926 Rural School Leaflet. 



4. How man}'- stamens are there in the pea-blossom? How are they 

 arranged ? 



5. What is the shape of the pistil? 



6. Take a flower that has begun to wilt, showing that pollination 

 has taken place, and hold the pistil to the light. Can you see the small 

 pod and count the number of seeds it will contain? 



7. Which side of the pod opens easiest, the side to which the seeds 

 are attached or the other? 



8. When peas get ripe do the pods remain closed or split open of 

 themselves? Do they twist or curl in any way and thus form a sort of 

 spring gun to hurl the seeds away from the parent plant? 



Lesson IV. — Value of Peas as Food for Man, for Animals, for the Soil 



The way in which food is absorbed by the body and made to build 

 up new tissues to replace those which are worn out in the daily activities 

 of life is hard for grown-ups to understand, and this part of the lesson 

 cannot well be put in the form of questions to be answered by observa- 

 tion. But children can readily be brought to see that all food of 

 every kind comes from the soil, in some form of plant life on which all 

 animal life, including mankind, is dependent. 



With busy, hard-working people the parts of the body that wear 

 out fastest are the muscles and tendons, which of course, are in constant 

 exercise. These parts of the body are largely made up of what are called 

 " nitrogenous materials " and the food which rebuilds them should be 

 rich in nitrogen. The family of plants called Legumes to which the pea 

 and the bean belong are rich in nitrogen. These plants also contain 

 some oil which helps to make the body fat and to keep it warm. Their 

 chief value as a food for man and beast, however, is as makers of muscle 

 or lean meat. The healthy appetite usually craves the food of which 

 the body is most in need, and to the active worker this should be some- 

 thing to restore the used-up tissues of the muscles. How the lumber- 

 men in the logging camps like the rich, thick soup made from " pea- 

 meal " and the dish of baked beans which follows it! The armies of 

 the world too, hd.ve learned that the soldier must have " rations " that 

 contain much nitrogen if his muscles are to be kept in condition to 

 endure the hard marches and the severe strain of battle. So, good 

 lean meat and peas and beans are always found in an army's com- 

 missary. 



Ages ago the lentil, a small pea grown for food in Europe and Asia, 

 was known as " the poor man's meat," and the later wisdom of chemical 



