 

 vines which we know in the garden. This, itself, is a 

 most curious fact — this wonderful difference between 

 the first and the later stages of all plants, and it is only 

 because we know it so well that we do not wonder 



1. Sqna.sh plant at it. 

 a week old. 



It may happen, however, — as it did in a pan of seeds which I 

 sowed a few days ago — that one or two of the plants may look 

 like that shown in Fig. 2. Here the seed seems to have come 

 up on top of the plant, and one is reminded of the curious way 

 in which beans come ujj on the stalk of the young plant. If we 

 were to study the matter, however, — as we may do at a future 

 time, — we should find a great difference in the ways in which the 

 squashes and the beans raise their seeds out of the ground. It 

 is not our purpose to compare the stpiash and the bean at this 

 time, but we are curious to know why one of these squash plants 

 brings its seed up out of the ground whilst all the others do not. 



Note. — These leaflets are intended for the teacher, not for the scholars. 

 It is their purpose to sui;?:ost the method which a lenchcr may pursue in 

 instructing; cliildren ar odd times in nature-study. The teacher should 

 show the children the objects theni.selves — should idant the seeds, raise 

 the plants, collect the insects, (>tc.; or, l)ctt(>r. lie .should interest the chil- 

 dren to collect the objects. Advanced pujiils, however, may be given 

 tiie leaflets jind asked to perform tlie (■xin'rimcnrs or make the observ.a- 

 tions whicli are sufruestcd. The scliolnrs tliemselves should be taught 

 to do the work and to arrive at independent conclusions. Teachers who 

 desire to inform themselves more fully upon tlie motives of this nature- 

 study teaching, sliould write for a copy of Hulletin 122, of the Cornell 

 Experiment Station, Itliaca, N. Y. 



